28 Facts About Massachusetts Bay

1. Massachusetts Bay is the site of many important episodes in US history.

2. Around the same time, Massachusetts Bay became a destination for immigrants from Europe.

3. Massachusetts Bay is named after the Massachusett people, one of the many Algonquian peoples who lived in the area.

4. Massachusetts Bay is the home of rowing events such as the Eastern Sprints on Lake Quinsigamond and the Head of the Charles Regatta.

5. Massachusetts Bay is the home of the Cape Cod Baseball League.

6. Massachusetts Bay generally ranks highly among states in most health and disease prevention categories.

7. Massachusetts Bay is home to a large number of museums and historical sites.

8. Massachusetts Bay was an early center of the Transcendentalist movement, which emphasized intuition, emotion, human individuality and a deeper connection with nature.

9. Massachusetts Bay is the most populous state to be represented in the United States Congress entirely by a single party.

10. Massachusetts Bay routinely votes for the Democratic Party, with the core concentrations in the Boston metro area, the Cape and Islands, and Western Massachusetts outside Hampden County.

11. Government of Massachusetts Bay is divided into three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.

12. Massachusetts Bay is the sixth-most popular tourist destination for foreign travelers.

13. Massachusetts Bay is the fastest growing state in New England and the 25th fastest growing state in the United States.

14. Massachusetts Bay is located along the Atlantic Flyway, a major route for migratory waterfowl along the eastern coast.

15. Along the western border of Western Massachusetts Bay lies the highest elevated part of the state, the Berkshires.

16. On November 8, 2016, Massachusetts Bay voted in favor of The Massachusetts Marijuana Legalization Initiative, known as Question 4.

17. Massachusetts Bay manufactured 3.4 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking tenth among the 48 states.

18. Massachusetts Bay was the first state to recruit, train, and arm a Black regiment with White officers, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.

19. Massachusetts Bay was a center of the movement for independence from Great Britain; colonists in Massachusetts had long uneasy relations with the British monarchy, including open rebellion under the Dominion of New England in the 1680s.

20. The Massachusetts Bay banished dissenters such as Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams due to religious and political disagreements.

21. The capital of Massachusetts Bay is Boston, which is the most populous city in New England.

22. Massachusetts Bay has played a significant role in American history since the Pilgrims, seeking religious freedom, founded Plymouth Colony in 1620.

23. Massachusetts Bay lost all of these territories in the 1660s, when Connecticut and Rhode Island received their royal charters.

24. Massachusetts Bay is one of five bays besides Quincy Bay, Narragansett Bay, Buzzards Bay, and Cape Cod Bay that give the state the nickname "the Bay State".

25. Massachusetts Bay gave its name to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which is one of the two predecessor colonies of the current state of Massachusetts.

26. Massachusetts Bay is itself part of the Gulf of Maine, which extends from Nova Scotia south to Cape Cod Bay.

27. Massachusetts Bay extends from Cape Ann on the north to Plymouth Harbor on the south, a distance of about 42 miles.

28. Massachusetts Bay is a bay on the Atlantic Ocean that forms part of the central coastline of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.