http://www.massmoments.org/ A daily almanac of Massachusetts history 1440 Copyright 2006 Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities TheOtherRoom.com CFML RSS Generator Fri, 03 Sep 2010 04:00:00 EST en-us Visitors of Mass Moments--a daily almanac of Massachusetts history--can learn more about the Moments presented on the radio, see images and illustrations, read a primary source document, and get suggestions of links to follow and places to visit. Additionally, they can view a timeline to see when a given Moment occurred, and where applicable, a map to see where it happened. Visitors are invited to comment or ask questions about a Moment on our message board, thus providing an on-line community where Bay State history enthusiasts can meet and discuss our past. They can sign up to receive Mass Moments daily in their email, and if they post a question to the message board, they can be notified when someone has responded. Past Moments (those posted since January 1, 2005) are searchable, by key words, subject, time period, and region. A daily almanac of Massachusetts history. Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities Massachusetts almanac, radio program, eMoment, eMoments, Massachusetts history, Bay State, Western Mass, MA, Eastern Mass, Boston, Mass Moments, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, daily history, this day in history, today's history, today in history no http://www.massmoments.org/rss/images/mass_moments_75.jpg http://www.massmoments.org/ info@massmoments.org Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=256 On this day in 1821, the Massachusetts General Hospital admitted its first patient, a 30-year-old sailor. More than a decade earlier, two Boston doctors had appealed to the city's "wealthiest and most influential citizens" to establish a general hospital. The War of 1812 delayed the dream, but on July 4, 1818, the cornerstone was finally laid. The original building, designed by Boston's leading architect Charles Bulfinch, is still in use. One of the world's great centers of medical research and treatment has grown up around it. The original domed operating amphitheater, where anesthesia was first publicly demonstrated in 1846, is now a Registered National Historic Landmark. MGH has achieved countless medical milestones, including the first successful reattachment of a human limb. ]]> 03 Sep 2010 04:00:00 EST http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=256 On this day in 1821, the Massachusetts General Hospital admitted its first patient, a 30-year-old sailor. More than a decade earlier, two Boston doctors had appealed to the city's "wealthiest and most influential citizens" to establish a general hospital. The War of 1812 delayed the dream, but on July 4, 1818, the cornerstone was finally laid. The original building, designed by Boston's leading architect Charles Bulfinch, is still in use. One of the world's great centers of medical research and treatment has grown up around it. The original domed operating amphitheater, where anesthesia was first publicly demonstrated in 1846, is now a Registered National Historic Landmark. MGH has achieved countless medical milestones, including the first successful reattachment of a human limb. no 0:01:00 Massachusetts General Hospital Admits First Patient: September 3, 1821 http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=255 On this day in 1775, General George Washington commissioned Nicholson Broughton captain "in the Army of the United Colonies of North America." Broughton had a novel assignment: The Marblehead man was to be master of the Hannah, the first vessel in what has come to be known as "George Washington's Navy." The General sent eight Massachusetts schooners to intercept vessels supplying British troops in Boston. This little fleet helped persuade the Continental Congress that the new nation needed a proper navy. On October 13th, Congress ordered that two large vessels be fitted out with guns. This is the date that the United States Navy considers its birthday. The Massachusetts schooners that captured 55 enemy ships in 26 months of service belonged to the Continental Army. ]]> 02 Sep 2010 04:00:00 EST http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=255 On this day in 1775, General George Washington commissioned Nicholson Broughton captain "in the Army of the United Colonies of North America." Broughton had a novel assignment: The Marblehead man was to be master of the Hannah, the first vessel in what has come to be known as "George Washington's Navy." The General sent eight Massachusetts schooners to intercept vessels supplying British troops in Boston. This little fleet helped persuade the Continental Congress that the new nation needed a proper navy. On October 13th, Congress ordered that two large vessels be fitted out with guns. This is the date that the United States Navy considers its birthday. The Massachusetts schooners that captured 55 enemy ships in 26 months of service belonged to the Continental Army. no 0:01:00 Washington Commissions First Naval Officer: September 2, 1775 http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=254 On this day in 1897, at 6 am, over 100 people crowded onto the first train to travel through a tunnel under downtown Boston. More than 100,000 people would take the three-and-a-half minute trip that day. They were riding on the first subway line in the United States. After considering various alternatives to ease congestion on Boston's streets, city officials decided to follow the example of London, Glasgow, and Budapest and build an underground system. Within a year, passengers could get on and off the subway at Boylston Street, Park Street, Scollay Square, Adams Square, and Haymarket. In time, the route would be connected to the Boston Elevated Railway, creating the public transportation system that was the precursor to today's "T." ]]> 01 Sep 2010 04:00:00 EST http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=254 On this day in 1897, at 6 am, over 100 people crowded onto the first train to travel through a tunnel under downtown Boston. More than 100,000 people would take the three-and-a-half minute trip that day. They were riding on the first subway line in the United States. After considering various alternatives to ease congestion on Boston's streets, city officials decided to follow the example of London, Glasgow, and Budapest and build an underground system. Within a year, passengers could get on and off the subway at Boylston Street, Park Street, Scollay Square, Adams Square, and Haymarket. In time, the route would be connected to the Boston Elevated Railway, creating the public transportation system that was the precursor to today's "T." no 0:01:00 Nation's First Subway Opens in Boston: September 1, 1897 http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=253 On this day in 1899, Newton inventor F.O. Stanley took his wife Flora for a drive -- into the record books. Leaving home in a steam-powered Locomobile, built in the Stanley brothers' Watertown shop, the couple motored to New Hampshire and then drove up Mt. Washington -- the first time an auto reached the summit of New England's highest peak. The feat was a public relations coup for the Bay State's nascent auto industry. Massachusetts men were making cars that broke speed records, traveling at an astounding -- and to some, alarming -- speed of 27 miles an hour, and pioneering new technologies. The Midwest would soon become the center of the American auto industry, but it was in Massachusetts that the nation's first gasoline-powered automobiles were produced. ]]> 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 EST http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=253 On this day in 1899, Newton inventor F.O. Stanley took his wife Flora for a drive -- into the record books. Leaving home in a steam-powered Locomobile, built in the Stanley brothers' Watertown shop, the couple motored to New Hampshire and then drove up Mt. Washington -- the first time an auto reached the summit of New England's highest peak. The feat was a public relations coup for the Bay State's nascent auto industry. Massachusetts men were making cars that broke speed records, traveling at an astounding -- and to some, alarming -- speed of 27 miles an hour, and pioneering new technologies. The Midwest would soon become the center of the American auto industry, but it was in Massachusetts that the nation's first gasoline-powered automobiles were produced. no 0:01:00 Watertown-built Car Climbs Mt. Washington: August 31, 1899 http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=252 On this day in 1961, Brandeis University received good news. Less than a decade after accepting its first students, the school had been given approval to start a chapter of the prestigious national honor society, Phi Beta Kappa. To this day, Brandeis holds the record for achieving this goal in the shortest time. Founded in 1947 on a campus inherited from the former Middlesex University in Waltham, the college was named for the late Louis D. Brandeis, the first Jewish justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Its identity would rest, as university president Jehuda Reinharz said in 1995, "on four solid pillars: dedication to academic excellence, non sectarianism, a commitment to social action, and continuous sponsorship by the Jewish community." ]]> 30 Aug 2010 04:00:00 EST http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=252 On this day in 1961, Brandeis University received good news. Less than a decade after accepting its first students, the school had been given approval to start a chapter of the prestigious national honor society, Phi Beta Kappa. To this day, Brandeis holds the record for achieving this goal in the shortest time. Founded in 1947 on a campus inherited from the former Middlesex University in Waltham, the college was named for the late Louis D. Brandeis, the first Jewish justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Its identity would rest, as university president Jehuda Reinharz said in 1995, "on four solid pillars: dedication to academic excellence, non sectarianism, a commitment to social action, and continuous sponsorship by the Jewish community." no 0:01:00 Brandeis University Receives Phi Beta Kappa Charter: August 30, 1961 http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=251 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, stories, and essays about its peculiar ways. A contemporary and friend of Hawthorne, Emerson, and Longfellow, Holmes was a guiding light behind the Atlantic Monthly, the journal that published many of his columns and verses. But Holmes's greatest legacy may have been his son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who survived three serious injuries during his service in the Union Army to become a distinguished legal scholar. A justice of the United States Supreme Court for 30 years, Holmes, Jr. had perhaps the greatest legal mind in the nation's history. ]]> 29 Aug 2010 04:00:00 EST http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=251 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, stories, and essays about its peculiar ways. A contemporary and friend of Hawthorne, Emerson, and Longfellow, Holmes was a guiding light behind the Atlantic Monthly, the journal that published many of his columns and verses. But Holmes's greatest legacy may have been his son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who survived three serious injuries during his service in the Union Army to become a distinguished legal scholar. A justice of the United States Supreme Court for 30 years, Holmes, Jr. had perhaps the greatest legal mind in the nation's history. no 0:01:00 Oliver Wendell Holmes Born in Cambridge: August 29, 1809 http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=250 On this day in 1746, Lucy Terry Prince was among the residents of Deerfield traumatized by an Abenaki raid on the village. Lucy, an enslaved woman, described the horrific event in "The Bars Fight," the earliest known poem by a black writer in North America. The work is also the most accurate account of what happened that day. Five colonists died, one was badly wounded, and another was taken captive. We know more about the raid than we do about the poet. No other writing of hers has been found. We do know that, at her death in 1821, she warranted an unusually long obituary that praised her as a "remarkable woman [with] an assemblage of qualities rarely to be found among her sex." ]]> 28 Aug 2010 04:00:00 EST http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm?mid=250 On this day in 1746, Lucy Terry Prince was among the residents of Deerfield traumatized by an Abenaki raid on the village. Lucy, an enslaved woman, described the horrific event in "The Bars Fight," the earliest known poem by a black writer in North America. The work is also the most accurate account of what happened that day. Five colonists died, one was badly wounded, and another was taken captive. We know more about the raid than we do about the poet. No other writing of hers has been found. We do know that, at her death in 1821, she warranted an unusually long obituary that praised her as a "remarkable woman [with] an assemblage of qualities rarely to be found among her sex." no 0:01:00 Lucy Terry Prince Composes Poem: August 28, 1748