- Massachusetts Fast Facts -

Massachusetts is located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Maine, Rbode Island and Connecticut on the south, Vermont and New Hampshire on the north and New York on the west.

Massachusetts is one of the thirteen original colonies and was settled by the English early on when, in 1620, the Pilgrams arrived on the Mayflower and founded Plymouth Colony and in 1630 the Massachusetts Bay Colony established settlements at Boston and Salem. At that time the area administered by the Massachusetts Bay Colony also included portions of Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire.

Massachusetts was admitted to the Union, as the 6th state, on February 6th, 1788. It's current fourteen counties comprise a total of 10,565 square miles, making it the 6th smallest state by land area. It is currently the 3rd most densely populated, coming in behind Rhode Island and New Jersey. The state capital, and largest city, is Boston.

Harvard Univeristy at Cambridge (then Newtowne) was founded in 1636 as Harvard College and holds the honor of being the oldest instution of higher education in the United States. Eight Presidents of the United States have been educated here while the majority of Supreme Court Justices have been educated at Harvard Law School.

Massachusetts is well known for many things; the Boston Tea Party, Salem witch trials, &c., but did you know the chocolate chip cookies were first created in Whitman by mistake by Ruth Wakefield? Despite popular belief, Isaac Merritt Singer did not invent the sewing machine. That honor goes to Elias Howe, b. 1819 in Spencer. Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, was born at Westborough in 1765. Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph and Morse Code, was born in Charlestown in 1791.

Massachusetts is also the birth place of four Presidents of the United States, all born in Norfolk county; John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John F. Kennedy, and George H. W. Bush.

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