25 CURIOSITIES ABOUT BOSTON

Little did we know about Boston until we booked a one-way flight there. Little or nothing better. As it turns out, investigating we discover that this city has a long history and a few curious facts ... so here they go 25 curiosities about Boston:

1. It was founded in 1630 by Puritans who left England looking for a new life opportunity, becoming one of the oldest cities in the United States.

2. It is the capital of the state of Massachusetts.

3. It had a fundamental role in the American Revolution (War of Independence) and can be discovered along the Freedom Trail.

4. One of the key facts for the beginning of the War of Independence occurred here: we talked about the tea riot, when the inhabitants of the city threw the entire shipment of tea from the colonist ships to the sea to protest against the rates that Britain I imposed them.

5. Many say that in the wake of that mutiny, Americans drink coffee instead of tea.

6. It was here that the first public school in the United States was inaugurated: the Boston Latin School in 1635. And also the first university: Harvard, in nearby Cambridge in 1636.

7. Its universities are famous throughout the world, although two are the ones that stand out above the others: MIT and especially Harvard, where they studied personalities such as Bill Gates, Obama and Mark Zuckenberg.

8. This is why Boston has a reputation as an intellectual city… Mark Twain wrote: “In New York they ask“ how much money do you have? ”, In Philadelphia they ask,“ who were their parents? ”, In Boston they ask,“ how much do you know?

9. It was always a thriving city thanks to its port, the one that was "closest" to Europe.

10. In Boston, the first US subway was inaugurated in September 1897 (a month later, the one in Chicago was inaugurated and the one in New York was inaugurated in 1904).

11. In 1716, the first lighthouse in the United States was built in Boston Bay.

12. In the seventeenth century in Boston, "witch trials" were common, although those made famous throughout history took place in the nearby city of Salem, in which more than 150 people accused of black magic.

13. Do you know the last name Kennedy? This Irish family arrived in Boston from Ireland in 1849. In 1917 a John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born here.

14. Other illustrious inhabitants were scientist Benjamn Franklyn and Martin Luther King Jr, who studied theology at Boston University.

15. If you like fish and seafood, you are in luck: the typical dishes of the city are clam chowder and lobster roll, a good sea lobster sandwich.

16. The Boston Public Library was the first, in 1848, to be public and free.

17. In 1704 the Boston News-Letter was founded, the first newspaper to be published regularly in the United States.

18. Alexander Graham Bell presented in Boston, in 1876, the first telephone.

19. The Boston Marathon is the world's first annual (since 1897). In 2013 he was sadly famous for a bomb attack that killed 3 people and injured more than 250.

20. The Boston Common is the first public park in the United States, it was opened in 1634.

21. Between 1659 and 1681 the Puritans decided not to celebrate Christmas as they considered it a corrupt holiday.

23. Related to the Puritan society of Boston we find the novel “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which tells the story of Hester Prynne, accused of adultery and forced to always carry a letter A, adulteress.

23. Although the Puritans, fortunately, gradually became more flexible, so much so that Boston is one of the most liberal places in the United States. It is here for example where the first gay marriages in the country were celebrated.

24. The Cheers series was shot in a Boston bar called Bull & Finch Pub. Nowadays, guess what ... it's called Cheers Beacon Hill.

25. Beacon Hill is one of the most beautiful areas of the city (and possibly the country), full of cobbled streets and houses that seem to have been hung in the past (there is even gas street lighting, you just have to smell under some streetlight).

So far a few curiosities about BostonIf you are organizing a trip to this city and want to know more, we recommend you read our article on What to see and do in Boston (coming soon).

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