History

The Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775, when a British Army expedition marched from Boston to Concord in search of contraband munitions. Confronted by a local militia company on Lexington Green on the way to Concord, firing erupted. Although no one knows who fired the first shot, eight of…

On this evening in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated while at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Like so much else in American history, there was a Lowell connection to that event. Here’s the story which has been previously published on this site. On April 14, 1865 – Good Friday…

The Tipping Point By Tim Trask Part 2 The inmates flooded into the chapel in an excited rush, paying no attention to either me or Tiresias. They were just intent on getting good seats. I recognized a couple of the most eager of them. There was Campbell, a transfer from…

About 20 years ago there was a movie called My Big Fat Greek Wedding which became an unexpected hit. My favorite part of the movie, besides its excellent soundtrack, was the bride’s father, Costas “Gus” Portokalos, played by Michael Constantine. Gus owned a restaurant, of course, and had a remarkable…

Earlier this week the Boston Globe reported that the U.S. Department of the Interior is providing funds to restore the historic monument on Dorchester Heights. (“Dorchester Heights monument in South Boston to undergo multi-million dollar restoration”). The monument commemorates the action by the colonial army under the command of George…

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day! Two hundred years ago Hugh Cummiskey, an Irish immigrant living in Charlestown, Massachusetts, led a group of his countrymen on a 30 mile walk along the Middlesex Canal to the sparsely settled farming community of East Chelmsford. Cummiskey had heard that a group…

In 1976, President Geral Ford officially proclaimed February to be Black History Month in the United States. The connection between Black History and February extends back to the early 20th century. As the country approached the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 13th Amendment and the Constitutional abolition of…