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Hawthorne Visits Natural Bridge in North Adams

August 17, 1838
August 17, 1838

Hawthorne Visits Natural Bridge in North Adams

On this day in 1838, Nathaniel Hawthorne visited Natural Bridge just outside of North Adams. It was just the kind of awe-inspiring scene that so moved early tourists. A 30-foot-long natural marble bridge — the...

Newbury Offers Wolf Bounty

March 9, 1704
March 9, 1704

Newbury Offers Wolf Bounty

On this day in 1704, the town of Newbury voted to pay a bounty to men who had killed two wolves on Plum Island. Wolves were a threat to the cattle, sheep, and pigs grazing...

Boston Receives First Transcontinental TV Broadcast

September 4, 1951
September 4, 1951

Boston Receives First Transcontinental TV Broadcast

On this day in 1951, anyone in Boston with access to a television set could be part of history — a program was transmitted live from coast-to-coast for the first time ever. President Harry Truman's...

Poet Anne Sexton Publishes First Book

April 22, 1960
April 22, 1960

Poet Anne Sexton Publishes First Book

On this day in 1960, Massachusetts poet Anne Sexton had her first collection of poems published, To Bedlam and Part Way Back. Just before the manuscript was to go to press, she made major changes...

Hemingway Room Dedicated at JFK Library

July 18, 1980
July 18, 1980

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...

Missionary Opens School for Mohican Indians

November 5, 1734
November 5, 1734

Missionary Opens School for Mohican Indians

On this day in 1734, the Yale-trained missionary John Sergeant opened a school for Mohican Indian children in Great Barrington. About 50 members of the Housatonic tribe of the Mohicans joined four English families on...

Massachusetts Audubon Society Makes First Land Purchase

September 9, 1922
September 9, 1922

Massachusetts Audubon Society Makes First Land Purchase

On this day in 1922, the Massachusetts Audubon Society purchased its first parcel of land. For $8,000, it acquired 43 acres in the town of Sharon — the core of the Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary...

Lowell Women Sign On to Teach in the West

January 26, 1864
January 26, 1864

Lowell Women Sign On to Teach in the West

On this day in 1864, a visitor from Seattle held a meeting in Lowell. Asa Mercer explained to his largely female audience that there was a great scarcity of teachers in the Washington Territory. Jobs...

Strike Ends in Hopedale

July 5, 1913
July 5, 1913

Strike Ends in Hopedale

On this day in 1913, a 13-week strike at the Draper Corporation in Hopedale ended in failure, and the workers returned to their jobs. This was a time of labor unrest throughout the country, but...

Henrietta Leavitt Buried in Cambridge

December 14, 1921
December 14, 1921

Henrietta Leavitt Buried in Cambridge

On this day in 1921, Henrietta Leavitt, a scientist at the Harvard Observatory, was buried in Cambridge. Her premature death cut short a brilliant career as an astronomer. In the late nineteenth century, observatory director...

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