Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism,
10 Park Plaza #4510, Boston MA 02116;
617-973-8500; 800-227-6277; Fax: 617-973-8525. Email: vacationinfo@state.ma.us.
Web: http://www.massvacation.com.
State Bean: navy bean
State Berry: cranberry
State Beverage: cranberry juice
State Bird: black-capped chickadee
State Building Rock and Monument Stone: granite
State Cat: tabby cat
State Ceremonial March: The Road to Boston
State Children's Author and Illustrator: Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel)
State Children's Book: Make Way for Ducklings
State Cookie: chocolate chip cookie
State Dessert: Boston cream pie
State Dog: Boston terrier
State Donut: Boston cream donut
State Explorer Rock: Dighton Rock
State Fish: cod
State Flower: mayflower
State Folk Dance: square dancing
State Folk Hero: Johnny Appleseed
State Folk Song: Massachusetts
State Fossil: theropod dinosaur tracks
State Game Bird: wild turkey
State Gem: rhodonite
State Glee Club Song: The Great State of Massachusetts
State Heroine: Deborah Samson
State Historical Rock: Plymouth Rock
State Horse: Morgan horse
State Insect: ladybug
State Marine Mammal: right whale
State Mineral: babingtonite
State Muffin: corn muffin
State Nickname: Bay State, Old Colony State, Baked Bean State, Pilgrim State
State Ode: Ode to Massachusetts
State Patriotic Song: Massachusetts (Because of You Our Land Is Free)
State Poem: Blue Hills of Massachusetts
State Polka: Say Hello to Someone from Massachusetts
State Quarter:
State Rock: Rosbury Puddingstone
State Seal:
State Shell: New England Neptune
State Soil: Paxton soil series
State Song: All Hail to Massachusetts
State Tree: American elm
State Vessel: Schooner Ernestina
State Capitals
Plymouth, Massachusetts — First settlement.
Boston, Massachusetts — Current state capital.
Songs
Massachusetts; All Hail to Massachusetts; Massachusetts (Because of You
Our Land Is Free); The Great State of Massachusetts; Say Hello to Someone from
Massachusetts; Ode to Massachusetts; The Road to Boston; Please Come to Boston.
State Specials
It is illegal to snore in Massachusetts unless your windows are closed and locked.
1621: First Thanksgiving celebration
1634: First American public park (Boston Common)
1635: First American public secondary school (Boston Latin School)
1636: First American college (Harvard College)
1638: First American printing press set up in Cambridge by Stephen Daye
1639: First American post office (Richard Fairbanks' tavern in Boston)
1639: First free American public school (Mather School in Dorchester)
1646: First American ironworks (Saugus)
1653: First American public library (Boston Public Library)
1704: First regularly issued American newspaper (Boston News-Letter)
1716: First American lighthouse (The Boston Light)
1789: First American novel (The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown)
1806: First church built by free blacks (African Meeting House in Boston)
1826: First horse drawn railroad in America (from Quincy to Charlestown)
1827: First American swimming school
1837: First telegraph (Samuel Morse)
1839: First vulcanized rubber (Charles Goodyear)
1840: First typewriter (Charles Thurber)
1845: First sewing machine (Elias Howe)
1846: First use of anesthesia (William T.G. Morton)
1850: First National Women's Rights Convention (Worcester)
1865: First professional architect training in America (MIT by Robert Ware)
1875: First American Christmas card (Louis Prang, printer)
1876: First telephone (Alexander Graham Bell)
1877: First woman to earn a Ph.D. in the U.S. (Boston University)
1881: First American country club for outdoor pursuits (Brookline Country Club)
1891: First basketball game (James Naismith, Springfield)
1891: Fig Newtons invented by James Henry Mitchell and named for the town of Newton, Massachusetts
1893: First successful gasoline-powered automobile (Frank and Charles Duryea)
1895: First volleyball game (William Morgan at Holyoke)
1896: First public beach in America (Revere Beach)
1897: First marathon in America (Boston Marathon)
1898: First American subway (Boston)
1903: First trans-Atlantic radio broadcast
1907: First fire truck (Knox Manufacturing Company)
1924: First mutual fund (L. Sherman Adams)
1925: First woman U.S. legislator (Edith Nourse Rogers)
1926: First liquid fueled rocket launched (Robert Goddard)
1928: First computer developed by Dr. Vannevar Bush of MIT
1930: First frozen food (Clarence Birdseye)
1930s: First chocolate chip cookies (Ruth Wakefield of the Toll House Inn)
1944: First digital computer (Howard Aiken of Harvard University)
1947: First microwave oven (Perry Spencer of Raytheon)
1947: First instant camera (Edwin Land)
1947: First use of chemotherapy to treat cancer (Sidney Farber)
1954: First kidney transplant (Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston)
1961: First nuclear powered surface ship launched (Quincy)
1969: Precurser to the Internet introduced (ARPANET)
1971: First email (Ray Tomlinson)
1976: First First Night (Boston)
1976: First reading machine (Kurzweil)
1979: First electronic spreadsheet (VisiCalc by Daniel Brickman)
1980: First to decode DNA (Walter Gilbert)
