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This Day in Boston History

March 10th, 1876

Come Here Mr. Watson!

Elisha Gray

On this day, Alexander Graham Bell conducted the first successful experiment with the telephone. This breakthrough, during which he uttered his famous directive to his assistant, "Come here Mr. Watson, I want you." That same day, an ebullient Bell wrote his father of his "great success" and speculated that "the day is coming when telegraph [phone] wires will be laid on to houses just like water and gas -- and friends converse with each other without leaving home."

In 1915 transcontinental telephone lines were completed. Invited to play a role in the formal dedication of the line in New York, Bell used a duplicate of his 1876 telephone to speak to his former assistant, Thomas Watson, in San Francisco. Echoing his famous words of Bell again commanded, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you." Watson replied that it would take him a week to arrive.


 


England's Prime Minister never expected this tea tax to cause an outcry, let alone revolution. In 1767, England reduced its property taxes at home. To balance the national budget they needed to find a mechanism for the American colonies to pay for the expense of stationing officials in them. The officials would generate their own revenue by collecting taxes on all imported goods, and once paid affixing stamps on them. This Stamp Tax generated more in the way of protests and smuggling than added revenue.

Religion. Politics. Rebellion. Boston’s pedigree was forged back in England in the midst of religious dissension, where Puritans and Pilgrims sought religious reform, and Cavaliers and Roundheads vied for political power. The question isn't where did Boston get its name – but how.


Requiem for a Short Visit

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Itinerary for a Short Visit.


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