1497 John Cabot sails up the coast of Massachusetts.
1620 The Mayflower arrived at Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims disembarked.
1621 The Pilgrims hold the first "Thanksgiving Festival."
1623 Governor William Bradford put aside a special day of Thanksgiving.
1628 A permanent settlement at Salem was established.
1629 The Massachusetts Bay Colony is founded.
1630 The Puritans migrated from Salem and founded Boston.
1636 Harvard University was founded.
1691 The Province of Massachusetts is formed when the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Plymouth Colony combine.
1692 Nineteen women are condemned to death for practicing witchcraft in Salem.
1770 A British troops open fire on Americans resulting in Boston Massacre.
1773 American patriots throw tea overboard in what became known as the Boston Tea Party.
1775 The Revolutionary War begins when the first shots are fired at Concord and Lexington.
1775 The battle of Bunker Hill was fought outside Boston.
1787 Daniel Shay led a rebellion that was put down.
1788 Massachusetts becomes the sixth state of the United States.
1820 Maine separates from Massachusetts to become the 23rd state.
1831 William Lloyd Garrison bean publishing the Liberator.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in Boston.
1960 John F Kennedy Elected President of the United States.
1987 The "Big Dig" construction project begins in Boston.
2013- Bomb goes off at the finish point of the Boston Marathon.