59 Facts About Boston

1.

Boston is one of the oldest municipalities in America, founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from the English town of the same name.

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2.

Boston is a hub for LGBT culture and LGBT activism in the United States.

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3.

Boston asked that a writ of Quo warranto be issued against Massachusetts for the violations.

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4.

Boston was the largest town in the Thirteen Colonies until Philadelphia outgrew it in the mid-18th century.

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5.

Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Boston's merchants had found alternatives for their capital investments in the interim.

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6.

Boston was an early port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies, but was overtaken by Salem, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island.

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7.

At the time Boston was chartered as a city, the population was about 46, 226, while the area of the city was only4.

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8.

The Boston Bruins were founded in 1924 and played their first game at Boston Garden in November 1928.

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9.

Boston went into decline by the early to mid-20th century, as factories became old and obsolete and businesses moved out of the region for cheaper labor elsewhere.

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10.

Boston responded by initiating various urban renewal projects, under the direction of the Boston Redevelopment Authority established in 1957.

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11.

Boston is an intellectual, technological, and political center but has lost some important regional institutions, including the loss to mergers and acquisitions of local financial institutions such as FleetBoston Financial, which was acquired by Charlotte-based Bank of America in 2004.

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12.

Boston-based department stores Jordan Marsh and Filene's have both merged into the New York City–based Macy's.

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13.

In 2016, it was announced General Electric would be moving its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to the Seaport District in Boston, joining many other companies in this rapidly developing neighborhood.

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14.

Boston has experienced gentrification in the latter half of the 20th century, with housing prices increasing sharply since the 1990s.

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15.

In 2016, Boston briefly shouldered a bid as the US applicant for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

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16.

Boston is situated on Boston Harbor, an arm of Massachusetts Bay, itself an arm of the Atlantic Ocean.

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17.

Boston is sometimes called a "city of neighborhoods" because of the profusion of diverse subsections; the city government's Office of Neighborhood Services has officially designated 23 neighborhoods.

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18.

Boston has a relatively sunny climate for a coastal city at its latitude, averaging over 2, 600 hours of sunshine per annum.

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19.

From an estimate in 2005, Boston has one of the largest per capita LGBT populations in the United States.

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20.

Median household income in Boston was $51, 739, while the median income for a family was $61, 035.

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21.

Global city, Boston is placed among the top 30 most economically powerful cities in the world.

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22.

Boston receives the highest absolute amount of annual funding from the National Institutes of Health of all cities in the United States.

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23.

The Route 128 corridor and Greater Boston continue to be a major center for venture capital investment, and high technology remains an important sector.

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24.

Boston-based Fidelity Investments helped popularize the mutual fund in the 1980s and has made Boston one of the top financial centers in the United States.

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25.

Boston is a printing and publishing center—Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is headquartered within the city, along with Bedford-St Martin's Press and Beacon Press.

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26.

Boston is home to the headquarters of several major athletic and footwear companies including Converse, New Balance, and Reebok.

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27.

Boston operates the United States' second-oldest public high school and its oldest public elementary school.

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28.

In September 2019, the city formally inaugurated Boston Saves, a program that provides every child enrolled in the city's kindergarten system a savings account containing $50 to be used toward college or career training.

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29.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology originated in Boston and was long known as "Boston Tech"; it moved across the river to Cambridge in 1916.

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30.

Furthermore, Greater Boston contains seven Highest Research Activity Universities as per the Carnegie Classification.

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31.

Greater Boston has more than 50 colleges and universities, with 250, 000 students enrolled in Boston and Cambridge alone.

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32.

Metropolitan Boston is home to several conservatories and art schools, including Lesley University College of Art and Design, Massachusetts College of Art, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, New England Institute of Art, New England School of Art and Design, Longy School of Music of Bard College, and the New England Conservatory (the oldest independent conservatory in the United States).

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33.

Boston has its own collection of neologisms known as Boston slang and sardonic humor.

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34.

Several theaters are in or near the Theater District south of Boston Common, including the Cutler Majestic Theatre, Citi Performing Arts Center, the Colonial Theater, and the Orpheum Theatre.

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35.

Boston has been a noted religious center from its earliest days.

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36.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston serves nearly 300 parishes and is based in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End, while the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts serves just under 200 congregations, with the Cathedral Church of St Paul (1819) as its episcopal seat.

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37.

Some of the cleaner energy facilities in Boston include the Allston green district, with three ecologically compatible housing facilities.

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38.

Boston is breaking ground on multiple green affordable housing facilities to help reduce the carbon impact of the city while simultaneously making these initiatives financially available to a greater population.

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39.

Many older buildings in certain areas of Boston are supported by wooden piles driven into the area's fill; these piles remain sound if submerged in water, but are subject to dry rot if exposed to air for long periods.

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40.

City of Boston has developed a climate action plan covering carbon reduction in buildings, transportation, and energy use.

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41.

Boston has teams in the four major North American men's professional sports leagues plus Major League Soccer, and, as of 2019, has won 39 championships in these leagues.

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42.

Boston was the site of the first game of the first modern World Series, in 1903.

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43.

The Boston Celtics were founding members of the Basketball Association of America, one of the two leagues that merged to form the NBA.

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44.

Boston has Esports teams as well, such as the Overwatch League's Boston Uprising.

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45.

The Boston Breach is another esports team in the Call of Duty League.

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46.

Boston is one of eleven US cities which will host matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

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47.

Federal Building, the John W McCormack Post Office and Courthouse, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

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48.

Boston has an ordinance, enacted in 2014, that bars the Boston Police Department "from detaining anyone based on their immigration status unless they have a criminal warrant".

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49.

Boston Globe is the oldest and largest daily newspaper in the city and is generally acknowledged as its paper of record.

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50.

The Christian Science Monitor, headquartered in Boston, was formerly a worldwide daily newspaper but ended publication of daily print editions in 2009, switching to continuous online and weekly magazine format publications.

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51.

Boston is the largest broadcasting market in New England, with the radio market being the ninth largest in the United States.

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52.

Boston EMS provides pre-hospital emergency medical services to residents and visitors.

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53.

Logan International Airport, in East Boston and operated by the Massachusetts Port Authority, is Boston's principal airport.

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54.

Boston is the eastern terminus of I-90, which in Massachusetts runs along the Massachusetts Turnpike.

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55.

The elevated portion of the Central Artery, which carried most of the through traffic in downtown Boston, was replaced with the O'Neill Tunnel during the Big Dig, substantially completed in early 2006.

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56.

The city of Boston has a higher than average percentage of households without a car.

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57.

Amtrak intercity rail to Boston is provided through four stations: South Station, North Station, Back Bay, and Route 128.

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58.

Back Bay is served by MBTA and those three Amtrak routes, while Route 128, in the southwestern suburbs of Boston, is only served by the Acela Express and Northeast Regional.

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59.

Boston has formal partnership relationships through a Memorandum Of Understanding with five additional cities or regions:.

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