::::::::The trouble with "slimming" is that one person's fluff is another person's key datum.  The auto show is a good example.  For some Americans, and probably even a few Britons, that's the main importance of Worcester these days.  For other visitors to the city, the auto show is important only to the extent that it creates traffic congestion that impedes their visit to where Goddard worked, and to his aunt's farm where the space age began.  I wouldn't object to breaking out a "Notable events" section, provided that the reorganization didn't lose any information.  As for the Revolution, I think the "activity" referred to was Patriot planning, agitation, and rabble-rousing.  I don't think there was any significant military confrontation.  After the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, the British garrison largely remained in Boston, and evacuated entirely in March 1776.  I'll hazard a wild guess that, for the rest of the war, no British soldier set foot in what's now Massachusetts.