| 1524 | | 17 Jan:
Giovanni da Verrazanno sets sail from Madeira, Portugal to explore North America - from North Carolina north to Newfoundland.MM&P AJ |
|
| 1602 | | 28 May:
Bartholomew Gosnold establishes a settlement at Cuttyhunk Island.HoMV GoogleBooks |
|
| 1620 | |
| |
| |
| 1621 | |
| 1623/4 | |
| 1626 | |
| 1630 | |
| |
| |
| |
| 1630/1 | |
| 1631 | |
| |
| 1632 | |
| |
| 1635 | | 23 Apr:
Boston Latin School, the oldest school in America, is founded.BLS tBLS |
|
| | 25 Aug:
The Great Colonial Hurricane plows through New England destroying anything in its path.NEHS HS |
|
| |
| 1636 | |
| |
| 1637 | | 1 May:
General Court is convened in Hartford and war is declared against the Pequots.SCW ICT |
|
| | 26 May:
Colonists attack and destroy the Pequot village at Misistuck (Mystic).ZEP ICT |
|
| 1638 | |
| |
| 1643 | |
| 1648 | | 18 Oct:
The "Shoomakers of Boston" along with the coopers, form the first labor organization in America.jstor IA |
|
| 1656 | |
| 1675 | |
| 1676 | |
| 1689 | | 17 May:
King William's War; England declares war on France which lasts until the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick.HoMA MB |
|
| 1691 | |
| 1702 | |
| 1704 | |
| 1715 | |
| 1716 | |
| |
| 1717 | | 27 Feb:
A series of four successive snowstorms create the Great Snow of 1717.NEHS NWS |
|
| 1721 | | 26 Jun:
During a smallpox outbreak in Boston, Dr. Zabdiel Boylston begins inoculating patients beginning with his own son.MassMoments CW |
|
| 1722 | |
| 1755 | |
| 1758 | | 27 Jul:
British and colonial forces defeat French and Canadian forces at the Battle of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia.BB CTHist |
|
| 1770 | | 5 Mar:
The Boston Massacre. British troops kill five colonists.LoC NPS |
|
| 1773 | |
| 1774 | |
| |
| 1775 | | 18 Apr:
Paul Revere rides out to warn the colonists that the British troops were on the march.PRH LoC |
|
| | 19 Apr:
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.LoC NPS |
|
| | 17 Jun:
The Battle of Bunker Hill takes place.LoC Yale |
|
| 1776 | | 4 Jul:
The United States is founded when the Second Continental Congress declares its independence from Great Britain.USHistory USNA |
|
| 1779 | |
| |
| 1780 | | 19 May:
Smoke from forest fires cause The Dark Day of 1780.NEHS HI |
|
| 1783 | |
| 1786 | | 29 Aug:
An armed uprising, Shays' Rebellion, begins in western Massachusetts when foreclosure processes are allowed to move forward against farmers who had previously served their country.STCC LH |
|
| 1787 | | 3 Feb:
Shays' Rebellion is put down with the deaths of four of Shays' "Regulators" at Petersham.MassMoments AHC |
|
| |
| | 17 Sep:
The U. S. Constitution is signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present at the Constitutional Convention.LoC CC |
|
| 1788 | |
| 1797 | | 21 Oct:
USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides", is launched.MassMoments UCM |
|
| 1816 | |
The previous year, Mt. Tambora erupted producing so much ash and gas the sunlight was blocked from warming the earth causing the "Year Without Summer".USGS |
|
| 1819 | |
| 1835 | |
| 1846 | | 10 Sep:
Elias Howe Jr. patents his sewing machine.ASME SI |
|
| | 30 Sep:
Dentist William Morton uses ether to anesthetize a patient in Boston which begins its use for general anesthesia.W I R E D ASA |
|
| 1847 | | 1 Oct:
Maria Mitchell is the first American to record a comet sighting.NEHS Nature |
|
| 1850 | |
| 1856 | |
| 1859 | |
| 1874 | |
| 1876 | | 7 Mar:
Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.USNA PBS |
|
| |
| 1878 | | 12 Feb:
Fred Thayer, the captain of the Harvard baseball team, receives a patent for his invention - the catcher's mask.MLB NBHoF |
|
| 1879 | |
| 1888 | | 11 Mar:
The Great Blizzard of March 1888 or the Great White Hurricane, hits the northeastern United States.HI LoC |
|
| |
| 1892 | | 15 Jan:
The first rules of basketball are published by Dr. James Naismith.USAB OCLC |
|
| | 4 Aug:
Lizzie Borden kills her father and stepmother with a hatchet.CM SIMag |
|
| 1897 | |
| |
| 1898 | |
| 1900 | |
| 1903 | | 18 Jan:
The first two-way transatlantic wireless communication occurs.CapeCod TRC |
|
| | 1 Oct:
The first baseball World Series begins - the Boston Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates.MLB BA |
|
| 1907 | |
| 1911 | | 25 Sep:
Ground is broken for Fenway Park in Boston.MLB |
|
| 1912 | |
| | 20 Apr:
The Boston Red Sox play their first game at Fenway Park and defeat the New York Highlanders by a score of 7-6.MLB B-R |
|
| |
| 1914 | |
| 1918 | | 7 Nov:
Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard demonstrates tube-launched solid-propellant rockets at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the forerunners to the bazooka.ESA AFHF |
|
| 1919 | | 15 Jan:
A tank of molasses ruptures in Boston's North End killing 21 people - the Great Molasses Flood.MassMoments SIMag |
|
| 1927 | | 23 Aug:
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti die in the electric chair.ZEP MA |
|
| 1928 | | 12 Oct:
A young polio sufferer at Children's Hospital in Boston becomes the first person to use the iron lung artificial respirator.W I R E D BMag |
|
| 1930 | | 12 Aug:
Clarence Birdseye receives a patent for the production of quick-frozen fish.MassMoments npr |
|
| 1938 | |
| 1942 | |
| 1945 | | 28 Jul:
A B-25 Mitchell bomber, flying from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to LaGuardia Airport in New York City, crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 people. NYCR&I npr |
|
| 1952 | | 15 Jul:
The first transatlantic helicopter flight begins.RH PP |
|
| 1953 | |
| 1954 | | 23 Dec:
The first successful human organ transplant occurs.npr NIH |
|
| 1956 | | 25 Jul:
The Stockholm rams the Andrea Doria about 50 miles south of Nantucket.MassMoments CIMM |
|
| 1961 | |
| 1965 | | 9 Nov:
The Northeast Blackout of 1965 is caused by human error.SIMag NEHS |
|
| 1973 | |
| 1975 | |
| 1981 | |
| 2001 | |
| 2004 | | 27 Oct:
The Boston Red Sox break the curse of the Bambino and win the World Series for the first time in 86 years.Boston.com SABR |
|
Massachusetts