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Foster Furcolo, State's First Italian American Governor, Born
Foster Furcolo, State's First Italian American Governor, Born
On this day in 1911, Foster Furcolo was born in New Haven. Raised in Connecticut and educated at Yale, Furcolo moved to Springfield after World War II. In 1948 he won a seat in the...
Boston Celebrates Opening of Aqueduct
Boston Celebrates Opening of Aqueduct
On this day in 1848, 300,000 people from all over New England gathered on Boston Common. They came to celebrate the completion of the city's first municipal water system. With the construction of an aqueduct...
Northfield Couple Launches U.S. Youth Hostel Movement
Northfield Couple Launches U.S. Youth Hostel Movement
On this day in 1934, Isabel and Monroe Smith opened the first U.S. youth hostel in Northfield. The young couple had discovered hosteling during a trip to Europe and had become devoted disciples of the...
First Esperanto Society Formed
First Esperanto Society Formed
On this day in 1905, the first Esperanto Society in the United States was established in Boston. Invented by a Polish doctor in the 1880s, Esperanto was an entirely new language created to promote international...
Governor Honors Activist Melnea Cass
Governor Honors Activist Melnea Cass
On this day in 1968, Governor John Volpe dedicated the Melnea Cass Swimming and Skating Rink in Roxbury. The new facility was intended to improve life in Boston's urban neighborhoods. It was named for a...
Hemingway Room Dedicated at JFK Library
Hemingway Room Dedicated at JFK Library
On this day in 1980, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Ernest Hemingway's son Patrick dedicated the Hemingway Room at the recently opened John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston. The Nobel-prize winning author and the...
Oliver Wendell Holmes Born in Cambridge
Oliver Wendell Holmes Born in Cambridge
On this day in 1809, Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge. The man who coined the phrase "Boston Brahmin," he was a true member of that class, and he entertained the nation with poems,...
Senator Edward Brooke Born
Senator Edward Brooke Born
On this day in 1919, Edward Brooke, III, the first African American to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress, was born. A decorated veteran, he graduated from the BU School of Law in 1948 and...
Elizabeth Porter Phelps Born
Elizabeth Porter Phelps Born
On this day in 1747, Elizabeth Porter was born in the Connecticut River Valley village of Hadley. Five years later, her father built the first house outside the town center. He called it "Forty Acres."...
Newburyport Fire Leads to Execution for Arson
Newburyport Fire Leads to Execution for Arson
On this day in 1820, a barn filled with hay burned to the ground in Newburyport. Just three days later, cries of "fire" alarmed the town again. Terrified residents were convinced they had an arsonist...