These historic firsts took place in Boston. This list is used by the Aquarium courtesy of Boston Duck Tours.

1634 Boston Common was the first public park in America and is now the oldest public park in the country.
1635 Boston Latin School was the nation’s first public school.
1639 American’s first post office was opened.
1652 America’s first coins, the Pine Tree Shillings, were minted in Boston by John Hull.
1690 The first newspaper in America, Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick, was published.
1716 America’s first lighthouse, Boston Light, was built.
1744 The first set of bells was brought to North America to be installed in the Old North Church.
1765 The first chocolate factory was built.
1790 The first independence monument in America was erected on the summit of Beacon Hill.
1832 The first public school system was established by Horace Mann.
1837 Land was sent aside for the Public Garden, now the oldest in the United States.
1846 The first use of ether during surgery was at Massachusetts General Hospital.
1851 The first YMCA in America was established in Boston.
1863 The first all black regiment organized in the North, the Massachusetts 54th, went to war.
1865 Sylvester Roper built the first automobile in America. It had a steam engine.
1875 Alexander Graham Bell invented the speaking telephone.
1877 America’s first telephone exchange was set up. It served Boston and Cambridge.
1892 The Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy.
1897 America’s first streetcar subway line was opened on Tremont Street.
1897 America’s oldest marathon, the Boston Marathon, was run with only 16 contestants.
1903 The first World Series was played. Boston won.
1924 The first American hockey team to enter the National Hockey League was the Boston Bruins.
1928 The first computer, “the differential analyzer,” was developed at MIT.
1941 The first and now the largest public sailing program in America, Community Boating, began.
1950 The first black basketball player, Chuck Cooper, was drafted into the NBA by the Boston Celtics.
1957 The first black professional hockey player in the NHL was Willie O’Ree of the Boston Bruins.
1966 The first black head coach in professional sports was Bill Russell with the Boston Celtics.