Boston Firsts

Boston has played an innovative and central role in American history for over 300 years. It has made significant advances in everything from science and engineering to culture and society.

• 1632 - First Windmill: Copp's Hill
• 1632 - First law against smoking in public
• 1634 - First public park: Boston Common
• 1635 - First public school: Boston Latin, still in operation
• 1636 - First college: Harvard University
• 1653 - First public library
• 1662 - First Official Censor: hence the phrase "banned in Boston"
• 1704 - First newspaper: Boston News-Letter
• 1714 - First American restaurant: Union Oyster House, still in operation
• 1716 - First lighthouse: Boston Light, still in operation
• 1765 - First chocolate factory: Baker Chocolate Factory in Dorchester
• 1780 -  First State Constitution
• 1806 - First African-American meeting house constructed 
• 1835 - First public school for African-American children: Abiel Smith School
• 1837 - First college for women: Mount Holyoke, still in operation
• 1837 - First Electric telegraph invented by Samuel Morse
• 1837 - First city police department
• 1848 - First publicly supported free municipal library
• 1875 - First printed American Christmas card
• 1876 - First telephone: Alexander Graham Bell
• 1877 - First woman in the United State to earn a Ph.D, Helen Magill White
• 1896 - First cookbook: The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, by Fanny Farmer
• 1897 - First subway: Metro Boston Transportation Authority, the "T", completed on schedule and on budget
• 1897 - First U.S. Marathon: Boston Marathon
• 1897 - First subway in America
• 1881 - First Body Building class taught by YMCA staffer Robert Roberts
• 1896 - First cookbook in America published by Fannie Farmer
• 1903 - First World Series game: Boston Americans 3, Pittsburgh Pirates 7
• 1928 - First computer, MIT
• 1947 - First microwave oven, Percy Spencer
• 1954 - First Kidney Transplant, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital
• 1964 - First nuclear powered surface vessel, USS Long Beach, launched at Quincy
• 1972 - First TV show with closed captioning for the deaf
• 2004 - Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg 
• 2006 - First in-utero operation, Children's Hospital in Boston
• 2009 - First MLB team with 500 consecutive sell outs
• 2011 - First full face transplant in the US