MA Hist. Timeline

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~ Timeline of Massachusetts History ~

 

1602
Bartholomew Gosnold exploration
1609
Henry Hudson explorations in Massachusetts Bay
1612-1613
John Smith's explorations in Massachusetts Bay
1620
Mayflower - Pilgrims - Plymouth established
1622-1623
Settlement at Wessagussett (Weymouth)
1624
Formation of Dorchester Associates
Settlement at Cape Ann
1628
Formation of New England Company
Settlement at Salem (Naumkeg/John Endicott)
1629
Formation of Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay (Mass. Bay Charter) corporate colony
1630
Winthrop Fleet - Arabella - Puritan Migration
Settlement at Boston (Shawmut)
Colonial government takes shape under the Massachusetts Bay Charter with a Governor, Deputy Governor, and General Court
1631
Definition of "freeman" on religious grounds
1632
Election of Assistants by freemen
Representation in General Court by Town
Settlement of Springfield/William Pynchon
1634
Authority to appropriate taxes lodged in the General Court
1635
Magistrates' court established
1636-1637
Establishment of Harvard College
Pequot War
1638
Stranger's Court established
First Slave in Boston (Noddle Island)
First printing press in British colonies established in Cambridge (Stephen Daye)
1641
Piscataqua and adjacent areas deemed to come under the governance of Massachusetts Bay
1641
Body of Liberties promulgated (Nathaniel Ward)
1642
First education enactment by the General Court
1643
First county governments emerge, along with corresponding county courts
Saugus Iron Works
Formation of New England Confederation
1644
Precedent leading to bicameral form in legislature
1647
"Ye Olde Deluder Satan" act: education provided for, in part, through municipal funding
1648
Issuance of Lawes and Liberties
1649
Charles I executed
1649
John Winthrop dies
1651
First Navigation Act enacted by Parliament
1652
Mint established (John Hull)
1660
Navigation Act (enumerated articles)
1662
Half-Way covenant provided
1675-1676
King Philip's War
1677
Massachusetts appoints colonial agents
Massachusetts disclaims ownership of New Hampshire
Massachusetts purchases Gorges title to Maine
1683
Quo Warranto proceedings undertaken in England against the Massachusetts Bay Charter
1684
Revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Charter (scire facias)
1686
Exemplification of the judgement against the Massachusetts Charter
Courts of General Sessions/Common Pleas gets underway
1687
Dominion of New England (Edmund Andros)
1689
End of the Andros government
1691
William and Mary charter (royal colony)
1691
Plymouth incorporated into Massachusetts Bay
1692
Witchcraft hysteria
Superior Court of Judicature (SJC) established
1704
First American newspaper, the Boston News Letter, is printed
1705
Massachusetts law against interracial marriage
1721
Cotton Mather introduces the concept of vaccination during a smallpox epidemic in Boston
1740
Massachusetts/New Hampshire boundary is settled
1745
Successful military expedition against Louisburg prompts fiscal crisis in Massachusetts until reimbursements from Great Britain
1754
Survey of Slave in Massachusetts
1763
Massachusetts provincial census
 
• (August) Stamp Act riots in Boston
1768
(February) Circular letter condemning British action is sent to other colonies by the General Court
(October) Tow regiments of British troops arrive in Boston
1770
The Boston Massacre (March 5)
1772
Re-establishment of the Boston Committee of Correspondence
1773
Boston Tea Party (December 16)
 
• Boston Port Act closes Port of Boston, customs house moved to Salem
 
• Massachusetts Government Act makes drastic changes in provincial government, including elimination of town meetings
1774
(May) Military occupation of Boston: General Gage arrives as Commander-in-Chief and Governor, along with four additional British regiments
(June)Calls from the General Court for a Continental Congress
"Solemn League and Covenant" non-importation agreement drawn up by Boston Committee of Correspondence
(Sept) Suffolk Resolves passed by convention of delegates from Suffolk County protesting Massachusetts' punishment and recommending non-payment of taxes and strengthened militias
1775
(April) Battles of Lexington and Concord
1775
(July) Resumption of state government (General Court and Council, but no Governor)
1776
(March) British troops evacuate Boston
1776
(March) British troops evacuate Boston
(July) Congress votes for independence
1778
Constitution for the State of Massachusetts-Bay rejected in ratification vote
1779-1780
Massachusetts Constitutional Convention
1780
Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is ratified
John Hancock elected first Governor under the new Constitution
Judicial interpretation of Constitution abolishes slavery in Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court replaces Supreme Court of Judicature
1781
Slavery abolished in Massachusetts
1782
Supreme Judicial Court established (St. 1782, c.9)
1785
Massachusetts surrenders western land claims to the central government
1787
Massachusetts/New York boundary is settled
1788
Massachusetts ratifies the federal Constitution, becoming the sixth state to enter the union; suggests amendments which become the Bill of Rights
1790
First federal population census
1792
First state sanctioned election held in Maine regarding separation from Massachusetts
1796
John Adams elected President of the United States
1796
First turnpike corporations in Massachusetts chartered
1798
New State House on Beacon Hill, designed by Charles Bulfinch, occupied
1804
Middlesex Canal opens, connecting Merrimack and Mystic rivers
1807
U.S. Embargo Act, in effect until 1809, brings widespread economic distress to Massachusetts merchants
1813
Waltham Cotton & Wool Factory Company, with first steam power loom in America, incorporated (St. 1813, c.71)
1814
Hartford Convention convenes; conservative Federalist delegates from Massachusetts condemn War of 1812, threaten nullification and secession
1816
A contentious separation vote in Maine culminates in the Brunswick Convention, later disallowed by the Massachusetts General Court
1821
Boston House of Industry, as distinct from the Almhouse, constructed in South Boston
1822
Merrimack Manufacturing Company incorporated (St. 1822, c. 46), giving rise to the manufacturing city of Lowell
Boston receives a city charter under St. 1821, c. 110
1826
First horse-drawn railroad in the United States constructed to haul granite blocks from Quincy to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown
1827
Legislation permitted local taxation for the support of public schools to provide education for all children for 12 weeks/year (St. 1827, c.143)
1830
First incorporated stagecoach companies and railroad corporations in Massachusetts
1831
Garrison commences anti-slavery crusade and founds The Liberator in Boston
1834
State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester provided for (St. 1834, c. 150)
Angry mob burns Ursuline Convent at Charlestown in outburst of anti-Catholic feeling
1835
Opening of Boston and Lowell, Boston and Providence, and Boston and Worcester railroads
1836
Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, the first American college for women, incorporated (St. 1836, c.1)
1837
State Board of Education created (St. 1837, c. 241)
Emerson delivers Phi Beta Kappa address "The American Scholar" at Harvard, a speech later referred to by Oliver Wendell Holmes as "American's intellectual declaration of independence."
1838
Money appropriated by the Legislature (Resolves 1838, c. 70) to be used by the State Board of Education in conjunction with private funds for teacher training. (These state normal schools are operating by 1840.)
The "15 gallon" law (St. 1838, c. 157) prohibits the sale of liquor in amounts less than 15 gallons (repealed in 1840).
Legislation passed providing for the appointment of Bank Commissioners (St. 1838, c. 14)
1839
The Lowell Institute, best-known of the "Lyceums," is inaugurated with a lecture by Edward Everett
1841
The Western Railroad, from Worcester to Albany, is completed joining the Boston and Worcester in a state-wide link
1841
Brook Farm established by George Ripley and other Transcendentalists
1843
Lay prohibiting miscegenation (St. 1786, c. 3) repealed by St. 1843, c. 5
1849
Henry David Thoreau's essay "Resistance to Civil Government" is published
1850
A national Women's Rights Convention convenes in Worcester
1851
State Board of Alien Commissioners established to document immigrant passengers arriving in Massachusetts (St. 1851, c. 342)
Act passed authorizing cities and towns in establish and maintain public libraries (St. 1852, c. 305)
1852
Compulsory education for children 8-14 at least 12 weeks/year (St. 1852, c. 240)
Expenditures for state almhouses authorized (St. 1852, c. 275); first almshouse opens in 1854
St. 1852, c. 322 prohibits for sale and manufacture of liquor except for medical purposes (however, provisions of this statute were laxly enforced).
1854
Henry David Thoreau's Walden, or Life in the Woods is published
1855
Board of Insurance Commissioners established (St. 1855, c. 124)
1859
Superior Court established as part of the first major reorganization of the Massachusetts court structure since 1692 (St. 1859, c. 196)
1860
20,000 shoe workers strike in Lynn
John Andrew elected Governor of Massachusetts, serving until 1866
1861
Governor Andrew raises four Massachusetts regiment, en route to Washington, is attacked by a mob in Baltimore
1862
(April) New Orleans surrenders and is occupied by New England troops commanded by General Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts
(September) Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation
1863
(January) Massachusetts is authorized to raise a black regiment (54th) and Col. Robert Gould Shaw is placed in command; Gen. Joseph Hooker of Massachusetts is given command of the Army of the Potomac, but resigns following defeat at Chancellorsville in May
(June-July) Draft is instituted in Massachusetts; 54th Regiment assault on Fort Wagner, South Caroline; mob protesting the draft attacks Cooper Street Armory in Boston
Board of State Charities established (St. 1863, c. 240)
1865
(December) Regimental flags of Massachusetts units are borne through Boston and presented at the State House to Governor Andrew
Unjust discrimination in a public place on account of color or race is prohibited (St. 1865, c. 277)
1866
Employment of children under 10 in manufacturing establishments prohibited; children 10-14 who are employed must attend school for 6 months of the year (St. 1866, c. 273)
1867
Mary Baker Eddy founds Christian Science Church
1869
Board of Railroad Commissioners established (St. 1869, c. 408)
Bureau of Statistics on the Subject of Labor established (Resolves 1869, c. 102)
State Board of Health created (St. 1869, c. 420)
1872
Fire in Boston causes $70 million loss
1874
Employment of minors under 10 or women for more than 10 hours/day in manufacturing establishments prohibited (St. 1874, c. 221, upheld by Massachusetts Supreme Court decision in 1876).
1875
Major work on the Hoosac Tunnel is completed
Prohibited of sale and manufacture of liquor is repealed and new licensing requirements are enacted (St. 1875, c. 99)
1876
Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone; first telephone communication between cities (Salem to Boston) occurs 1877
1879
Legislation enacted to establish a Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners (St. 1879, c. 263), a Board of Commissioners of Prisons (St. 1879, c. 294), and the District Police (1879, c. 305)
1881
Women permitted to vote in school committee elections (St. 1881, c. 191)
1882
First golf club in American, The Country Club, founded in Brookline
Cities and towns authorized to establish parks within their limits (St. 1882, c. 154)
1884
Governor authorized by the Legislature to appoint three Civil Service Commissioners (St. 1884, c. 320)
Legislation passed authorizing a survey of public records of parishes, towns, and counties (St. 1884, c. 65), resulting in the Carroll Wright report published in 1889
1885
Hugh O'Brien, Boston's first Irish-born mayor, inaugurated
1887
Employers' Liability Act passed, extending and regulating liability of employers to provide for personal injuries sustained in the workplace (St. 1887, c. 270)
1889
Compulsory education for children 8-14 for 20 weeks/year (St. 1889, c. 464)
A proposed amendment to the state constitution prohibiting the sale and manufacture of liquor is rejected in a ratification vote
1892
Frank and Charles Duryea of Massachusetts produce first gasoline powered automobile in America; Duryea Motor Wagon Co. of Springfield incorporated 1895 as first U.S. automobile manufacturing company
St. 1892, c. 333 provides for the appointment of a Commissioner of Public Records
1893
Metropolitan Park Commission, also known as Board of Metropolitan Park Commissioners, established (St. 1893, c. 407)
1897
First U.S. subway opens in Boston
1898
State board of Insanity established (St. 1898, c. 433)
1903
First trans-Atlantic wireless radio broadcast made by Gugielmo Marconi at Wellfleet
1908
William O'Connell becomes Archbishop of Boston, serving for 36 years
1912
State Board of Labor and Industries established (St. 1912, c. 726)
Minimum Wage Commission established, determination of minimum wages for women and minors provided for (St. 1912, c. 706)
Textile workers strike in Lawrence, demanding "Bread and Roses, too!"
1913
James Michael Curley elected to the first of four terms as Mayor of Boston
David Walsh elected as first Catholic Governor of Massachusetts
1917
U.S. enters World War I
1918
Boston Red Sox win the World Series, a feat unrepeated to date (1999)
1919
Executive and administrative functions of state government reorganized (St. 1919, c. 350
Boston Police Strike
Metropolitan District Commission, successor to the Metropolitan Park Commission, established (St. 1919, c. 350)
1920
Town of East Brookfield incorporated (St. 1920, c. 178), the last new Massachusetts town incorporated to date (1999)
Women receive the right to vote in Massachusetts (St. 1920, c. 579) [See also 1881]
1921
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are convicted of the murder of a paymaster and his guard
WNPH, first AM radio station, founded in New Bedford
1925
Edith N. Rogers of Massachusetts becomes first woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives
1926
The Metropolitan District Water Supply Commission, created pursuant to the St. 1926, c. 375, will have responsibility for the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir
1931
The Fall River Board of Finance is created by St. 1931, c. 44 to bring the city out of bankruptcy (the first of a series of similar actions)
1933
Beginning of the New Deal
1938
A destructive hurricane caused extensive damage in Massachusetts
1939
Massachusetts legislature ratifies the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution (March 2, 1939)
Biennial sessions of the Massachusetts Legislature begin (annual sessions resume following the Special Session of 1944)
1941
U.S. enters World War II
1942
A fire at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston results in 492 deaths and leads to extensive code revision (see Resolves of 1943, c. 67)
1943
Appellate division of the Superior Court established for the review of certain sentences in criminal cases (St. 1943, c. 558)
1945
World War II ends
1945
Establishment of urban redevelopment corporations authorized (St. 1945, c.654)
1946
Fair Employment Practice law enacted, and Massachusetts Fair Employment Practice Commission established (St. 1946 c. 368)
1947
Metropolitan Transit Authority takes over Boston Elevated Railway Company (St. 1947, c. 544)
1949
First Democratic Massachusetts Senate President; first Democratic Massachusetts Speaker of the House
1952
Massachusetts Turnpike Authority created (St. 1952, c. 354)
1958
A unit is added to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Bridgewater for the treatment of sexually dangerous persons, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Mental Health (St. 1958, c. 646)
1959
Democrats begin uninterrupted majority status in Massachusetts legislature
1960
John F. Kennedy elected President of the United States
1963
John F. Kennedy assassinated
Federal Community Mental Health Centers Act
1964
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, one of 15 regional state transit authorities, established (St. 1964, c. 563)
1965
Willis-Harrington act, intended to improve and extend educational facilities in the Commonwealth, passed (St. 1965, c. 572)
1966
Comprehensive mental health and retardation services act passed, mandating move towards community care facilities for the mentally ill and retarded (St. 1966, c. 735)
1967
State sales tax established (St. 1967, c. 757)
Act providing for the reorganization of the Department of Public Welfare and fort the direct administration of the public welfare system of the Commonwealth by the department, transferring local responsibility to the state (St. 1967, c. 658)
SJC rules (Alecata v. Commonwealth) that it is no longer a crime to be poor, unemployed, homeless, or a vagrant
1968
First Massachusetts halfway house for the mentally retarded
1969
Governor's cabinet system established (St. 1969, c. 704)
1970
Mental health reform act limits hospital commitments (St. 1970, c. 888)
1971
State lottery established (St. 1971, c. 813)
1972
Office for Children established as an advocate for children's needs and to encourage the provision of services that strengthen family life (St. 1972, c. 785)
Legislation further regulating programs for children requiring special education and providing reimbursement therefor enacted (St. 1972, c. 766)
An intermediate appellate court to be known as the Appeals Court is established by the Legislature (St. 1972, c. 740)
A suit against the Commonwealth is filed on behalf of residents of the Belchertown State School citing deficiencies in client care, the first in a series of similar suits involving state schools between 1972-1975
1974
Statewide food stamp program initiated
1975
Executive Office of Environmental Affairs established (St. 1975, c. 706)
Deinstitutionalization becomes dominant priority of the Department of Mental Health
1978
Commercial Area Revitalization District (CARD) program initiated to assist communities with older business districts experiencing decay
Court reorganization act establishes unified trial court (St. 1978, c. 478)
Department of Social Services created and defined (St. 1978, c. 552)
1980
Proposition 2 ½ passed (St. 1980, c. 580)
1983
House Rule 81 provides for open television coverage of formal debate in the Massachusetts House of Representatives
"Bottle Bill" (St. 1983, c. 96) requires refunds to be issued for beverage containers
Hazardous waste cleanup program commences (St/ 1983, c. 7)
1986
Massachusetts Archives opens at Columbia Point
1993
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules in the case of McDuffy v. The Executive Office of Education that the financial dependency of public schools on local property taxes violates the constitutional right to educational equality of students in poorer areas of the commonwealth, thereby determining that the state rather than the local community is constitutionally responsibly for providing high quality public education