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Marconi Transmits Radio Message
Marconi Transmits Radio Message
On this day in 1903, Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian inventor of wireless telegraphy, arrived on Cape Cod hoping to make history. The night was cold but perfectly clear, and the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission, a...
Battle Begins on Lexington Common
Battle Begins on Lexington Common
On this day in 1775, the first shots were fired in the cause of American independence. In Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous poem, "the shot heard 'round the world" came from the musket of a Concord...
Route 128 Opens Boston's High Tech Age
Route 128 Opens Boston's High Tech Age
On this day in 1951, the first segment of Route 128 was opened. By 1956, the expressway stretched 65 miles from Gloucester to Braintree. While officials were confident the road would relieve traffic in Boston...
Sophia Smith Endows New Women's College
Sophia Smith Endows New Women's College
On this day in 1870, a shy but determined woman from Hatfield willed that her fortune be used to establish a women's college in Northampton. The first woman in America to endow a college for...
Christmas Celebration Outlawed
Christmas Celebration Outlawed
On this day in 1659, a law was passed by the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony requiring a five-shilling fine from anyone caught "observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by...
Natick Established
Natick Established
On this day in 1781, Natick was formally incorporated, but the town already had a long history. In 1651, a group of Christianized Indians had founded a "Praying Town" in what is now South Natick....
Isaac Asimov Born
Isaac Asimov Born
On this day in 1920, Isaac Asimov was born. He grew up in New York, but it was during his two decades in Boston that he made his name as a master of science fiction....
Tip O’Neill Announces Run for Congress
Tip O’Neill Announces Run for Congress
On this day in 1952, Thomas P. ("Tip") O'Neill of Cambridge announced that he would run for the Congressional seat being vacated by John F. Kennedy as Kennedy began a campaign for the Senate. O'Neill...
Mercy Otis Marries James Warren
Mercy Otis Marries James Warren
On this day in 1754, Mercy Otis of Barnstable and James Warren of Plymouth began their remarkable 54-year partnership. When she married into a family active in public affairs, Mercy embraced the chance to be...
Jury Finds Mary Parsons Not Guilty of Witchcraft
Jury Finds Mary Parsons Not Guilty of Witchcraft
On this day in 1675, a Boston jury reached a verdict in the case of Mary Bliss Parsons of Northampton: they found her not guilty of witchcraft. In seventeenth-century New England, virtually everyone believed in...