Mental Floss explains how each Major League Baseball team got there name. Here's the Red Sox story: The team that became known as the Red Sox began play "“ wearing dark blue socks, no less "“ as a charter member of the American League in 1901. With no official nickname, the team was referred to […]
How Much did Paul Revere Charge for His Infamous Midnight Ride? Here’s The Bill He Submitted
April 10, 2013 by
Paul Revere made his historic ride to warn the countryside that the British Regulars were coming on April 18, 1775. Revere had a big family (8 kids) and was an astute businessman who had an engraving business, was a silversmith, a printer, and had several other enterprises. So when he had to take time off […]
The Great Boston Brinks Job Robbery: “The Crime of the Century”
March 29, 2013 by
A detective inspects the Brink's vault The Great Brinks Robbery occured on January 17, 1950 at the Brinks site on 169 Prince Street in Boston. The building still stands but it is now a parking garage. The robbers got off with more than $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in bonds and securities. At […]
Boston’s Evacuation Day March 17, 1776: The Siege Ends After the British Threaten to Burn the City to the Ground
March 13, 2013 by
Henry Knox brings the artillery though tough terrain to Boston (From the National Archives) Evacuation day celebrates March 17, 1776, the day the British Army left Boston after a prolonged siege. Here's some background on the days leading up to it. The Seige of Boston Wikipedia outlines what led up to the Colonials isolating […]
Pictures: 1920’s and 1930’s Boston in the Snow
February 5, 2013 by
The Boston Public Library has some great pictures on Flickr. I've been using them in various posts and I just found a bunch of pictures, mostly from the 20's and 30's, of Boston during snow season. Here they are. 1919 – Boston Common subway kiosks 1919 – A plane on the Charles River […]
In 1897 Boston Built America’s First Subway to Help with Congestion and… Blizzards
October 15, 2012 by
Construction at Park St. Click for larger image. (from the BPL) On September 1, 1897 Boston opened for business the first Subway in the United States. It was modeled after several European cities (including London which had launched their own 34 years earlier) and was followed a few years later with a subway in New York […]
Mt. Auburn Cemetery — “America’s First Garden Cemetery”
June 25, 2012 by
The first time I went to Mt. Auburn Cemetery was a very surprising experience. I had never been to a cemetery that was anything but rows of headstones and a few larger tombs. Mt. Auburn is made for walking around and enjoying not only a wide varieity of memorials, but also a garden, a tower, […]
The Biggest Art Heist Ever: Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum – March 1990
May 6, 2012 by
UPDATE 3/17/2015: The Boston FBI claims they know who pulled the job off, but they are deceased: “We have a high degree of confidence that we know who did this,” said Pete Kowenhoven of the FBI in Boston. Kowenhoven says the two suspects are now dead. “Two individuals that dressed up like the Boston Police […]
The Great Boston Fire of 1872: How a Horse Flu, Drunkards, and Bad Roofs Led to Disaster
April 5, 2012 by
One year after the Great Chicago fire, the Great Boston Fire in 1872 burnt over 700 buildings and 65 acres of downtown Boston to the ground. Here's some background on the blaze and some interesting points on how the city was not prepared. How Did It Start? MassMoments has a great summary of how the […]
The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 – A 2,300,000 Gallon Tidal Wave
March 22, 2012 by
This is one of those stories that seems unreal, but it is true. There was actually a flood of molasses that swept through the streets at 35 MPH. Here's the details from Wikipedia: Near Keany Square,[4] at 529 Commercial Street, a huge molasses tank 50 ft (15 m) tall, 90 ft (27 m) in diameter […]