# Timeline of Cambridge, Massachusetts

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This is a timeline of the history of the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.

## 17th century

* 1630 - English settlers arrive. Site selected by John Winthrop the Younger.
* 1632 - First Parish meeting house built.
* 1636 - The "New College" founded.
* 1636 - Newe Towne was established as a town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony on September 8.
* 1638
** Newe Towne renamed "Cambridge."
** John Harvard, a Puritan minister, bequeaths his library and half his monetary estate to the college.
* 1639
** New College renamed Harvard College for benefactor John Harvard.
** First printing press in Cambridge.
* 1640 - Bay Psalm Book printed.
* 1642 - Harvard holds its first commencement.
* 1662 - Great Bridge built.
* 1663 - Algonquin-language Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God published.
* 1682 - Cooper-Frost-Austin House built (date approximate).
* 1685 - Hooper-Lee-Nichols House built.
* 1688 - Cambridge Village, later renamed Newton, separated from Cambridge.

## 18th century

* 1713 - Town of Lexington separated from Cambridge.
* 1720 - Harvard's Massachusetts Hall built.
* 1727 - William Brattle House built.
* 1759
** Christ Church congregation founded.
** Vassall House built.
* 1760 - Apthorp House built.
* 1767 - Elmwood (residence) built.
* 1775
** April 18: William Dawes traverses the town en route to sounding warnings on eve of Battles of Lexington and Concord.
** April 19: Skirmishes between retreating British troops and American patriots at Watson's Corner and elsewhere in North Cambridge.
** May 12: The New-England Chronicle in publication.
** July 3: George Washington takes command of American army.
* 1780 - May 19: New England's Dark Day.
* 1782 - Harvard Medical School founded.
* 1793 - West Boston Bridge built.
* 1796 - Fresh Pond Hotel built.

## 19th century
### 1800s–1840s

* 1800 - Printer William Hilliard in business.
* 1805 - Harvard Botanic Garden founded.
* 1807
** Cambridge and Concord Turnpike opens.
** Little Cambridge separates from Cambridge and is renamed Brighton.
** West Cambridge, later renamed Arlington, separated from Cambridge.
* 1809
** Craigie's Bridge opens.
** Birth of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., physician, poet and polymath.
* 1810 - Amicable Fire Society founded.
* 1814 - Cambridge Humane Society and Female Humane Society founded.
* 1815 - Harvard's University Hall built.
* 1816 - Middlesex County Courthouse (Massachusetts) built.
* 1817 - Harvard Law School founded.
* 1818 - New England Glass Company established.
* 1824 - East Cambridge Charitable Society formed.
* 1826 - Frederic Tudor and Nathaniel Wyeth begin harvesting ice at Fresh Pond.
* 1827 - First Evangelical Congregational church and Second Baptist Church established.
* 1830 - Population: 6,072.
* 1831
** Mount Auburn Cemetery founded.
** Cambridge Market Hotel (later Porter's Hotel) built.
* 1832 - Cambridge Fire Department and Cambridge Book Club established.
* 1833
** Hunt & Co's Circulating Library in business.
** First Parish meeting house built, corner Church St. and Mass. Ave.
* 1835 - West Cambridge Social Library active.
* 1837
** August 31: Emerson gives "American Scholar" speech.
** East Cambridge Anti-Slavery Society formed.
** Henry Wadsworth Longfellow moves to Craigie House.
* 1839
** Hopkins Classical School established.
** Harvard College Observatory founded.
* 1840
** Cambridge Magnolia begins publication.
** St. John's Mutual Relief Society organized.
** Population: 8,409.
* 1841 - Cambridge Lyceum organized.
* 1846
** Cambridge Chronicle begins publication.
** Stickney-Shepard House built.
** Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad begins operating.
** Alvan Clark & Sons telescope maker in business.
** City chartered.
** James D. Green becomes mayor.
** Population: 12,500.
* 1847 - Great Refractor telescope installed.
* 1848 - Franklin Library Association founded.
* 1849 - Cambridge Athenaeum incorporated.

### 1850s–1890s

* 1850 - Howard Benevolent Society organized.
* 1852
** Cambridge Water Works Corporation chartered.
** Riverside Press established.
* 1854 - Cambridge Cemetery consecrated.
* 1856 - Population: 20,473.
* 1857
** Cambridge Circulating Library in business.
** Walden Street Cattle Pass built.
* 1858 - Harvard Glee Club founded.
* 1859 - Museum of Comparative Zoology founded.
* 1860 - Cambridge Horticultural Society organized.
* 1861 - Veterans' Services established.
* 1862 - Sanitary Society active (approximate date).
* 1865 - Old Cambridge Mutual Relief Society organized.
* 1866
** Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and New Church Theological School founded.
** Cambridge Press newspaper begins publication.
* 1867 - Episcopal Theological School founded.
* 1868 - Cambridge Mechanics Literary Association organized.
* 1869
** Old Cambridge Baptist Church built on Harvard Street.
** North Cambridge Choral Society organized.
* 1870 - Soldiers' Monument dedicated on Cambridge Common
* 1871
** Cambridge Social Union founded.
** Alpha Glee Club organized.
* 1872 - Cambridge Choral Society formed.
* 1873
** The Harvard Crimson newspaper begins publication.
** Basket Club formed.
* 1875
** Church of the Ascension organized.
** Kennedy Steam Bakery built.
** Population: 47,838.
* 1876 - Harvard Lampoon begins publication.
* 1877 - Harvard's Memorial Hall built.
* 1878
** The Cambridge Tribune newspaper begins publication.
** Harvard's Sever Hall built.
* 1879 - Cambridge Public Library established.
* 1880 - Population: 52,669.
* 1881 - Cambridge Club active.
* 1882
** Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women incorporated.
** Harvard Cooperative founded.
* 1883
** Cambridge YMCA opens.
** Browne & Nichols School founded.
* 1884 - Odd Fellows Hall built.
* 1886 - Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge English High School (Broadway & Fayette St.), Cambridge Latin School (Lee St.), and Cambridge School for Girls established.
* 1887 - Cambridgeport Cycle Club organized.
* 1889
** City Hall, Brattle Hall, and William James' house built.
** Buckingham School founded.
** Cambridge Plant Club established.
* 1890 - Population: 70,028.
* 1891 - Harvard Bridge built.
* 1892 - Old Cambridge Photographic Club formed.
* 1893 - Road built around Fresh Pond.
* 1894
** Radcliffe College chartered.
** Cambridge Walking Club founded.
* 1895
** Lechmere Canal built.
** Keezer's clothier in business.
** W. E. B. Du Bois earns PhD from Harvard University.
* 1896 - Cambridge Political Equality Association established.
* 1897 - Cambridge Skating Club founded.
* 1900 - Population: 91,886.

## 20th century
### 1900s–1940s

* 1901 - Swedenborg Chapel built.
* 1903
** Cambridge Sentinel newspaper begins publication.
** Busch–Reisinger Museum opens.
* 1904 - Harvard's Phillips Brooks House Association established.
* 1905 - Cambridge Historical Society founded.
* 1906 - Longfellow Bridge opens.
* 1908
** Andover Theological Seminary relocates to city.
** Harvard's Business School established.
* 1909 - Lesley School founded.
* 1910
** Harvard Extension School founded.
** Harvard Square Business Association founded.
** Population: 104,839.
* 1911 - Cambridge Housing Association formed.
* 1912 - The Kendall/MIT, Central, and Harvard MBTA stations open.
* 1913
** Harvard University Press and Harvard Legal Aid Bureau established.
** Cohen harness maker in business.
* 1914 - Cambridge Planning Board established.
* 1915
** Anderson Memorial Bridge and Harvard's Widener Library built.
** Cooperative Open Air School founded.
* 1916
** Massachusetts Institute of Technology moves to Cambridge
** Tasty Sandwich Shop in business, a diner restaurant in Cambridge, open from 1916 to 1997 at 6 John F. Kennedy Street. Behind the counter is chef Don Valcovic,
* 1917
** Wursthaus restaurant in business.
** Arthur D. Little Inc., Building constructed.
* 1923 - Washington Elm dies on Cambridge Common.
* 1924 - The Church of St. Paul (Harvard Square) built.
* 1926 - Harvard Square Theater opens.
* 1927
** John W. Weeks Bridge built.
** Necco factory opens on Massachusetts Avenue.
** Grolier Poetry Bookshop and Mac-Gray Corp. in business.
* 1928 - Boston University Bridge built.
* 1929 - Cambridge Community Center founded.
* 1930
** First Church of Christ, Scientist built.
** Longy School of Music moves to Cambridge.
** Russian bells installed in Harvard's Lowell House.
* 1932
** Harvard Book Store and MIT's Technology Press and School of Architecture established.
** Harvard's Memorial Church built.
* 1936 - Harvard's Graduate School of Public Administration and Graduate School of Design established.
* 1938
** Hayes-Bickford Cafeteria in business (approximate date).
** Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism established.
* 1940
** National Research Corporation in business.
** Cambridge citizens vote to adopt proportional representation for elections of its city council and school committee, with first use in 1941.
* 1941
** Magazine of Cambridge begins publication.
** Harvard's Houghton Library built.
* 1942 - John B. Atkinson becomes city manager.
* 1945 - Cambridge Civic Unity Committee established.
* 1945 - Irving House established.
* 1946 - WMIT begins broadcasting.
* 1947
** September 9: Computer bug found at the Harvard Computation Lab.
** Demise of the Harvard Botanic Garden.
** Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier in business.

### 1950s–1970s

* 1950
** Cardullo's Gourmet Shop in business.
** Joseph DeGuglielmo becomes mayor.
* 1951
** Fresh Pond Drive-In opens.
** WHRB incorporated.
* 1952
** John J. Curry becomes city manager.
** MIT School of Industrial Management and MIT Center for International Studies established.
* 1953
** Brattle Theatre begins screening movies.
** Harvard Model United Nations conference begins.
* 1954 - Wang Laboratories, Cheapo Records, and Hong Kong restaurant in business.
* 1955
** Out of Town News, Casablanca bar, Elsie's eatery and Ferranti-Dege camera store in business.
** Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory relocated to Cambridge.
* 1957
** Cambridge Buddhist Association established.
** Pangloss Bookstore in business.
* 1958
** Club 47 (music venue) opens.
** Joyce Chen restaurant and Chez Jean restaurant in business.
** Lisp (programming language) invented at MIT.
** Smoot measurement established.
* 1959
** Café Pamplona in business.
** Harvard/MIT Center for Urban Studies and MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory established.
* 1960
** Bartley's restaurant in business.
** Harvard's Let's Go travel guides begin publication.
** Out of Town News opens in Harvard Square and goes to last sixty years selling newspapers from all over the world.
* 1961
** Julia Child moves to Cambridge.
** October 14: Fire destroys the original WGBH television and radio studios, at MIT.
* 1962
** Temple Beth Shalom founded.
** Fresh Pond Shopping Center built.
** Cambridge Electron Accelerator in operation.
** Harvard's Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts built.
** Cambridge Seven Associates in business.
** Cambridge Sports Union founded.
* 1963 - Cambridge Historical Commission established.
* 1964 - NASA Electronics Research Center established.
* 1965 - Head of the Charles Regatta established.
* 1966 - Cambridge School Volunteers founded.
* 1967
** Joseph DeGuglielmo becomes city manager.
** Cambridge Forum, MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies established.
* 1968
** Cambridge Housing Convention active.
** Shrdlu computer program developed at MIT.
* 1969
** Murder of Jane Britton
** Student antiwar protest.
** Union of Concerned Scientists, and Harvard's Institute for African and African-American Research founded.
** Passim and Plough and Stars in business.
* 1970
** The Middle East restaurant opens.
** Rent control and Massachusetts Department of Transportation Volpe Center established.
** Alfred Vellucci becomes mayor.
* 1971
** Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services established.
** Grendel's Den pub in business.
** Revels performance series begins.
* 1972
** Broadway Bicycle School in business.
** Longfellow National Historic Site and Cambridge Women's Center established.
** Harvard's Gund Hall built.
** October: Protest in East Cambridge against police conduct.
* 1973
** Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics established.
** Draper Laboratory active.
** T.T. the Bear's Place and Hacker's Haven car repair shop in business.
* 1974
** Cambridge Food Co-op, city Arts Council, city Community Development Department, and Buckingham Browne & Nichols school established.
** James Sullivan becomes city manager.
** Cambridge Naturals in business.
* 1975 - Coffee Connection in business.
* 1977
** Cambridge Rindge and Latin School formed.
** River Festival begins.
** Changsho restaurant in business.
* 1978
** National Bureau of Economic Research active.
** Formaggio Kitchen in business.
* 1979 - Harvard's Film Archive opens.

### 1980s–1990s

* 1980
** American Repertory Theater and MIT's PiKa housing cooperative established.
** MIT Museum active.
* 1981
** American Academy of Arts and Sciences moves to Cambridge.
** Cambridge College active.
** Robert W. Healy becomes city manager.
** Cambridge Center complex construction begins.
* 1982
** Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research founded.
** Biogen, Toscanini's, and Upstairs at the Pudding restaurant in business.
** Sister city relationships established with Coimbra, Portugal, and Gaeta, Italy.
* 1983
** Harvard Square Homeless Shelter and Albert Einstein Institution established.
** Monitor Group and Cambridge Energy Research Associates headquartered in Cambridge.
** Sister city relationships established with Tsukuba Science City, Ibaraki, Japan; and Dublin, Ireland.
** Pegasystems Inc. and Forrester Research in business.
** Premiere of Marsha Norman's play Night, Mother.
* 1984
** MIT Media Lab, Institute for Resource and Security Studies, and city Police Review & Advisory Board established.
** Sister city relationship established with Ischia, Italy.
** Porter MBTA Red Line station opens.
** Conflict Management Group headquartered in city.
** Thinking Machines Corporation and Charles Hotel in business.
* 1985
** Alewife (MBTA station) opens.
** Harvard's Arthur M. Sackler Museum built.
** Dante Alighieri Society building inaugurated.
** Memorial Drive partially pedestrianized along Riverbend Park.
* 1986
** Garment District (clothing retailer) in business.
** Thinking Machines' Connection Machine invented.
** MIT flea market begins.
* 1987
** Sister city relationships established with Yerevan, Armenia; San José Las Flores, Chalatenango, El Salvador; and Catania, Italy.
** Cambridge becomes a Peace Messenger City.
** Catch a Rising Star in business.
** Joseph P. Kennedy II becomes U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 8th congressional district.
* 1988 - Cambridge Community Television and Cambridge Eviction Free Zone established.
* 1989
** Cambridge Sane/Freeze active.
** Sister city relationship established with Kraków, Poland.
* 1990
** CambridgeSide Galleria built.
** Sapient Corporation in business.
* 1991
** City Bicycle Committee and Ig Nobel Prize established.
** MÄK Technologies in business.
* 1992
** Boston Dynamics (robotics firm) and Dewey, Cheetham & Howe in business.
** Kenneth Reeves becomes mayor.
** Sister city relationship established with Florence, Italy.
* 1993
** City master plan published.
** MIT's The Tech newspaper web edition begins publication.
** Timothy J. Toomey, Jr. becomes state representative for 29th Middlesex district.
* 1994
** Islamic Society of Boston mosque opens.
** Rialto restaurant in business.
* 1995
** Kendall Square Cinema opens.
** Porter Square Neighbors Association formed.
** Cybersmith and Phoenix Landing (music venue) in business.
* 1996
** Cambridge Health Alliance and On The Rise nonprofit established.
** City Dance Party begins.
** Sheila Russell becomes mayor.
* 1997
** City website online.
** Cambridge Civic Journal begins publication.
** Sister city relationship established with Galway, Ireland.
** French-American International School active.
* 1998
** Akamai Technologies in business.
** MIT's Center for Reflective Community Practice active.
** Francis Duehay becomes mayor.
** Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society founded.
* 1999
** Cambridge Innovation Center in business.
** Mike Capuano becomes U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 8th congressional district.

## 21st century

* 2000
** Zipcar in business.
** Anthony Galluccio becomes mayor.
** MIT's Kismet (robot) introduced.
* 2001
** New water treatment plant at Fresh Pond opens.
* 2002 - Michael A. Sullivan becomes mayor.
* 2003
** Novartis research division headquartered in city.
** Longwood Players (theatre group) active.
** MIT's Poverty Action Lab and Harvard's Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation founded.
** Sister city relationship established with Santo Domingo Oeste, Dominican Republic.
* 2004
** Broad Institute, Community Charter School of Cambridge, and ActBlue (nonprofit) established.
** MIT's Stata Center built.
** Sister city relationship established with Southwark, London, England.
** February 4: Facebook launched at Harvard College.
* 2005
** Sister city relationships established with Cienfuegos, Cuba; Yuseong, Daejeon, Korea; and Haidian, Beijing, China.
** Cambridge Day begins publication.
** Patricia D. Jehlen becomes state senator for 2nd Middlesex district.
* 2006
** Green Decade Cambridge incorporated.
** Kenneth Reeves becomes mayor again.
** Harvard's Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston established.
** HubSpot in business.
* 2007
** Microsoft New England Research & Development Center opens.
** Cambridge Science Festival begins.
** MIT's Center for Future Civic Media established.
** Unitarian Universalist Service Committee headquartered in Cambridge.
** Anthony Petruccelli becomes state senator for 1st Suffolk and Middlesex district.
* 2008
** Alliance of Cambridge Tenants, and Google Inc. branch established.
** ImprovBoston moves to Cambridge.
** Harvard Square Library incorporated.
** E. Denise Simmons becomes mayor.
** ROFLCon meme convention begins.
** Central Square Theater built.
** Jon Hecht elected state representative for 29th Middlesex district.
* 2009
** July: Henry Louis Gates arrest controversy
** West Cambridge Youth and Community Center opens.
** Kendall Square Association established.
** Cambridge Open Studios active.
** Trader Joe's grocery in business at Fresh Pond.
* 2010
** David Maher becomes mayor.
** Population: 105,162; metro 4,552,402.
** Sal DiDomenico becomes state senator for Middlesex, Suffolk and Essex district.
* 2011
** January 6: Aaron Swartz arrested.
** Area Four restaurant, Veggie Galaxy restaurant and Danger!awesome in business.
* 2012
** MIT/Harvard edX launched.
** Henrietta Davis becomes mayor.
** Hack/reduce nonprofit founded.
** Sinclair and Amazon office in business.
* 2013
** Richard Rossi becomes city manager.
** Cambridge Open Data Ordinance drafted.
** Cambridge Happenings in publication.
** April 18–19: MIT officer killed; manhunt for Boston Marathon bombing suspects takes place.
** November: Municipal election.
** December: Katherine Clark becomes U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 5th congressional district.
** Marjorie Decker becomes state representative for 25th Middlesex district, Dave Rogers becomes state representative for 24th Middlesex district, and Jay Livingstone becomes state representative for 8th Suffolk district.
* 2014
** City open data portal launched.
** H Mart grocery and Alden & Harlow restaurant in business.
** David Maher becomes mayor again.
* 2015
** January 2015 North American blizzard.
** September 6: Lawrence Lessig presidential campaign, 2016 headquartered in city.
** December 3: Fire.