60 Fun Facts About Massachusetts

The state's official name uses which word instead of 'State'?

John Adams likely chose the word for the 1780 constitution because it carried the connotation of a republic.

What is Massachusetts' nickname, from the large bays that shape its coast?

It is only the seventh-smallest state by land area.

The state's name comes from an Indigenous people whose name is often translated as what?

The 'great hill' is the Great Blue Hill on the boundary of Milton and Canton.

How many passengers did the Pilgrims' ship carry across the Atlantic in 1620?

A second ship, the Speedwell, proved unseaworthy and was left behind in England.

Which Wampanoag chief signed a treaty with Plymouth Colony that helped ensure its survival?

Squanto, a Patuxet man, acted as go-between.

Boston was founded in 1630 on which peninsula?

The Puritans also called it Tremontaine, for its three hills, which is where Tremont Street gets its name.

In the Salem witch trials of 1692, how many people were executed by hanging?

Giles Corey died separately, pressed under stones for refusing to enter a plea.

The last convicted Salem 'witch', Elizabeth Johnson Jr., was formally exonerated in what year?

A 1957 act cleared six people and a 2001 act five more; she had been left out.

On what date did the Boston Tea Party take place?

The Sons of Liberty were protesting the Tea Act passed by Parliament that May.

Roughly how many chests of tea were thrown into Boston Harbor?

The protesters were disguised as American Indians when they boarded the Dartmouth.

Which 1775 battles fought in Massachusetts began the Revolutionary War?

Boston earned the nickname 'Cradle of Liberty' for its agitation.

Massachusetts became which number state to ratify the US Constitution, in February 1788?

The Massachusetts constitution of 1780, drafted by John Adams, is the oldest functioning written constitution in the world.

What is the 1786-87 uprising that tried to seize the Connecticut Valley federal armory called?

It was led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays and influenced the Constitutional Convention.

Which state was part of Massachusetts until it separated in 1820?

It entered the Union as the 23rd state under the Missouri Compromise.

Which Massachusetts regiment, the first Black regiment with white officers, was depicted in the film Glory?

Its 1863 assault on Fort Wagner is the climax of the film.

In 2004 Massachusetts became the first US state to do what?

The change followed the Supreme Judicial Court's Goodridge decision.

Which two US presidents named Adams were born in Massachusetts?

Samuel Adams was a revolutionary agitator but never president.

What is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States?

It was named in 1639 for John Harvard, a Puritan clergyman who left it his library and £780.

Boston Latin, founded in 1635, holds what national distinction?

The Mather School of 1639 is the country's oldest public elementary school.

Boston's Tremont Street line, opened in 1897, was the first what in the nation?

Boston Common of 1634 was also the nation's first public park.

In January 1919, a wave of what killed 21 people in Boston's North End?

The 50-foot storage tank held 2.3 million US gallons when it burst.

Boston's Back Bay neighbourhood was created how?

Gravel came by rail from Needham Heights and from levelling Boston's original three hills.

What was the nickname of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project, completed in 2007?

The old elevated artery was replaced by the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

Which sport was invented in western Massachusetts in 1891 by James Naismith?

He nailed a peach basket to an elevated track to keep a gym class busy on a rainy day.

Volleyball was invented in 1895 in which Massachusetts city?

William Morgan of the local YMCA originally called it 'mintonette'.

After their 2024 title, how many NBA championships had the Boston Celtics won?

The 2024 win was a league record at the time; eight of the titles came in a row, from 1959 to 1966.

Which Celtics player-coach became the first African American head coach in a major US sport?

He led the team to back-to-back titles in 1968 and 1969.

What is the name of the famous left-field wall at Fenway Park?

It stands 37 feet high; the ballpark, opened in 1912, is the oldest active one in the majors.

The lone red seat in Fenway's right-field bleachers marks what?

Ted Williams hit it in 1946.

New England's NFL team was founded in 1959 under what name?

They played some home games at Fenway Park before moving to Foxborough in 1971.

The Boston Marathon, first run in 1897, is traditionally held on which state holiday?

It is the world's oldest annual marathon and starts in Hopkinton.

What is the highest point in Massachusetts?

It rises 3,489 feet in the Berkshires and appears in works by Hawthorne, Melville and Thoreau.

Since 1914, most of Cape Cod has been separated from the mainland by what?

The Sagamore and Bourne bridges carry road traffic across it.

Who coined the name Cape Cod in 1602?

It is the ninth-oldest surviving English place-name in the United States.

Which two islands off Cape Cod were once treated as separate 'Cape Islands' within the state?

Nantucket is where the Pequod sails from in Moby-Dick.

Which Massachusetts poet published only 10 of her nearly 1,800 poems during her lifetime?

She spent almost her whole life in Amherst.

Thoreau's Walden describes two years in a cabin near which Massachusetts town?

The land was owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Which children's author, born Theodor Geisel, came from Massachusetts?

His hometown also produced Merriam-Webster's first dictionary and the Indian motorcycle.

Which global doughnut chain was founded in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1950?

Bill Rosenberg's shop was called the Open Kettle before the rename.

The chocolate chip cookie is generally credited to which Massachusetts hotelier?

Her Toll House Inn in Whitman gave the cookie its name.

The state's official dessert, a custard-filled cake, is credited to which hotel's chef?

Boston cream pie was declared the official state dessert in 1996.

Which Worcester native introduced the yellow smiley face in 1963?

Worcester resident Esther Howland had earlier mass-produced the first Valentine's cards.

The city of Lowell was founded in the 1820s as a planned centre for which industry?

Its young female mill workers were known as the Mill Girls.

What is the largest ancestry group in Massachusetts, at nearly 20% of the population?

Irish immigrants began arriving in large numbers in the 1840s.

Roughly what share of Massachusetts is covered by forest?

Moose and black bears have returned to the west of the state as farmland reverted to woods.

The Kennedy family's Ted Kennedy served as a US senator from Massachusetts for how long?

His brother John was senator before becoming president.

Which Speaker of the House from the state held the longest continuous tenure in that job?

He served as Speaker from 1977 to 1987.

Which Boston silversmith was authorised in 1652 to mint the colony's own shillings and sixpences?

Before that the colony ran on barter and a jumble of English, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese and counterfeit coins.

Who was the first governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay after the 1691 charter?

The Salem witch trials broke out soon after his arrival.

Which 1647 law first required towns to appoint a teacher or open a grammar school?

Known as the Massachusetts Education Law, it made the colony the first in North America to do so; Horace Mann's reforms later built universal public schooling on it.

Who in 1974 became the first openly lesbian or gay candidate elected to any US state legislature?

Massachusetts's 12th district had already sent Gerry Studds, the first openly gay US congressman, to Washington in 1972.

What is the Massachusetts state legislature formally called?

Its House has 160 members and its Senate 40; the Supreme Judicial Court has a chief justice and six associates.

Whose 1952 Senate loss to John F. Kennedy marked the state's turn toward the Democrats?

Ted Kennedy later held the same seat until his death in 2009; only two Democrats have won the governorship since 1991.

How many counties does Massachusetts have, though most county governments were abolished from 1997?

They run from Berkshire in the west to Nantucket in the east; Middlesex, the most populous, lost its government too.

What share of Massachusetts's 10,555 square miles is water?

It is the seventh-smallest state, and its large bays give it the Bay State nickname.

Which 2007 state holiday honours a sector that employs a sixth of the state's workforce?

Massachusetts has more than 33,000 nonprofits.

Which Abenaki sagamore strode into Plymouth in March 1621 and announced 'Welcome, Englishmen!'?

He had learned English from fishermen at Pemaquid Point in Maine and returned days later with Squanto and Massasoit.

How many of the 102 Mayflower passengers died during the first winter at Plymouth?

They were buried on Cole's Hill; Governor Carver died soon after the ship sailed home and William Bradford replaced him.

How many of Massasoit's men joined the 53 surviving Pilgrims at the 1621 harvest feast?

Probably held in early October, it became known only in the 19th century as 'The First Thanksgiving'.

In which Dutch city had the Pilgrims' congregation lived before sailing to America?

They had freedom to worship there but found the industrial pace hard after rural Scrooby; they were Brownist separatists led by Bradford and Brewster.