1674: The first European settlement in the region is established by Daniel Gookin on land belonging to the Nipmuc Indians. The land is exchanged for some money, cloth and coats, the combined value of which was about twelve pounds sterling. Daniel Gookin is later joined by Thomas Prentice and Daniel Henchman.
1713: Jonas Rice establishes the settlement of Worcester.
1722: Worcester settlement is incorporated as a town.
1731: Worcester County is established from parts of Middlesex and Suffolk Counties.
1774: The term “minutemen” is coined in Leicester. This refers to Revolutionary War soldiers who could take up arms at a minute’s notice.
1776: Isaiah Thomas reads the Declaration of Independence in Worcester city. His Massachusetts Spy is the first New England newspaper to print it.
1786: Farmers led by Daniel Shays march on the Worcester city courthouse to protest high taxes in what becomes Shay’s Rebellion. This is the first organized protest against the new government after the Revolution.
1792: The First Farmers’ Almanac is published by Robert B. Thomas, a West Boylston schoolteacher. Farmers consider it second in importance only to the Bible.
1826: The Blackstone Canal, one of the country’s first internal commercial waterways, is built. It connects Worcester city to the sea.
1833: The country’s first publicly financed insane asylum opens in Worcester city.
1840: Charles Thurber invents the chirographer, the prototype of the typewriter, in Worcester city.
1846: Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, a dentist in Charlton, first uses ether as an anesthetic. He later demonstrates its use at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
1846: Albert Tolman invents the rickshaw in Worcester city.
1846: Elias Howe, from Spencer, invents the sewing machine.
1847: The country’s first postage stamps are printed in Millbury.
1847: Esther Howland becomes the first person to mass-produce valentines in the country.
1848: Rev. George Allen, brother of Charles Allen, the county’s representative to the Whig Convention of 1848, proposes a resolution to end slavery in Massachusetts.
1848: Worcester town is incorporated as a city.
1850: The first national women's rights convention is held in Worcester city.
1854: Elm Park in Worcester city is created as the nation’s first public park. The 28-acre land is purchased from Levi Lincoln and John Hammond by the city.
1855: The Carpet Loom is invented by Erastus Bigelow in Clinton. He goes on to establish a carpet empire.
1855: The Steam Calliope is invented by Joshua Stoddard in Worcester city. The instrument consists of a keyboard connected by wires to valves that contain whistles. It becomes a favorite of circuses, political rallies, carnivals and riverboats.
1859: Ebenezer Butterick invents standardized paper patterns for clothing in Sterling.
1867: W. A. Cummings invents the curveball when playing for the Brooklyn Stars. He is supposed to have got the idea while tossing clamshells on the beach.
1880: The first Major League Baseball “Perfect Game” happens on June 12 in Worcester city. It was pitched by John Lee Richmond for the Worcester Brown Stockings.
1890: Shredded wheat is invented by Henry Perky in Worcester city.
1899: Marshall “Major” Taylor of Worcester city becomes the first black athlete to win an international competition in Montreal. He sets seven world records during the year.
1902: Albert A. Michelson, chairman of Clark University’s Physics Department, becomes the first American Nobel Prize winner for his work concerning the measurement of light. He invents the echelon spectroscope, the interferometer and other naval devices.
1926: Rocketry pioneer Robert H. Goddard, a professor at Clark University, fires the first liquid fuel rocket in Auburn.
1939: Clark University’s Paul A. Siple coins the word “windchill” which measures the combined effects of temperature and wind velocity on the loss of heat by human skin.
1941: David Clark develops the famous “Anti-G” suit that prevents pilots from blacking out when pulling out of high-speed dives. His company later manufactures suits for astronauts.
1957: The Birth Control Pill is developed by Drs. Gregory Pincus and Min Chueh Chang in Shrewsbury under the auspices of the Worcester Foundation For Experimental Biology. It is approved by the FDA in 1960.
1963: WORC Radio in Worcester city becomes the first radio station in the country to play the Beatles. Dick Smith is the DJ. The Beatles later presented him with the gold record for their hit, “She Loves You,” and inscribed it “To America’s First Believer”.
1963: Graphic artist Harvey Ball designs the yellow “smiley face” button in for the America Group Insurance Company in Worcester city.
1988: Cambridge Biotech Corp. in Worcester city receives the first federal license for its HIV 1 rapid diagnostic test in December.
1990: Dr. Joseph E. Murray, born and raised in Milford, is awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1990 for his pioneering work in organ transplantation.
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