Massachusetts Trivia & Tidbits - Page 10

Looking for Massachusetts trivia? Try our list Massachusetts little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The Franklin Park Zoo is considered the crown jewel of Frederick Law Olmstead’s “Emerald Necklace,” a ribbon of green space surrounding the city of Boston.

first appeared: 10/26/2003

The 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill, the first major battle of the Revolutionary War, was actually fought on nearby Breed’s Hill in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood.

first appeared: 10/19/2003

The Boston Pops debuted on July 11, 1885, at the Boston Music Hall. The concert, patterned after Vienna’s summer garden concerts, soon became a regular series.

first appeared: 10/12/2003

Established in 1872 on 265 acres in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, the Arnold Arboretum is home to more than 7,000 trees and plants. It serves as part of the city’s Emerald Necklace of greenspace.

first appeared: 10/5/2003

Sarah Behn (‘93) is Boston College’s and the Big East’s second-leading basketball scorer—male or female—behind men’s player Troy Bell. During her collegiate career, she netted 2,523 points.

first appeared: 9/28/2003

At 185 feet wide, Boston’s Leonard Zakim Bridge is the world’s widest cable-stayed bridge. It’s named for the late regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.

first appeared: 9/21/2003

At Hancock Shaker Village, an outdoor history museum in the Berkshire Hills, oxen and antique machinery are used to work the 1,200-acre farm. The village’s collections present a picture of three centuries of Shaker life and work.

first appeared: 9/14/2003

Born in Lawrence, Leonard Bernstein was the first American conductor of the New York Philharmonic. He is most famous for composing the music for West Side Story.

first appeared: 9/7/2003

Bartholomew’s Cobble on the Housatonic River in western Massachusetts, a natural rock garden of ferns and rare wildflowers, is visited by more than 200 species of birds. Once mined for gravel, the area now is owned by The Nature Conservancy.

first appeared: 8/31/2003

Anna Howard Shaw graduated from Boston University in 1878 with a degree in theology. She became the Methodist Protestant Church’s first woman minister when ordained in 1880.

first appeared: 8/24/2003

In April, primatologist Jane Goodall traveled to Harvard University to receive the 2003 Global Environmental Citizen Award for her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees.

first appeared: 8/17/2003

The American elm was adopted as Massachusetts’ state tree in 1941. Used by the Iroquois to make canoes, the tree also was valued for its shade, but in more recent times fell victim to Dutch elm disease.

first appeared: 8/10/2003

In May 2002, Springfield officials unveiled the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Garden. Five bronze sculptures by Lane Grey Dimond-Cates depict characters from the Springfield native’s books.

first appeared: 8/3/2003

In June of 1861, Gen. Ebenezer W. Pierce, a native of Freetown (pop. 9,433), commanded the Union Army in the first battle of the Civil War at Bethel Church, Va.

first appeared: 7/27/2003

Since 1984, the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown (pop. 3,431) has freed more than 60 large whales from life-threatening entanglements.

first appeared: 7/20/2003

Nantucket (pop. 9,520), a 48-square-mile island community 30 miles offshore, dates to 1659 when a group of colonists partnered with Thomas Mayhew of nearby Martha’s Vineyard to buy the island from American Indians for 30 British pounds and two beaver hats.

first appeared: 7/13/2003

Edith Wharton, the first woman awarded a Pulitzer Prize for fiction, designed and built The Mount, her home in Lenox (pop. 7,077), in 1902.

first appeared: 7/6/2003

Cape Cod, a sandy peninsula created during the Ice Age, was the first place that the Pilgrims landed in America. Because it was too sandy, the travelers opted to sail across Cape Cod Bay to settle in Plymouth.

first appeared: 6/29/2003

In 1999, the Concord River was protected under the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The opening shots of the American Revolution were fired from North Bridge, which spans the river in historic Concord (pop. 16,993).

first appeared: 6/22/2003

Volleyball began in Holyoke in 1895 when YMCA physical education director William G. Morgan borrowed from tennis and handball to create this uniquely American sport.

first appeared: 6/8/2003

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