Massachusetts

1621 The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in Plymouth.
1634 Boston Common became the first public park in America.
1635 The first American public secondary school, Boston Latin Grammar School, was founded in Boston.
1636 Harvard, the first American university, was founded in Newtowne (now Cambridge).
1638 The first American printing press was set up in Cambridge by Stephen Daye.
1639 The first free American public school, the Mather school, was founded in Dorchester, a neighborhood of Boston.
1650 The first American ironworks were established in Saugus.
1653 The first American public library was founded in Boston.
1704 The first regularly issued American newspaper, The Boston News-Letter, was published in Boston.
1716 The first American lighthouse was built in Boston Harbor.
1775 The first battle of the Revolution was fought in Lexington and Concord, and the first ship of the U.S. Navy, the schooner "Hannah", was commissioned in Beverly.
1789 The first American novel, William Hill Brown's The Power of Sympathy, was published in Worcester.
1803 The Middlesex Canal, the first canal built for commercial use in the United States, was completed.
1806 The first church built by free blacks in America, the African Meeting House, opened on Joy Street in Boston.
1826 The first American railroad was built in Quincy.
1831 The first abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, was published in Boston by William Lloyd Garrison.
1839 Rubber was first vulcanized by Charles Goodyear in Woburn.
1845 The first sewing machine was made by Elias Howe in Boston.
1846 The first public demonstration of ether anesthetic was given in Boston.
1866 The first African-American legislators in New England were elected to the General Court.
1875 The first American Christmas card was printed by Louis Prang in Boston.
1876 The first telephone was demonstrated by Alexander Graham Bell in Boston.
1886 The first transformer was demonstrated by William Stanley in Great Barrington.
1891 The first basketball game was played in Springfield.
1892 The first successful gasoline-powered automobile was perfected by Charles and Frank Duryea in Springfield.
1895 The first volleyball game was played in Holyoke.
1898 The first American subway system was opened in Boston.
1926 The first successful liquid fuel rocket was launched by Dr. Robert Goddard in Auburn.
1928 The first computer, a non-electronic "differential analyzer," was developed by Dr. Vannevar Bush of M.I.T. in Cambridge.
1944 And, not to be outdone by M.I.T., Howard Aiken of Harvard developed the first automatic digital computer.
1961 The first nuclear-powered surface vessel, USS Long Beach CG (N) 9, was launched at Quincy.