1. In what seems like an unfair law to hipsters, goatees are illegal unless you first pay a special license fee for the privilege of wearing one in public.
2. Bullets may not be used as currency. (Even if you etch George Washington’s face in the side of one.)
3. Dueling is so frowned on in The Bay State that It’s even illegal to do so with water pistols.
4. And the city of Marlboro takes it even one step further, it’s illegal to buy, sell or possess a squirt gun at all. Childhood = ruined.
5. More (or maybe less sensibly) In North Andover an ordinance prohibits the use of space guns.
6. Also on a totally unrelated note, no gorilla is allowed in the back seat of any car. Which is just good advice.
7. Also good life advice, leave the tomatoes in the fridge when making clam chowder, because It’s illegal to make it with them in Massachusetts.
8. And now for a sexy time fact: The birth control pill was invented at Clark University in Worcester. Bow-chika-wow-wow.
9. There’s this donut place, you may have heard of it… its call Dunkin Donuts. Umm, yeah that started here, in Quincy, Mass.
10. In Boston it is illegal to play the fiddle.
11. And speaking of noise pollution snoring is prohibited unless all bedroom windows are closed and securely locked.
12. Hmm, maybe that’s why according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country with 2.2 divorces per 1000 people.
13. Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith in Springfield, Mass.
14. Volleyball was invented in 1895 by William Morgan in Holyoke, Mass.
15. Fiddles may be out, but you can fire up the accordion because Massachusetts has a state polka, it’s “Say Hello To Someone From Massachusetts.”
16. The Children's Museum in Boston displays a giant milk bottle on the museum's wharf. If it were real it would hold 50,000 gallons of milk and 8,620 gallons of cream.
17. The Webster Lake’s real name is Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, the longest geographic name (and hardest spelling bee word) in the U.S., and the longest lake name in the world.
18. The Boston Terrier is the official state dog. Squee!
19. The Worcester radio station WORC made history when it was the first to play the Beatles.
20. Whirlwind I, the world’s first computer that operated in real-time, was invented at MIT.
21. I’m not saying folks in Boston are food elitists but… Only 34 of Boston's 840 restaurants serve fast food. Just sayin’.
22. The famous "Citgo" sign in Kenmore Square contains five miles of neon tubing. Dang.
23. The Fig Newton was named after Newton, Mass. Yum.
24. There is a house in Rockport built entirely of newspaper. And no it wasn’t just a hoarder’s creation.
25. I’m not saying that Massachusetts baseball makes all other baseball look sad but… The first Major League Baseball “perfect game” was pitched By J. Lee Richmond in Worcester on June 12, 1880. OK I lied, it is the best. Need more proof...
26. W.A. “Candy” Cummings of Athol, Mass pitched the first curve ball in 1867 when playing for the Brooklyn Stars. A plaque at the Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown credits Cummings with turning the baseball into a science, transforming the sport. ‘Nuff said.
27. White chocolate was developed and first sold by Hebert’s Candies in Shrewsbury in the early 1950s. God bless you Herbert and your white chocolate inventing ways, God bless you.
28. Speaking of scrumptious: The official state dessert of Massachusetts is the Boston cream pie.
29. The first subway system in the U.S. was actually in Boston, so there, N.Y.C.
30. The ubiquitous plastic pink flamingos that decorate so many American lawns were first manufactured by Union Products in Leominster.
31. Esther Howland of Worcester was the first person to mass-produce valentines in the U.S.
32. The African Meeting House opened in Boston in 1806. It is the first church in America to be built by free Africans.
33. The first American lighthouse was built in the Boston Harbor in 1716.
34. Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone, first demonstrated it in Boston in 1876.
35. The first public beach, Revere Beach, is also located in Massachusetts.
36. About 250,000 college students live in Boston.
37. If you don't include college students, only about 600,000 people reside in Boston.
38. At 90 feet below the surface, the Ted Williams Tunnel is the deepest in North America.
39. The 60 story tall John Hancock Tower in Boston boasts 13 acres of glass.
40. The first National Women’s Rights Convention was held in 1850 in Worcester.
41. 552 original documents pertaining to the Salem witch trials of 1692 have been preserved and are still stored by the Peabody Essex Museum.
42. The American industrial revolution began in Lowell. Lowell was America's first planned industrial city.
43. Harvard was the first college established in North America.
44. From 1659 to 1681, it was against the law to celebrate Christmas in Boston because the pilgrims thought it was morally harmful.
45. Because Harvard's so big there is no mailing address that will work for every office at the University.
46. Dr. William Thomas Green Morton of Charlton, Mass. was the first to use ether as an anesthetic in 1846. He later demonstrated its use at Mass General Hospital in Boston in an amphitheater known today as the “Ether Dome”.
47. The Pilgrim National Wax Museum in Plymouth is the only wax museum devoted entirely to the Pilgrim's story.
48. The Boston University Bridge on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.
49. John Adams and John Quincy Adams are buried in the crypt at the United First Parish Church in Quincy.
50. The first American Nobel Prize Winner was Albert A. Michelson of Worcester, Mass. Michelson was chairman of Clark University’s Physics Department whose prize-winning work concerned the measurement of light.
What’s your favorite fun fact about Massachusetts? Tell us in the comments below!
