Massachusetts Historical Events

Date

Event

1498	Italian explorer John Cabot sails along the Massachusetts coast.
1620	The Pilgrims settle at Plymouth.
1630	More than 900 Puritans settle near Boston, founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1675-1676	King Philip's War is fought between Native Americans and settlers, ending with defeat for the region's native peoples.
1684	The royal charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is revoked.
1691	A royal charter is issued for the colony of Massachusetts, including Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, offshore islands, Maine, and Nova Scotia.
1692	Hundreds of people are accused of witchcraft and 20 are executed after trials in Salem.
1770	Several colonists are killed in the Boston Massacre.
1773	A group of Bostonians destroys a British tea cargo.
1775	The American Revolution begins with battles at Lexington and Concord.
1776	The American army forces the British to evacuate Boston.
1780	Massachusetts adopts its only state constitution.
1786	Daniel Shays leads a group of farmers in a revolt known as Shays' Rebellion.
1788	Massachusetts becomes the sixth state of the Union (February 6).
1820	Maine is separated from Massachusetts and becomes a state.
1831	William Lloyd Garrison begins publication of the abolitionist newspaper the Liberator.
1833	A constitutional amendment ends the official role of the Congregational Church in state government.
1843	Dorothea Dix reports inhumane conditions in the state's prisons and asylums, initiating a reform movement.
1861	Massachusetts troops are the first to die for the Union cause in the American Civil War.
1912	Textile workers in Lawrence stage a major strike that leads to higher wages for mill workers.
1919	Boston police go on a strike that is suppressed by Governor Calvin Coolidge.
1927	Six years after conviction, the anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for murder.
1958	For the first time Massachusetts elects both a Democratic governor and legislature.
1960	Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts is elected president of the United States.
1966	Edward Brooke of Massachusetts becomes the first black elected to the U.S. Senate since the Civil War era.
1974	A federal court order for busing of pupils to integrate Boston's public schools leads to several years of violent white resistance.
1980	A referendum forces the lowering of local property taxes.