127 Fun Facts About Boston

Boston was named after a market town in which English county?

Boston takes its name from Boston, Lincolnshire, the English market town from which several leading Puritan settlers, including the Rev. John Cotton, had come.

In what year was Boston founded?

Boston was founded in 1630, when John Winthrop's Puritans left the poor water supply at Charlestown for the peninsula across the river, which was named Boston on September 7.

Boston Common, dating from 1634, holds what national distinction?

Boston Common, bought from William Blaxton in 1634 as a shared cow pasture, is considered the first public park in the United States.

Founded in 1635, what is the oldest public school in the United States?

Boston Latin School, founded on April 23, 1635, is the oldest public school in the United States; Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams and John Hancock all attended.

The oldest subway tunnel in North America, opened in Boston in 1897, runs beneath which thoroughfare?

The Tremont Street Subway opened on September 1, 1897, carrying streetcars beneath Tremont Street between the Boylston and Park Street stations.

What did settler William Blaxton call the peninsula on which Boston stands?

Shawmut was the Algonquian name of the peninsula where Blaxton had lived alone since about 1625, before Winthrop's settlers arrived and renamed it Boston.

Boston's Back Bay neighbourhood was created in the 19th century by doing what?

Nearly 600 acres of Charles River marsh were filled with gravel brought by rail from Needham.

On which date did the Boston Tea Party take place?

On the night of December 16, 1773, Sons of Liberty boarded three ships at Griffin's Wharf and dumped East India Company tea into Boston Harbor.

Roughly how many chests of tea were thrown into Boston Harbor at the Tea Party?

The Sons of Liberty destroyed 342 chests of tea, roughly 92,000 pounds, valued at about £10,000 in 1773.

How many colonists were killed in the Boston Massacre of March 1770?

Five colonists died: Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray and James Caldwell were killed on the spot, while Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr died of their wounds afterward.

Which future U.S. president defended the British soldiers accused in the Boston Massacre?

John Adams, then a 34-year-old Boston lawyer, defended the British captain and his soldiers at their 1770 trials and won acquittals for all but two; his cousin Samuel Adams was a leading agitator.

The June 1775 battle everyone calls Bunker was mostly fought on which rise in Charlestown?

The colonists fortified Breed's Hill rather than the higher Bunker Hill; the British took it on June 17, 1775, at a cost of more than 1,000 casualties.

The granite obelisk in Charlestown commemorating the June 1775 battle stands how tall?

The Bunker Hill Monument stands 221 feet tall, built of Quincy granite and dedicated on June 17, 1843, with Daniel Webster giving the oration.

Two lanterns hung in the steeple of which Boston church on April 18, 1775, signalling British movements before Paul Revere's ride?

Old North Church, built in 1723, is the oldest standing church in the city.

What was Paul Revere's trade?

Paul Revere was a silversmith and engraver in Boston's North End; his later copper-rolling firm supplied the sheathing that re-coppered USS Constitution's hull in 1803.

Which Founding Father was born on Boston's Milk Street in 1706?

Benjamin Franklin was born on Milk Street on January 17, 1706, the fifteenth of Josiah Franklin's seventeen children, and was baptised at the Old South Meeting House.

The USS Constitution, berthed in Charlestown, earned what nickname after defeating HMS Guerriere in 1812?

Sailors dubbed her Old Ironsides after British cannonballs appeared to bounce off her thick live-oak hull during the August 1812 victory over HMS Guerriere.

Faneuil Hall, nicknamed the Cradle of Liberty, is topped by a weathervane in the shape of what?

The gilded copper grasshopper weathervane was made by Shem Drowne in 1742, modelled on the one atop London's Royal Exchange, and crowned the hall when it opened that year.

The Freedom Trail through Boston is marked on the pavement by what?

The 2.5-mile route was conceived by journalist William Schofield in 1951 and links 16 sites.

How long is the Freedom Trail?

The Freedom Trail runs about 2.5 miles (4 km) from Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown, linking 16 historic sites.

Who designed the Massachusetts State House, completed in 1798 on Beacon Hill?

Charles Bulfinch designed the State House, completed in January 1798; Paul Revere's company sheathed its leaking wooden dome in copper in 1802.

The State House dome was first gilded with gold leaf in which year?

The copper dome was first gilded with gold leaf in 1874; it was painted gray during the Second World War blackout and regilded with 23-karat gold in 1997.

A wave of what substance killed 21 people in Boston's North End on January 15, 1919?

The 2.3-million-gallon tank burst and the wave moved at an estimated 35 mph; locals swore the smell lingered for decades.

First run in 1897, what record does the Boston Marathon hold?

It was inspired by the marathon at the first modern Olympics in Athens the previous year.

The Boston Marathon starts in which town?

The race starts on the town common in Hopkinton, about 26 miles west of the city; Hopkinton replaced Ashland as the start in 1924 when the course was lengthened.

The Boston Marathon is traditionally run on which holiday?

Patriots' Day, the Massachusetts holiday commemorating the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord, falls on the third Monday of April; the Red Sox also play a morning home game.

In what year did women officially become eligible to enter the Boston Marathon?

Women were officially admitted in 1972, when Nina Kuscsik became the first sanctioned women's champion; Bobbi Gibb had run unofficially in 1966.

Fenway Park opened in 1912; what news story overshadowed coverage of its first game?

The Titanic had gone down five days earlier, on April 15.

How tall is Fenway Park's Green Monster wall in left field?

The Green Monster stands 37 feet 2 inches high; the 1934 rebuild replaced Duffy's Cliff and the wooden fence with the concrete-and-tin wall, painted green in 1947.

The illuminated Citgo sign that looms over Fenway Park overlooks which part of the city?

The sign atop 660 Beacon Street in Kenmore Square went up in 1940 advertising Cities Service and was rebranded with the Citgo trimark in 1965.

The Red Sox's 86-year title drought, ended in 2004, was blamed on a curse named after which player?

The Curse of the Bambino took its name from Babe Ruth, sold to the Yankees in January 1920 after helping the Red Sox win the 1915, 1916 and 1918 World Series.

How many NBA championships had the Boston Celtics won as of their 2024 title?

The 2024 title was the Celtics' 18th NBA championship, breaking a tie with the Lakers; eight of them came in a row from 1959 to 1966 under Red Auerbach and Bill Russell.

The Boston Bruins, founded in 1924, hold what distinction in the NHL?

Founded in 1924, the Bruins are the oldest U.S.-based NHL team; their first game, a 2-1 win over the Montreal Maroons on December 1, 1924, was the league's first on American soil.

Which two Boston teams share TD Garden?

The Bruins (NHL) and Celtics (NBA) both moved into the arena above North Station when it opened in 1995, replacing the old Boston Garden next door.

In 1837 Horace Gray petitioned to create what, America's first, on filled Back Bay mudflats?

After Gray's 1837 petition the city set aside filled land beside the Common for America's first public botanical garden; George Meacham's winning 1859 design gave it its lagoon and paths.

The Swan Boats on the lagoon beside the Common have operated since which year?

Robert Paget launched the first Swan Boats in 1877, inspired by the swan-drawn boat in Wagner's opera Lohengrin; the Paget family kept the business for generations.

Robert McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings follows a mallard family settling in which Boston park?

Mrs. Mallard leads her eight ducklings to the Public Garden, where Nancy Schön's bronze statues of them were installed in 1987; the book won the 1942 Caldecott Medal.

Boston's Emerald Necklace chain of parks was designed by which landscape architect?

Frederick Law Olmsted laid out the 1,100-acre, seven-mile chain from Boston Common to Franklin Park between 1878 and 1896, working from his Brookline office.

Thirteen artworks, including a Vermeer, were stolen from which Boston institution in March 1990?

Thirteen works, including Vermeer's The Concert and Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea of Galilee, were taken from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on March 18, 1990, by two thieves who spent 81 minutes inside.

How did the Gardner Museum thieves get inside?

They tied up the guards and spent about an hour looting the galleries.

The Big Dig rerouted which highway into a tunnel beneath downtown Boston?

The Big Dig replaced the elevated Central Artery carrying I-93 with the Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Tunnel; construction ran from 1991 to 2007 and cost well over $14 billion.

The Big Dig's cable-stayed bridge over the Charles is named after Leonard Zakim and which battle?

The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, opened in 2003, honours the civil-rights leader and the 1775 battle fought nearby in Charlestown; its towers echo the Bunker Hill Monument's obelisk.

The Charles River separates most of Boston from which neighbouring city?

It flows 80 miles from Hopkinton, doubling back on itself, though its source is only 26 miles from its mouth.

MIT was long known as "Boston Tech" before it moved across the river in which year?

MIT moved from Boston's Back Bay to its new Cambridge campus in 1916, celebrating with a pageant in which its charter crossed the Charles aboard a ceremonial barge.

The Pops was founded in 1885 as a lighter offshoot of which ensemble?

The Boston Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1881, began the Pops in 1885 as 'Promenade Concerts' of lighter fare; Arthur Fiedler conducted the Pops from 1930 until his death in 1979.

Where does the Boston Pops play its famous Fourth of July concert?

The Pops plays at the Hatch Memorial Shell on the Charles River Esplanade; the Fourth of July concert with fireworks began in 1974 under Arthur Fiedler and businessman David Mugar.

The exterior of which Beacon Street pub was used as the bar in the sitcom Cheers?

The Bull & Finch Pub at 84 Beacon Street supplied the exterior shots; interiors were filmed in Los Angeles. The show ran 275 episodes from 1982 to 1993.

Cheers bar owner Sam Malone was a former relief pitcher for which team?

Sam 'Mayday' Malone had been a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox before drinking ended his career; the show nearly died after ranking 74th of 77 in its first season.

Boston cream pie is said to have been created in 1856 at which hotel?

The Parker House hotel, opened by Harvey Parker in 1855, credits its French chef Sanzian with the custard-filled, chocolate-glazed cake; it became the official Massachusetts dessert in 1996.

Which Boston neighbourhood is famous for its Italian restaurants and pastry shops?

The North End, Boston's oldest residential neighbourhood, became heavily Italian after 1880s immigration; Hanover Street is lined with Italian restaurants and pastry shops, and summer saints' feasts fill its streets.

Dunkin' was founded in 1950 in which town just south of Boston?

Quincy's shop had opened two years earlier as the Open Kettle before Bill Rosenberg renamed it.

In which year did Massachusetts make the Boston Terrier its official state dog?

Massachusetts named the Boston Terrier its state dog in 1979; the American Kennel Club had recognised the breed in 1893, tracing it to a dog called Hooper's Judge.

Which Boston mayor served twenty years, the longest tenure in the city's history?

Thomas Menino served from July 1993 to January 2014, just over twenty years across five terms; Kevin White's sixteen years (1968-84) is the next longest.

Which two Back Bay towers are the tallest buildings in New England?

The old Hancock building's beacon still forecasts the weather by its colour.

Boston's Logan International Airport opened in which year?

The airfield opened on September 8, 1923, as Boston Airport on tidal flats in East Boston, and was renamed in 1943 for Lieutenant General Edward Lawrence Logan.

Which patron saint gives Boston, Lincolnshire, and hence Boston, Massachusetts, its name?

'St. Botolph's town' was shortened to Boston.

Who named the new settlement Boston in September 1630, in one of his last acts?

Isaac Johnson, a wealthy settler from Lincolnshire, is traditionally credited with proposing the name Boston on September 7, 1630; he died three weeks later. The ship Arbella was named for his wife.

Which Indigenous people lived in the Boston region before European colonisation?

The Massachusett people, whose name the colony and state adopted, lived around Massachusetts Bay; an epidemic around 1616-19 had devastated their villages before the Puritans arrived.

What did the Puritan settlers call the peninsula before it was renamed Boston?

The settlers called it Tremontaine (also Trimountaine) after the three peaks of what became Beacon Hill; the name survives in Tremont Street, and Blaxton had called it Shawmut.

Which 1629 pact, signed by John Winthrop, created the Massachusetts Bay Colony?

The Cambridge Agreement, signed on August 29, 1629, at Cambridge, England, committed Winthrop and eleven other Puritan shareholders to emigrate and carry the company's charter with them to New England.

Which three neighbouring communities rejected annexation by Boston?

Brookline, Cambridge and Chelsea each refused annexation proposals; Charlestown, Brighton and West Roxbury accepted and joined Boston in 1874, with Hyde Park following in 1912.

In which year did Boston's conflict over school desegregation busing begin?

Judge W. Arthur Garrity ordered desegregation busing in June 1974, and violent protests met the first buses at South Boston High School that September.

What is the highest point in Boston, at 330 feet?

Bellevue Hill in West Roxbury, topped by a water tower, rises 330 feet, the highest natural point in the city; it sits within the Stony Brook Reservation.

Founded in 1811, which Boston hospital is Harvard Medical School's original teaching hospital?

Massachusetts General Hospital, chartered in 1811 and opened to patients in 1821, is the original teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the third-oldest general hospital in the United States.

Roughly where on the Boston Marathon course does Heartbreak Hill come?

Heartbreak Hill sits near Boston College.

Which 1896 event inspired the first Boston Marathon in 1897?

Boston Athletic Association manager John Graham, inspired by the marathon at the 1896 Athens Olympics, organised the first Boston Marathon on April 19, 1897.

Which woman ran the 1967 Boston Marathon with an official number, entered by initial?

Kathrine Switzer registered as 'K. V. Switzer' and ran with bib 261; official Jock Semple tried to tear off her number mid-race before her boyfriend shoved him away.

Which impostor crossed the 1980 women's finish line first before being disqualified?

Rosie Ruiz was stripped of the title after it emerged she had joined the course about a mile from the finish; Canadian Jacqueline Gareau was declared the winner eight days later.

Where does the Boston Marathon finish, near Copley Square?

The finish line is painted on Boylston Street in front of the Boston Public Library, a few hundred yards past the final turn from Hereford Street.

Which two brothers carried out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing?

The Tsarnaevs, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, set two homemade pressure-cooker bombs that went off 12 seconds and 210 yards apart.

Which Boston mayor threw out the first ball at Fenway Park's opening game in 1912?

Mayor John F. 'Honey Fitz' Fitzgerald, maternal grandfather of John F. Kennedy, threw out the first ball on April 20, 1912, as the Red Sox beat the New York Highlanders 7-6 in 11 innings.

Which Fenway Park feature is named after a light-hitting Red Sox infielder?

Pesky's Pole, the right-field foul pole just 302 feet from home plate, honours shortstop Johnny Pesky, who hit only 17 home runs in his career; pitcher Mel Parnell popularised the name.

Whom did the Red Sox beat in the first World Series in 1903?

The Boston Americans, as the Red Sox were then called, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates five games to three in the 1903 series, led by pitcher Cy Young.

How many World Series titles had the Red Sox won by the end of the 2025 season?

Nine: 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918, then 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018 after the 86-year drought; they lost the 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986 Series.

Which coach led the Celtics to their 17th title over the Lakers in 2008?

Doc Rivers coached the 'Big Three' of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen past the Lakers in six games in 2008; the Lakers returned the favour in the 2010 Finals.

Besides playing, what second job did Bill Russell hold with the Celtics from 1966 to 1969?

Russell became the Celtics' player-coach in 1966, the first Black head coach in any major American pro league, and won the 1968 and 1969 championships in the role.

For how many seasons did the Bruins play at the old Boston Garden?

The Bruins played 67 seasons at Boston Garden, from its opening in November 1928 until May 1995, then moved next door to the FleetCenter, later renamed TD Garden.

Bobby Orr won a record how many consecutive Norris Trophies as best defenceman?

Bobby Orr won the Norris Trophy eight straight years from 1968 to 1975; he also took the Art Ross scoring title in 1970 and 1975, the first defenceman to do so.

In which year did Ted Williams bat .406, the last .400 average of the 20th century?

Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, going 6-for-8 in a season-ending doubleheader rather than sit out to protect a .39955 average that would have rounded up to .400.

Which boxing promoter built the original Boston Garden, opened in 1928?

Tex Rickard, the promoter behind New York's Madison Square Garden, built it as 'Boston Madison Square Garden' in 1928 with boxing in mind; it was demolished in 1998.

Which Puritan clergyman was the 1639 namesake of America's oldest university?

John Harvard, a young minister who died in 1638, left the college half his estate and his 400-volume library; the General Court named it Harvard College in 1639.

Who founded MIT in 1861 to advance 'useful knowledge'?

Geologist William Barton Rogers secured MIT's charter on April 10, 1861, and served as its first president; classes began in 1865 after the Civil War delayed the opening.

Boston University's original 1839 campus was in which Vermont town?

It began as the Newbury Biblical Institute in Newbury, Vermont, in 1839, moved to Concord, New Hampshire, in 1847, and was chartered as Boston University in 1869.

Which organisation founded Northeastern University in 1898?

It is now the largest university in Massachusetts by enrollment.

Boston College bought land in 1907 to move from the South End to where?

Boston College bought farmland in Chestnut Hill in 1907 and opened Gasson Hall there in 1913, leaving its original Harrison Avenue home in the South End.

Which architect designed the Boston Public Library's 1895 building on Copley Square?

Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White designed the Renaissance Revival library, opened in 1895 opposite Trinity Church, with 'Free to All' carved over its entrance.

In which year did the Museum of Fine Arts move from Copley Square to the Fenway?

The museum left its 1876 Copley Square building for Guy Lowell's new Huntington Avenue home in the Fenway, which opened in November 1909.

Who founded the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1881?

Banker and Civil War veteran Henry Lee Higginson founded the orchestra in 1881 and bankrolled it for decades, also starting the Pops in 1885 and building Symphony Hall in 1900.

Which two other halls share Symphony Hall's top-three acoustic ranking?

Acoustician Leo Beranek's surveys ranked Symphony Hall alongside Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and Vienna's Musikverein as the world's three finest concert halls; the hall became a National Historic Landmark in 1999.

Massachusetts General Hospital is located in which Boston neighbourhood?

The hospital's Bulfinch Building opened in 1821 on the West End's riverfront beside the Charles; the 1958-60 urban renewal that razed most of the neighbourhood spared the hospital.

Which colour lines make up the MBTA's three heavy-rail metro lines?

The Blue, Orange and Red Lines are the heavy-rail subway lines; the Green Line and Mattapan trolley are light rail, and the Silver Line is bus rapid transit.

Where in Boston Harbor were some of the area's earliest human remains found?

Human remains found on Peddocks Island were dated to about 4,100 years ago, among the oldest evidence of habitation in the Boston area.

Beacon Hill is used locally as a metonym for what?

Because the State House sits atop Beacon Hill, 'Beacon Hill' stands for the Massachusetts state government, much as Capitol Hill means Congress in Washington.

Boston's Chinatown became New England's only historic one after which two cities lost theirs?

Providence and Portland, Maine, both had small Chinatowns that disappeared after the 1950s, leaving Boston's, begun in the 1870s, as New England's only surviving historic Chinatown.

Which artist designed Faneuil Hall, opened in 1742?

Painter John Smibert designed the original two-storey market house, funded by merchant Peter Faneuil and opened in 1742; Charles Bulfinch enlarged it to its present size in 1806.

Which Boston mayor gave his name to the 1826 market complex beside Faneuil Hall?

Mayor Josiah Quincy III pushed through the 1824-26 expansion of the market district; Alexander Parris designed the granite Greek Revival hall that bears Quincy's name.

Completed in 1713, which is Boston's oldest surviving public building?

The Old State House on State Street, built in 1713, housed the colonial government; the Declaration of Independence was read from its balcony on July 18, 1776.

Which architect designed the John Hancock Tower, completed in 1976?

Henry N. Cobb of I. M. Pei & Partners designed the minimalist glass tower; during construction its 500-pound window panes began falling out, and all 10,344 were replaced.

What did the John Hancock Tower become known as after its naming lease expired in 2015?

Owner Boston Properties rebranded the tower by its address, 200 Clarendon Street, once John Hancock Financial's naming rights lapsed in 2015.

How tall is the Prudential Tower, completed in 1964?

The Prudential Tower rises 749 feet (228 m) over 52 floors; Charles Luckman and Associates designed it, and it was New England's tallest building until the Hancock Tower in 1976.

Which four streets bound the Boston Public Garden?

The 24-acre garden lies between Charles Street (which separates it from the Common), Beacon Street, Arlington Street and Boylston Street.

Who became music director of the Boston Pops in 1995?

Keith Lockhart, then 35, became the Pops' 20th conductor in 1995, following John Williams, who had led it from 1980 to 1993.

Roughly how many athletes row in the Head of the Charles Regatta?

About 11,000 rowers in more than 2,000 boats race each October over the three-mile upstream course, which starts at Boston University's boathouse; the regatta began in 1965.

Which British captain led the soldiers who fired in the Boston Massacre?

Captain Thomas Preston commanded the eight-man guard; the soldiers fired without his order after being pelted with clubs, ice and snowballs, and Preston was acquitted at trial.

Whom did Washington send to bring the Ticonderoga cannons to Boston in 1775?

Henry Knox, a 25-year-old Boston bookseller, hauled some 60 tons of cannon by ox-drawn sled over 300 miles; mounted on Dorchester Heights, they forced the British out on March 17, 1776.

Which 1773 act of Parliament provoked the December protest at Griffin's Wharf?

The Tea Act of May 10, 1773 let the company sell Chinese tea without paying taxes beyond the Townshend duties, and the Sons of Liberty saw it as taxation without representation.

At which Boston shipyard was USS Constitution built and launched in 1797?

Edmund Hartt's shipyard in the North End built the frigate, launched on October 21, 1797; Paul Revere supplied her copper bolts and fittings.

How many steps spiral up the Bunker Hill Monument?

A spiral of 294 stone steps climbs to the observation chamber 221 feet up; Solomon Willard designed the obelisk, dedicated in 1843.

Isabella Stewart Gardner's 1903 museum was modelled on the palaces of which city?

Gardner built Fenway Court in the style of a 15th-century Venetian palazzo around a glass-roofed courtyard; she had spent summers at Venice's Palazzo Barbaro.

What is the estimated value of the art stolen from the Gardner Museum in 1990?

The thirteen works, led by Vermeer's The Concert and Rembrandt's only seascape, were valued at about $500 million; the museum raised its reward for their return to $10 million in 2017.

Which distiller owned the tank that burst in the 1919 Great Molasses Flood?

Purity Distilling Company, a subsidiary of United States Industrial Alcohol, owned the poorly built 50-foot tank on Commercial Street; USIA eventually paid around $600,000 in damages.

Roughly how many buildings did the Great Boston Fire of 1872 destroy?

The fire of November 9-10, 1872, destroyed 776 buildings across 65 acres of downtown, starting in the basement of a warehouse at Kingston and Summer Streets.

Which police commissioner refused to rehire strikers after the 1919 Boston Police Strike?

Commissioner Edwin Upton Curtis had suspended the union's leaders, then refused to rehire the roughly 1,100 strikers; Governor Calvin Coolidge backed him, declaring there was no right to strike against public safety.

Which rule was enacted after the Cocoanut Grove fire?

Flammable decorations were also banned.

How many women were murdered by the Boston Strangler in the early 1960s?

Thirteen women aged 19 to 85 were killed between June 1962 and January 1964; Albert DeSalvo confessed, and 2013 DNA testing linked him to the last victim, Mary Sullivan.

Whitey Bulger led which Irish mob group based in Somerville?

The Winter Hill Gang, named for a Somerville neighbourhood, was run by Howie Winter in the 1970s before Bulger took control; FBI handler John Connolly tipped him off in 1994 and he fled for 16 years.

Which Boston mayor was elected alderman in 1904 while in prison for fraud?

James Michael Curley, jailed for taking a civil-service exam on a friend's behalf, won the 1904 aldermanic race from his cell; he served four terms as mayor between 1914 and 1950.

Which Boston department store opened its famous 'Automatic Bargain Basement' in 1909?

Edward Filene opened Filene's Automatic Bargain Basement in 1909 beneath the Washington Street store, marking prices down automatically the longer goods stayed unsold.

Who founded the Boston Consulting Group in 1963?

Bruce Henderson, a former Westinghouse executive, started it in 1963 as the consulting arm of the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company; Bill Bain left BCG in 1973 to found Bain & Company.

William J. Riley founded which sneaker giant in Boston in 1906 as an arch-support firm?

New Balance began as the New Balance Arch Support Company, named for the way a chicken's three-toed foot balances; it sold its first running shoes in 1938.

In the Boston accent, cot and caught sound alike because short o merges with which sound?

Boston shares the cot-caught merger, with both words taking the rounded 'aw' of thought; the broad a of father and spa stays distinct, unlike in most of the US.

Boston Light, first lit in 1716 as the first lighthouse in what is now the US, stands on which outer-harbour island?

Little Brewster Island's light was blown up by withdrawing British forces in 1776 and rebuilt in 1783.

Which author called the State House 'the hub of the solar system', giving Boston its nickname?

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wrote in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858) that the 'Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system', which the city shortened to 'the Hub'.

Which medical first happened in a Massachusetts General Hospital amphitheatre on October 16, 1846?

Dentist William Morton anesthetised a patient in the amphitheatre, which served as the operating room until 1867; the date is known as Ether Day.

Founded in 1630, which is the oldest burying ground in Boston?

King's Chapel Burying Ground dates from 1630 and predates the adjacent 1754 chapel; Governor John Winthrop and Mayflower passenger Mary Chilton are buried there.

Berklee College of Music began in 1945 under what name, after Lawrence Berk left Raytheon?

Lawrence Berk opened Schillinger House at 284 Newbury Street in 1945 to teach Joseph Schillinger's composition system; it was renamed Berklee, after his son Lee Berk, in 1954.

In 2012 Berklee College of Music opened a second campus in which Spanish city?

Berklee opened its campus in Valencia, Spain, in 2012 inside the Palau de les Arts in the City of Arts and Sciences; it also absorbed the Boston Conservatory in 2016.