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1620, November 9 - The Mayflower crew sights Cape Cod.
1620, December 21 - The Pilgrims land at Plymouth.
1630, September 17 - The City of Boston is founded. It will become the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony two years later.
1630, October 19 - The first session of the General Court, the governing body of Massachusetts is held in Boston.
1635, April 23 - the Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in America with a continuous existence, is founded.
1636, October 28 - The oldest institution of higher learning in America, Harvard College, is founded by the General Court.
1692 - During the Salem Witch Trials hundreds are accused by their fellow townspeople for being witches and jailed. Although most are eventually set free, 20 men and women are executed between June and September.
1773, December 16 - Boston Tea Party - Colonists, angered by taxation from British Parliament, board three ships in Boston Harbor and toss the cargoes of tea into the water.
1775, April 19 - The first battles of the American Revolution. British troops fight American Minutemen at Lexington, killing eight. The British then move to Concord where they again engage the colonials. By the end of the battle, 93 colonists are dead. The British, having lost 273, retreat to Boston.
1775, June 17 - Actually fought on Breed's Hill, the Battle of Bunker Hill saw a greatly outnumbered American army hold their position for 2 1/5 hours before retreating. British casualties outnumbered American 2 to 1.
1780, October 25 - The Massachusetts Constitution, drafted by John Adams, becomes effective. It was ratified earlier that year by popular referendum.
1783 - American Deborah Sampson, dressing as a man and taking the identity Robert Shurtleff, serves in the Revolutionary War.
1788, February 6 - Massachusetts ratifies the Federal Constitution (influenced in part by the Massachusetts Constitution) and becomes the 6th state in the union.
1827 - Edgar Allan Poe's first book of poetry, Tamerlane and Other Poems, published in Boston.
1837 - Mount Holyoke Seminary, the first college in the United States specifically for women, opens.
1859 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology is established. Its first classes will meet six years later.
1863 - The Massachusetts Agricultural College is chartered; classes will begin to meet four years later. In 1947 its name is changed to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
1869 - The Massachusetts State Board of Health is established. It is the first one of its kind in the United States.
1870 - Wellesley College, an academic institution for women, is founded and chartered.
1872, November 9 - The Great Fire destroys 65 acres in the City of Boston.
1875 - Alexander Graham Bell invents the Speech Machine-Telephone in his Boston workshop. He will patent the devise on March 7,1876 and make the first two way telephone conversation on October 6th of that same year.
1888, March 11-14 - hitting Western Massachusetts the hardest, the Great Blizzard causes $20 million in property damage and kills 400.
1892 - Andrew and Abby Borden are brutally murdered in their Fall River home. Andrew's 32-year-old daughter Lizzie is tried for the crime, but later acquitted. She will live the remainder of her life a recluse, shunned by local society.
1919, January 15 - A molasses storage tank at Purity Distilling Company in Boston explodes spilling 14,000 tons of the liquid into the North End. The Molasses Flood destroys homes and businesses and kills 21.
1919, September 9 - The Boston Police Department votes to strike in protest of low wages and poor working conditions. Looting and violence breaks out in the city. Eventually, the National Guard is called in to create order and keep the peace. The strike ends on December 20, 1919.
1927, August 23 - Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for robbing and killing a paymaster and guard. Protesters argue the men were convicted because of their heritage (Italian) and political views (both are anarchists) rather than their guilt.
1927, April 26 - The Swift River Act legislates for the building of the Quabbin Reservoir. The towns of Enfield, Dana, Greenwich and Prescott are depopulated and destroyed in the process.
1942, November 28 - 492 people are killed when Boston's popular Cocoanut Grove nightclub is destroyed by fire. As a result of the tragedy, stricter fire codes are put in place and new technologies for helping burn victims are discovered.
1971, September 27 - The State Lottery is established.
1972 - The Massachusetts legislature ratifies the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Sources:
Dalton, Cornelius. Leading the Way: A History of the Massachusetts General Court. Boston, Massachusetts: Office of the Secretary of State, 1984.
Hart, Albert Bushnell, ed. Commonwealth History of Massachusetts: Colony, Province, State. New York: Russell & Russell, 1966.
O'Connor, Thomas H. Boston A to Z . Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000.
Pletcher, Larry B. It Happened in Massachusetts. Helena, Montana: Twodot, 1999.
Vexler, Robert I, ed. Chronology and Documentary Handbook of the State of Massachusetts. Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications, Inc., 1978.
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