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Massachusetts Trivia & Historical Firsts

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Historic Firsts

  • Oldest public park in America: Boston Common (1634), purchased by Boston residents for 30 pounds and set aside as common land. The NPS recognizes it as the oldest public park in the United States. (National Park Service)
  • Oldest continuously operating public school: Boston Latin School (1635), still in operation today and the oldest public school in America. Five signers of the Declaration of Independence attended it. (Boston Latin School)
  • First university in America: Harvard, established by the General Court in 1636 in what is now Cambridge. (Harvard University)
  • First printing press in America: Cambridge, 1638, operated by Stephen Daye. (Secretary of State)
  • First post office in America: Boston, 1639, established within Richard Fairbanks’ tavern by the General Court. (Secretary of State)
  • First publicly funded free school: The Mather School, Dorchester (1639), still operating as part of Boston Public Schools. (Secretary of State)
  • First lighthouse in America: Boston Light on Little Brewster Island in Boston Harbor (1716), the oldest lighthouse site in the United States. After it was destroyed during the Revolutionary War, it was rebuilt in 1783 and still operates today. (National Park Service)
  • Oldest state constitution still in effect in the world: The Massachusetts Constitution (1780), drafted primarily by John Adams, predates the U.S. Constitution by seven years and served as its model. (Mass.gov)
  • First chartered railroad in America: The Granite Railway in Quincy (1826), built to carry granite from local quarries to the waterfront for the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument. (Secretary of State)
  • First abolitionist newspaper in America: The Liberator, published in Boston by William Lloyd Garrison starting January 1, 1831. It ran for 35 years until slavery was abolished. (Secretary of State)
  • First public botanical garden in America: The Boston Public Garden, established in 1837. Cities across the country later adopted its model. (Wikipedia)
  • First National Women’s Rights Convention: Worcester, October 1850. More than 1,000 people attended, including Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, making it one of the most significant early gatherings for women’s suffrage. (National Park Service)
  • First public beach in America: Revere Beach (1896), opened July 12, 1896, drawing 45,000 visitors on its first day. It is now a National Historic Landmark. (Wikipedia)
  • First subway in America: The Tremont Street Subway, Boston (1897), still part of the MBTA Green Line today. (MBTA)
  • First annual marathon in America: The Boston Marathon (1897), the world’s oldest annual marathon, run every Patriots’ Day since. (Boston Athletic Association)
  • First U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage: The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health in November 2003; the first marriage licenses were issued May 17, 2004, more than a decade before federal marriage equality in 2015. (Mass.gov)

Science, Medicine, and Innovation

  • First sewing machine: Elias Howe of Spencer, MA, invented the lockstitch sewing machine in Cambridge in 1845, transforming the clothing industry and manufacturing worldwide. (Secretary of State)
  • First surgical anesthesia: On October 16, 1846, dentist William T.G. Morton demonstrated ether anesthesia during surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. The operating theater is still known as the Ether Dome and is a National Historic Landmark. October 16 is now celebrated worldwide as World Anesthesia Day. (MGH)
  • First telephone call: Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful telephone call on March 10, 1876, in his Boston workshop, saying to his assistant: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” (Library of Congress)
  • First gasoline-powered automobile in America: Charles and Frank Duryea successfully tested their Motor Wagon on Taylor Street in Springfield on September 21, 1893, the first successful run of a gas-powered car in the United States. (Secretary of State)
  • First liquid-fueled rocket: Robert H. Goddard of Worcester launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket in Auburn, MA, on March 16, 1926, founding the field of modern rocketry. (NASA)
  • First analog computer: Dr. Vannevar Bush of MIT built the first mechanical “differential analyzer” in Cambridge in 1928, a milestone in computing history. (Secretary of State)
  • MIT: Founded in Cambridge in 1861, MIT faculty and alumni have won more than 100 Nobel Prizes. The Institute’s research programs contributed significantly to radar technology in World War II and helped launch the internet era. (MIT)
  • Life sciences capital: The Boston-Cambridge corridor is consistently ranked the top life sciences and biotech cluster in the United States, home to dozens of major pharmaceutical and biotech companies alongside Harvard, MIT, and major research hospitals. (Mass Life Sciences Center)

Sports Invented Here

  • Basketball: Invented by physical education instructor James Naismith in Springfield in 1891. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is in Springfield today. (Basketball Hall of Fame)
  • Volleyball: Invented by William Morgan at the Holyoke YMCA in 1895, originally called “Mintonette.” He created it as a less physically demanding alternative to basketball for older players. (FIVB)
  • Fenway Park: Opened in 1912, it is the oldest active ballpark in Major League Baseball. The 37-foot-2-inch left field wall, known as the Green Monster, was built with the park and painted its signature green in 1947. A manual scoreboard on the wall is still operated by hand. (Boston Red Sox)

Education and Literature

  • Most educated state: Massachusetts consistently ranks first in the nation for educational attainment. About 46 percent of adults aged 25 and older hold at least a bachelor’s degree, the highest share of any state. Nearly 21 percent hold a graduate or professional degree, also the highest in the country. (U.S. Census Bureau)
  • Father of American public education: Horace Mann was born in Franklin, MA, in 1796. As Massachusetts Secretary of Education, he established the first state board of education, created teacher training schools (called “normal schools”), and made the case that free, universal public education was the foundation of democracy. His reforms became the model for public school systems across the country. (National Park Service)
  • First compulsory education law: Massachusetts passed the first law in America requiring children to attend school in 1852. The tradition of state-mandated education in Massachusetts goes back even further: the “Old Deluder Satan Act” of 1647 required every town of 50 or more families to establish a public school. (Secretary of State)
  • First American novel: “The Power of Sympathy,” considered the first novel written and published in America, was printed in Boston in 1789 by Isaiah Thomas. (Secretary of State)
  • Literary heritage: Massachusetts is the birthplace or longtime home of Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, and many others. Concord, MA is sometimes called the cradle of American literature. (Town of Concord)
  • Dr. Seuss: Theodore Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield in 1904. Author of The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and over 60 other books, he was designated the official Massachusetts State Children’s Author and Illustrator in 2003. (State Symbols USA)
  • Pulitzer Prizes and Nobel laureates: The Boston Globe has won more than 25 Pulitzer Prizes. Massachusetts institutions have produced more Nobel laureates than most countries. (Pulitzer Board)

Presidents and Power

  • Four U.S. presidents born here: Massachusetts is the birthplace of John Adams (Quincy, 2nd president), John Quincy Adams (Quincy, 6th), John F. Kennedy (Brookline, 35th), and George H.W. Bush (Milton, 41st). All four were born within a few miles of each other in what is now Norfolk County, south of Boston. (Visit MA)
  • Benjamin Franklin: Born on Milk Street in Boston on January 17, 1706. One of the Founding Fathers, he helped draft the Declaration of Independence, served as America’s first Postmaster General, and invented the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove. (National Park Service)
  • John Hancock: Born in Braintree (now Quincy), Hancock became the first governor of Massachusetts and is famous for signing the Declaration of Independence in large, bold letters. His name became a synonym for “signature” in American English. (Mass.gov)
  • Susan B. Anthony: Born in Adams, MA, in 1820. One of the most prominent figures in the women’s suffrage movement, she was arrested in 1872 for voting illegally, and her image appears on the dollar coin. (National Park Service)
  • Clara Barton: Born in North Oxford, MA, in 1821. Barton became a nurse during the Civil War, earned the nickname “Angel of the Battlefield,” and founded the American Red Cross in 1881. (American Red Cross)
  • First woman elected governor of Massachusetts: Maura Healey won the 2022 gubernatorial election, becoming the first woman elected governor in Massachusetts history and one of the first openly LGBTQ+ governors in the country. (Mass.gov)
  • First woman and first person of color elected mayor of Boston: Michelle Wu was elected in November 2021, making Boston history. She is the first person elected mayor of Boston who is neither white nor male. (City of Boston)

Food and Drink

  • Chocolate chip cookie: Invented by Ruth Wakefield at the Toll House Inn in Whitman in the 1930s. She reportedly sold the recipe to Nestlé for $1 and a lifetime supply of chocolate. Massachusetts students later lobbied the legislature to make it the official state cookie, and it was designated as such in 1997. (State Symbols USA)
  • Boston cream pie: Created around 1856 by chef Sanzian at the Parker House Hotel in Boston (now the Omni Parker House). Despite the name, it is technically a cake: two layers of sponge cake filled with custard and topped with chocolate glaze. Massachusetts designated it the official state dessert in 1996. (State Symbols USA)
  • Parker House rolls: Also invented at the Parker House Hotel in the 1850s. The buttery, folded rolls have been on the hotel’s menu ever since, and the hotel (now the Omni Parker House) claims to be the longest continuously operating hotel in the United States. (Omni Parker House)
  • Fried clam: Woodman’s of Essex claims that founder Lawrence “Chubby” Woodman invented the fried clam on July 3, 1916, and has been serving them ever since. The restaurant is still open. (Woodman’s of Essex)
  • Cranberry: Massachusetts is the second-largest cranberry-producing state in the country, after Wisconsin. The bogs of Plymouth, Barnstable, and Bristol counties produce hundreds of millions of pounds annually. The cranberry is the official state berry. (Mass.gov)
  • Dunkin’: Bill Rosenberg opened his first coffee-and-donut shop in Quincy in 1948 under the name “Open Kettle.” He renamed it Dunkin’ Donuts in 1950. The chain, now headquartered in Canton, MA, operates in over 40 countries. Massachusetts has among the highest concentration of Dunkin’ locations per capita in the world. (Dunkin’)

State Symbols

  • State bird: Black-capped chickadee (1941). A year-round Massachusetts resident that does not migrate, known for its cheerful “chick-a-dee-dee” call, which it adjusts in pitch and repetition to communicate the size of a predator to other birds. (State Symbols USA)
  • State flower: Mayflower (1918). The Mayflower (Epigaea repens), also called trailing arbutus, was chosen by Massachusetts schoolchildren as the state flower, named for the Pilgrims’ ship. It is now illegal to pick Mayflowers in their natural habitat in Massachusetts. (State Symbols USA)
  • State dog: Boston Terrier (1979). Bred in Boston in the 1870s from bulldog and terrier stock, the Boston Terrier was one of the first dog breeds developed in the United States and the first recognized by the American Kennel Club as a purely American breed. (State Symbols USA)
  • State fish: Cod. So central to Massachusetts history and economy that a gilded wooden replica, known as the “Sacred Cod,” has hung in the Massachusetts House of Representatives chamber since 1784. It has been stolen twice, in 1933 by Harvard students and again in 1996, each time causing the suspension of legislative business until it was returned. (Secretary of State)
  • State dessert: Boston Cream Pie (1996). See Food and Drink. It is a cake. (State Symbols USA)
  • State cookie: Chocolate Chip Cookie (1997). See Food and Drink. Designated after a campaign by students who petitioned the legislature. A model civics project. (State Symbols USA)
  • State dinosaur: Podokesaurus holyokensis (2022). A small, fast dinosaur discovered in Holyoke in 1910 by geologist Mignon Talbot, one of the first women to describe a new dinosaur species. The original fossil was destroyed in a campus fire in 1917, but casts survive. It was designated the state dinosaur through a bill originally championed by a group of elementary school students. (Massachusetts Legislature)
  • State children’s author: Dr. Seuss (2003). Theodore Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield in 1904. See Education and Literature. (State Symbols USA)
  • State marine mammal: North Atlantic right whale. One of the most endangered large whales in the world, with fewer than 370 individuals remaining. Right whales migrate through Massachusetts waters seasonally, and NOAA enforces vessel speed restrictions in the region to protect them. (NOAA)

Did You Know?

  • Why “Commonwealth”? Massachusetts is officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, not the State. This language comes from John Adams, who wrote the 1780 Constitution. At the time, “commonwealth” signaled a republic: a government deriving power from the people, not a monarchy. Virginia and Pennsylvania had already used the term; Adams may also have wanted Massachusetts in the same company. Legally it makes no difference. Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky are the four U.S. commonwealths. (Mass.gov)
  • The name “Massachusetts” comes from the Massachusett people, an Algonquian nation who lived in the area. The word roughly translates to “at or about the great hill,” likely referring to the Great Blue Hill in Milton. (Secretary of State)
  • Longest lake name in the U.S.: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg in Webster, MA (45 letters). The name is Nipmuck, roughly translated as “Fishing Place at the Boundary Neutral Meeting Grounds.” A popular but false translation, “You fish on your side, I fish on my side, nobody fishes in the middle”, was invented by a newspaper editor in the 1920s and stuck. (Wikipedia)
  • Aerosmith formed in Boston: Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton, and Joey Kramer came together in Boston in 1970, becoming one of the best-selling rock bands in history. (Aerosmith)
  • On screen: Good Will Hunting, The Departed, Black Mass, Spotlight, and Manchester by the Sea were all filmed in Massachusetts. Spotlight, which tells the story of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of the Catholic Church, won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2016. (IMDb)
  • The right to petition: Under Article 19 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, any resident can file a bill directly with the state legislature. Massachusetts is the only state in the country where citizens hold this right. (Massachusetts Legislature)

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