THE FIRST U TIMELINE - Sixth Edition; August 22, 1998

These notes simulate the timeline horizontal tracks by coloring & indenting each new track.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Year World Worc Linc. First Unitarian Church

& USA Sqr. Second Parish

1755 Future President John Adams taught at Lincoln Square Latin Grammar School until 1758.

Second jail erected, near site of the first.

French and Indian War.

1763 New meeting house for First Parish built on site of present City Hall, replacing the one built in 1719.

1765 On March 22, English Parliament passes Stamp Act taxing all public documents. Resisted with much hostility. Repealed in May 1776.

1767 Stephen Salisbury, youngest son of Boston merchant, sent to Worcester at age 21 to extend family business; leases building and starts hardware and general dry goods store store at Lincoln Square.

1768 In March, town meeting resolves not to buy British goods, especially tea; merchant Stephen Salisbury implements; competitor John Chandler does not.

Town divided between patriots and loyalists.

1770 John Murray arrives in Colonies and preaches Universalist thought.

In March, Boston Massacre: British troops fire into mob of unruly taunters.

1772 Stephen Salisbury, in partnership with brother Samuel in Boston, constructs mansion house at Lincoln Square which includes much-enlarged store.

1773 In March, Patriots (Whigs) organize American Political Party; members draft statement of concerns at request of town meeting. Loyalists object.

In March, English Parliament passes Tea Act, allowing East India Company to sell surplus tea in colonies; effect would be to ruin local merchants.

In December, Boston Tea Party dumps large quantity of East India Company tea.

1774 In March, town meeting calls for report on Tea Act from Timothy Bigelow and others. Report urges no use of tea or purchase of British goods. In April, local American Political Society persuades jury not to serve under Judge Peter Oliver because he is paid by the King. In June, loyalists present warrant denouncing "friends of liberty." Describes them as envious of their betters, evil-minded, ill disposed and deluded. Warrant, signed by 52 voters of total 250, not acted on. Town clerk Clark Chandler writes warrant into record, which is published in Massachusetts Gazette in July. In August, Committee of Correspondence summons all "friends of liberty" from several other towns to meet on Common. Loyalists required to publicly recant and pass though gauntlet on Main Street while reading written apologies. Clerk blots the offending entry from record. Loyalists barricade themselves in Holden.

In September, First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia.

In December, all county Committees of Correspondence convene in Worcester, assume legislative powers and organize a military force. Town orders cannon. Timothy Bigelow, militia leader, made delegate to Provincial Congress, the name adopted for the emergency, temporary government created by the Whigs. General Court, the lower body of the Legislature) in Concord. As noted in Margaret Erskine's History, The Revolution has been accomplished in Worcester and the King's representatives rule no more.

1775 On April 16, Isaiah Thomas' press is smuggled to Worcester by Timothy Bigelow and General Joseph Warren.

On April 19, messenger arrives with news of battles at Lexington and Concord. Church bell rung. Cannon fired. 110 men march to Sudbury and then Cambridge. On May 3, Isaiah Thomas prints news of the battles. Loyalists are disarmed.

On June 17, Battle of Bunker Hill destroys much of British army and it is contained in Boston.

1776 In January, through Lincoln Square pass General Henry Knox and teams of oxen hauling Fort Ticonderoga cannon to Dorchester Heights to drive the British out of Boston.

On March 17, Evacuation Day - British troops leave Boston.

In May, town meeting votes to support independence if declared with unanimous vote to "pledge our lives and fortunes."

On July 14, Isaiah Thomas borrows copy of Declaration of Independence from messenger en route to Boston, provides first New England reading. Site, then the meeting house, now marked by medallion in sidewalk in front of City Hall. On July 17, Massachusetts Spy publishes Declaration, first in New England. On July 22, town gathers for celebration. Hoist flags of 13 colonies, ring bells, beat drums set bonfires, tear down arms of the King from courthouse and Stearns' tavern, drink numerous toasts to the new republic.

1776-1781 The war years; no fighting in Worcester but major support via most able-bodied men, blankets, clothing, money, horses and foodstuffs.

Timothy Bigelow serves for the duration, and afterwards at West Point.

1778 Isaiah Thomas establishes print shop on Court Hill, eventually employing 150 with seven presses, a paper mill and a bindery. Printed first folio Bible and first dictionary.

Rev. Thaddeus Maccarty preaches at hanging of Bathsheba Spooner, who had been convicted of being an accomplice to the murder of her husband. She was an aunt of Dr. John Green.

1780 Worcester population 2,000; U.S. 3,000,000.

1781 On November 7, town celebrates surrender of Cornwallis, 19 days after event.

1782 Town exhausted. Loyalist leaders gone. Money worthless. No employment. Taxation heavy on rich and poor via poll tax. Court fees enormous. Everyone in debt because of British exporters calling debt, causing merchants to call debts of former soldier/farmers who had no way to pay and were burdened by high taxes on land. Penalty is prison.

1783 Congress ratifies peace treaty with England in August; signed in Paris on September 3. U.S. extends North to Canada and West to Mississippi. See 1787 map.

Rev. Aaron Bancroft invited to preach at First Parish as possible replacement for Rev. Maccarty.

Levi Lincoln I defends slave Quacko Walker on premise that Massachusetts Constitution's "all men free and equal" outlaws slavery. Obtains favorable verdict from Supreme Judicial Court. Later serves in Congress as Representative and then Senator; Attorney General under President Jefferson.

First regular stage from Worcester to Boston.

1784 First Unitarian church in Boston established.

United States Arms hotel built opposite courthouse; then Exchange Hotel hence Exchange Street.

In July, Rev Maccarty of First Parish dies.

1785 Disagreement re calling of Rev. Aaron Bancroft to First Parish.

67 men and women agree to form Second Parish. Theology is Arminian rather than Unitarian, i.e. did not accept Calvinist view that destiny predetermined by God. Timothy Paine, Joseph Allen, Joseph Wheeler, Levi Lincoln and David Bigelow appointed a committee to ask Aaron Bancroft to be minister. See Kring p255 for signers of petition. Includes Timothy Bigelow and Rev. Thaddeus Maccarty's son, the first doctor in Fitchburg. Also four members of Stowell family, manufacturers of woolen goods including carpets for State House in Boston.

Reverend Aaron Bancroft settled at Second Parish; serves until 1839 (did he continue as senior minister beyond 1827 with Reverend Hill as assistant?).

Farmers revolt against oppressive economic conditions in a rebellion led by Daniael Shays. A confrontation occurred at Worcester Court House beteen Judge Artemas Ward of Shrewsbury, former general and first commander of revolutionary army, and local Shaysites. The rebellion was put down by February, 1787.

1787 Territorial growth map - A New Nation on Stage

Map of Worcester?

Map of Lincoln Square?

Act of incorporation of Second Parish; no longer required to pay taxes in support of First Parish.

1788 Third jail, built of stone, completed at Lincoln Square area; used until 1835.

1789 French Revolution begins; royalist overthrown in 1792; king and queen beheaded in 1793.

In October, President Washington, inaugurated in April, passes through Worcester with great fanfare; enjoys breakfast at the United States Arms hotel.

Timothy Bigelow, having founded town of Montpelier, VT, "with no material aid to his declining fortunes" returns to Worcester, broke and in ill health.

1790 Timothy Bigelow jailed for debt and after a few days is carried to nearby house where he died - "alone, forsaken and heartbroken." Isaiah Thomas' paper gives notice in only a single line.

Worcester population 2,000; U.S. 4,000,000.

1791 U.S. Congress frames the Bill of Rights, the first ten ammendments to the Constitution.

1792 First meetinghouse of Second Parish built on Back Street, now Summer. Until this time, the parish met in the Court House.

1793 On January 21, Isaiah Thomas founds Worcester Fire Society. The overt intent was to collectively prevent fires from destroying property; it became an elite social club.

1802 Third Court House, a brick edifice constructed on Court Hill.

1803 Territorial growth map; Expanding West of the Mississippi.

1807 Worcester-to-Boston turnpike opens.

1810 Worcester population 2,500 .

U.S. population 7,000,000.

1812 War of 1812 with Britain, provoked by impounding of U.S. sailors and confused communications. Ended by Treaty of Ghent in 1814; no major changes result.

Isaiah Thomas founds American Antiquarian Society. He selected Worcester to avoid dangers of invasion, bombardment from off-shore warships and big-city fire.

1819 William Ellery Channing's sermon, Unitarian Christianity, widely accepted as good statement of position.

1820 First Antiquarian Hall built at top of Summer Street.

1821 Territorial growth map - Coming of Age.

1822 Rev. Bancroft, at urging of parish, publishes four Sermons on the Doctrines of the Gospel. John Davis, Bancroft's son-in-law, sends to Thomas Jefferson.

1823 Dedication of Central Church.

1824 In January, John Adam receives letter from Thomas Jefferson at Monticello complimenting "the new Mr. Bancroft's Unitarian sermons."

Marquis de Lafayette comes to Worcester with large military escort; received by Hon. Levi Lincoln.

1825 Levi Lincoln, Jr. (1782-1868) elected governor of Massachusetts having served as state representative and senator. Later US congressman and Worcester's first mayor in 1848.

Erie Canal opens; completion at Buffalo signaled to Albany by prearranged, sequential firing of cannon at intervals along the way.

American Unitarian Association formed.

1826 President John Quincy Adams visits Worcester, stays three days with Governor Lincoln. Attends cattle show.

1827 Worcester has four churches.

Reverend Alonzo Hill called to assist Reverend Bancroft. Both serve until 1839, when Bancroft retires. Hill then serves as senior minister until 1971.

1828 Stephen Salisbury II makes improvements to the Court Mills at Lincoln Square, part of his inheritance. He leases space and power to manufacturers, thus beginning Worcester's dramatic growth in diversified manufacturing. Roughly on site of the police station.

Blackstone Canal opens, connecting Worcester to new markets; terminal close to Lincoln Square, between Central and Thomas Streets.

1829 Map of Worcester.

Map of Lincoln Square?

Second building for Second Parish is completed on Court Hill.

1830 Worcester population 4,000; U.S. 13,000,000.

Merrifield build factory building with space for rent; later adds power. By 1854, 50 businesses with 500 employees.

Baltimore and Ohio RR opened; first in the country.

1831 Elwood Adams Block; hardware store is Worcester's oldest business, established by Daniel Waldo, Sr. in 1782. Elwood Adams and a partner bought the business in 1881.

1833 Instigated by Governor Levi Lincoln and other like-minded Unitarians, Commonwealth's constitution amended to completely separate church and state.

1834 Ichabod Washburn (1798-1868) establishes wire factory on Grove Street, the foundation for Washburn and Moen Company, a major stimulus for Worcester's dramatic industrial growth.

Worcester County Manual Training School founded; name is changed to Worcester Academy and graduate Eli Thayer returns as principal after graduation from Brown in 1845.

1835 On July 2, first passenger train over the Boston-and-Worcester Railroad (via the "deep cut"; see Al Southwick's recent piece).

First Episcopal service in Worcester.

Worcester Fire Department is formed, upstaging Fire Society.

1837 Samuel Morse invents telegraph.

William Crompton patents fancy loom.

1838 Rural Cemetery consecrated.

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Divinity School Address advances transcendentalism - going beyond the experience of the sensed - and the concept of accepting religious ideas from non-Christian sources. Beginning of divisions with Unitarian movement.

1840 Worcester population 7,500.

U.S. population 17,000,000

Worcester County Horticultural Society formed; now at Tower Hill.

1841 Brothers Loring and Aury Coes patents adjustable wrench (the monkey wrench).

1842 Charles Dickens visits Worcester.

1843 College of the Holy Cross founded; first Catholic college in New England.

1844 A few members of Second Parish start process of forming Church of the Unity, seeking more complete freedom from specific doctrine.

Second Parish name begins shift to First Unitarian Church of Worcester; see 1849 map.

Telegraph line from Baltimore to Washington; first in U.S.

1845 First (south) section of the fourth and present Worcester County Courthouse completed; cost $100,000.

George Bancroft (1800-1891), son of Reverend Aaron Bancroft founds Naval Academy at Annapolis. He was an educator, historian, Secretary of the Navy, minister to Britain and Prussia, and delivered the oration at President Lincoln's funeral.

1846 Church of the Unity on Elm Street dedicated; Edward Everett Hale installed as minister; serves until 1856. Best known as author of The Man Without a Country.

1847 Providence-and-Worcester Railroad opens.

1848 Map of Worcester.

Worcester becomes a City; Levi Lincoln Jr elected first mayor in first City election.

Future president Abraham Lincoln speaks at City Hall.

Daniel Webster speaks at City Hall.

1849 Eli Thayer opens Oread Collegiate Institute, nation's first four year college for women with curriculum modeled after Brown University.

1850 Territorial growth map - Coast to Coast

World population 1 billion; U.S. 23,000,000

Worcester population 17,000

On October 23-24, Worcester hosts first national Woman's Rights Convention at Brimley Hall

(list Unitarian ladies involved)

1851 Present church on Court Hill dedicated; Joel Wilder, builder. Cost $25,000, raised mostly by sale of pews.

1853 Russell Hawes invents envelope-folding machine.

Hope Cemetery dedicated.

Second Antiquarian Hall built at Lincoln Square

1854 U.S. Marshall Asa Butman, enforcing Fugitive Slave Act declared illegal in Massachusetts, is driven out of town by "vigilant committee." George Hoar persuades mob not to attack the marshall.

1854 Elm Park established, the first municipal park in the U.S..

1855 P.T. (there's a sucker born every minute") Barnum, famous circus man, lectures in City Hall on "Money Making".

Joshua Stoddard invents steam calliope.

Henry David Thoreau lectures before the Lyceum on George III.

1857 Mechanics Hall dedicated; Elbridge Boyden, architect, designed buildings throughout Northeast

1858 Worcester Music Festival is founded.

1859 Dr. John Green III endows Worcester Free Public Library via gift of 7,000 books and $30,000.

Henry Thoreau lectures on John Brown at Washburn Hall

First college regatta on Lake Quinsigamond - Harvard, Yale, Brown

1861 Great snowstorm; five-to-twelve foot drifts.

Free Public Library opens on Elm Street.

Civil War begins; by end in 1865, 530,000 dead, more from disease than battle

Worcester sent 4,200 see First U list in dining hall. Worcester's Lt. Willie Grubb first officer killed.

On April 19, arble memorial to Timothy Bigelow, "hero of the French and Indian War and the Revolution", unveiled on the common.

1863 On November 19, President Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address at ceremonies dedicating part of the battlefield as a cemetery, calling for "a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth." (so get out and vote for the Clean Elections initiative in Massachusett and support the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in the US Congress) Edward Everett, noted orator, then former president of Harvard and U.S. Senator, and uncle of Edward Everett Hale, first minister of Church of the Unity was the principal speaker. He later wrote to Lincoln, "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.

Worcester population 30,000; U.S. 35,000,000

Stephen Salisbury II (1798-1884), very successful manager of inherited money and real estate, major industrial developer, city leader and benefactor, becomes a founder of WPI. For thirty years president of American Antiquarian Society; built Salisbury House in 1838. One of the wealthiest men in U.S. at the time.

1866 25th anniversary of Universalist Church; Rev. B.F. Bolles installed on October 11.

Clara Barton lectures on "Work and Incidents of Army Life"

1867 General Philip Henry Sheridan visits Worcester.

1869 Reverend Edward Henry Hall called; serves until 1882 when called to First Unitarian in Boston.

1870 Worcester population 41,000; U.S. 39,000,000.

Map of Worcester.

Washburn and Moen's North Works factory built on Grove Street.

1871 Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) lectures in Mechanics Hall on Artemus Ward.

1873 Dedication of Worcester Academy.

1874 Worcester Normal School is founded; now Worcester State College.

1875 U.S. 45,000,000

Worcester population 49,000

Worcester Society of Antiquity (now Worcester Historical Museum) holds first meeting; grocer Samuel E. Staples leads crusade.

1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone

Washburn and Moen Company acquires patents on barbed wire; Worcester fences the West.

1877 Territorial growth map - The Union Holds.

1878 First New England Fair held in Worcester.

Courthouse expanded.

1879 Thomas Edison invents light bulb.

1881 General William Tecumseh Sherman visits Worcester.

1884 On October 14, George Frisbie Hoar speech commemorates the 200th anniversary of the first settlement and spoke of the "immigration, within the last half-century, of our brethren of foreign birth, especially of the Irish race, which has enriched Worcester with its abundant tide." He goes on to castigate the British for "six hundred and fifty years of the most terrible form of tyranny."

Samuel Messer Jones opens Worcester's first lunch cart, beginnning an industry.

1885 Reverend Austin S. Garver called; serves until 1910.

Central Church built at corner of Institute & Salisbury; architect Stephen C. Earle

Norton Emery Wheel Company founded by purchase of fledgling grinding wheel business from Norton Pottery by John Jeppson I, Charles Allen, Walter Messier, Milton P. Higgins, George I. Alden, Fred Daniels and Horace Young.

1887 Nearly 100 members pledge $1,026.25 for American Unitarian Association

Becker College founded.

Clark University founded.

1888 Charles Morgan founds Morgan Construction Company.

Ernest Thayer's [First U?] Casey at the Bat appears in the San Francisco Examiner and sweeps the nation.

1889 National Guard Armory, 44 Salisbury Street, architectural firm Fuller and Delano, rehabilitated in 1993 to become the Massachusetts Military Museum and Archive.

1891 Charles H. Palmer patents lunch wagon.

Society of Antiquity (later Worcester Historical Museum, opens on Salisbury Street on land gifted by Stephen Salisbury III.

1892 South Unitarian Memorial Church established; Reverend George W. Kent installed.

Visting Nurse Association formed.

Gottleib Daimler invents automobile.

1895 First production of Shredded Wheat; later bought out by Nabisco.

Worcester has world's largest wire factory (Washburn and Moen) and nation's largest loom works (Crompton and Knowles) and envelope factories (United States Envelope). It will soon have world's largest leather belting manufacturer (Graton and Knight) and skate company (Winslow Skate) and nation's largest grinding firm (Norton Company. In 1895, a total of1,415 manufacturing companies employ 21,733 people and produce goods and services worth $41,000,000.

1896 Salisbury Factory Buildings erected at 25 Union Street, architect Elbridge Boyden. Now houses Maxwell Silverman's Restaurant.

1900 Worcester population 116,000.

U.S. 76,000,000.

Stephen Salisbury III (1835-1905) builds Bancroft Tower in honor of George Bancroft. A lawyer and student, city leader and benefactor, who inherited great wealth, he endowed institutions that have made the city a cultural center, including City Hospital, Clark University, Institute Park, WPI, Worcester Women's Club, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester Art Museum.

1902 Worcester Women's Club's Tuckerman Hall, Tuckerman at Salisbury, architect Josephine Wright Chapman, one of country's earliest women architects.

1904 Assumption College founded; relocated to Salisbury Street after tornado destroyed much of original campus on West Boylston Street, now site of Quinsigamond Community College.

1905 Horace Bigelow builds the first White City Amusement Park on shores of Lake Quinsigamond.

Green Hill park becomes a City park.

1906 On July 4, General Devens statue dedicated, commemorating Worcester County servicemen in the Civil War.

Sigmund Freud lectures at Clark University.

1910 Worcester Boys Trade School, 2 Grove Street, architects Frost, Briggs and Chamberlain. opens at Lincoln Square. Effort to found school led by Milton P. Higgins, Sr., teacher, industrialist and major promoter of trade school movement throughout the country. Now part of Worcester Vocational High School.

With gift of $200,000 from Stephen Salisbury III, third and present American Antiquarian Society building opened at 185 Salisbury Street, designed by Boston architectural firm Winslow, Bigelow and Wadsworth. A National Historic Landmark.

1911 Second Union Station opens.

1912 On maiden trip in April, "unsinkable" passenger ship Titanic strikes iceberg and sinks; 1,500 are lost.

Reverend Edwin M. Slocumbe called; serves until 1919; asked to resign because of anti-war preaching.

1914 Dr. T. Hovey Gage moderator (first moderator under new organization introduced by Rev. Slocumbe, with moderator chairing a governing board).

1916 Annual budget $8,000; pew rent income $5,600.

Charles P. Adams moderator.

1917 Waldo Lincoln moderator.

1918 U.S. enters World War I.

See calendar listing those in service.

Molly Yeaton joins First U.

1919 Reverend Maxwell Savage called; serves until 1946.

Church of the Unity and South Unitarian Church merge with First Unitarian Church.

1920 Women's right to vote provided by 19th amendment to the Constitution.

Klu Klux Klan revival meetings result in riots.

U.S. 106,000,000.

Worcester population 180,000.

See service and hymns for Alliance meetings.

Anna Brooks Carter appointed parish assistant and head of Sunday School; serves until 1946

Annual budget $18,000.

Frank C. Smith, Jr. moderator.

1921 Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are tried for murder in Dedham; Judge Thayer of Worcester presides; his house is bombed.

1922 Unity House addition, with hall and kitchen

Cassavant organ installed; 32 foot pipes

First U.S. graduate school of geography founded by Wallace W. Atwood, president of Clark University.

1924 Worcester has 100 churches, 600 principal industries employing 42,000, retail trade employing 25,000.

WBDH (We Do Business Honestly), Worcester's first radio station is launched by the C.T. Sherer Company. In 1925, purchased by the Worcester Telegram and Gazette and becomes WTAG radio. (Al Southwick column August 16, 1998)

Charles L. Morse, moderator.

1926 Robert Goddard [wife was First U; was he?] develops and launches first liquid fuel rocket.

1927 Francis H. Dewey II moderator..

1928-1929 See Miss Carter's reports

Worcester Boys Club, architects Frost, Chamberlain and Edwards. Now part of Vocational High School.

1929 Stock market crash; great depression begins.

John Woodman Higgins (1874-1961), owner of Worcester Pressed Steel, founds John Woodman Higgins Armory Museum; opened to public in 1931.

Salisbury Mansion moved up Highland Street to make space for Auditorium

1930 World population 2 billion; U.S. 123,000,000.

Transcontinental air travel available; 43 airlines in operation in US

Worcester Boy's Club completed; now Worcester Vocational High School

Annual budget 33,000.

Frank C. Smith, Jr. moderator..

1932 Franklin Roosevelt becomes President and develops the New Deal to counter the depression. Series of programs provide support and jobs (CCC, FERA, WPA, NRA, PWA), controls on banks via FDIC and fair employment via NLRB. But depression continues until WWII creates full employment.

Worcester Memorial Auditorium completed, architects Lucius Briggs and Frederic Hirons

See Soup Kitchen report by Mary Barnard Cross

Daniel Waldo Lincoln, moderator.

1933 See Miss Carter's report; 227 in Sunday School; "still too small."

Francis Perkins of Worcester is appointed Secretary of Labor by President Roosevelt - the first woman cabinet member.

1934 Francis H. Dewey II, moderator.

1935 Worcester War Memorial (rotunda and flag) completed.

1936 Spanish Civil War begins, with General Franco's rebels supported by Hitler and Mussolini; ends in 1939 with rebel takeover.

Frank C. Smith Jr. moderator.

1938 Hurricane topples steeple into sanctuary; see photos and fund-raising letter from Frank Smith, Mrs. F.H. Dewey, Mrs. Frank Dresser.

George F. Booth moderator.

1939 On September 1, Hitler invades Poland.

1940 Italy joins Germany. Europe is conquered and 350,000 Allied soldiers are evacuated at Dunkirk. Britain stands alone. Prime Minister Winston Churchill urges the British people to, "brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for 1000 years, men will say 'this was their finest hour.'" The outnumbered Royal Air Force holds off the Luftwaffe and receives Churchill's tribute, "Never have so many owed so much to so few."

1940 Sanctuary and steeple reconstruction completed

See Miss Carter's report.

1941 On January 6, President Roosevelt ask Congress to approve lend-lease program for military aid to Allies so that the U.S. can become "the great arsenal of democracy." He suggests four freedoms as the basis for WWII settlements: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. Later immortalized by Norman Rockwell paintings.

On December 7, Japan attacks and devastates Pearl Harbor. U.S. enters World War II

Aldus C. Higgins moderator.

1942 By November, German empire includes most of Europe and North Africa. Japan empire includes Indochina, Manchuria, parts of China and the Pacific islands from the Netherlands East Indies to parts of the Aleutians.

Whitney Valentine Company closes, ending a Worcester tradition.

Annual budget 32,000.

See Rev. Savage 9/11 letter re reopening service.

1942-3 [Insert comments re Worcester in wartime?]

Wartime program and comments.

Number of First U's in service?

1943 Esther Forbes publishes Johnny Tremaine.

1944 On D Day, June 6, Allied forces invade Europe.

Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology founded at Clark University.

1945 May 7 is VE Day - victory in Europe.

September 2 is VJ Day - victory in Japan.

Main frame computers.

Frank C. Smith moderator.

1946 Reverend Walter Donald Kring called; serves until 1955.

Rachel Harris Johnson (Mrs. J Herbert), leader of Worcester Girls Club, founds Girls Club. of America.

Anna Maria College founded in Paxton.

Worcester Airport Field is dedicated.

1948 Francis H. (Chuck) Dewey III moderator.

See sample order of service for 50 years ago.

On June 9, WBZ-TV goes live as New England's first television station.

1947 President Truman launches Marshall plan which provides $13 billion in aid to European recovery.

1948 On June 24, Stalin blocks access to jointly-occupied Berlin. President Truman creates Berlin airlift to maintain equilibrium. 270,000 flights provide 2.3 million tons of food and fuel. Stalin lifts siege in 1949.

(Boston Globe editorial 7/1/98, reporting Berliners celebration of 50th anniversary of the rescue)

1949 Everett M. Merrill, successful businessman, becomes first Plan E city manager of Worcester.

See report of Church fair - lots of names.

1950 Annual budget 42,000.

John S. Tomajan, moderator.

Worcester population peaks at 220,000.

1951 Commercial television now coast to coast. 6,000,000 sets.

1952 William R. Moore moderator.

1953 At 5:00pm on June 9, Class 5 tornado with winds to 355 mph cuts straight swath through Petersham-Barre-Rutland-Holden-Worcester-Shrewsbury-Westboro-Southboro; 94 deaths, 60 in Worcester.

Lincoln Square redesigned; tracks put underground.

Major addition to Worcester County Courthouse completed.

1955 Salisbury Mansion Associates formed to preserve and showcase the building.

National Geographic devotes feature article to Worcester as an industrial success story.

1956 Korean War.

U.S. 165,000,000

Reverend Wallace W. Robbins called; serves until 1976.

1955 Horace F. Gooch moderator.

1957 On October 4, Russia successfully launches Sputnik, first satellite. Dramatic reaction in U.S. re space program and science education.

1958 First commercial jet airliners in service.

Robert G. Hess moderator.

1960 Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, founded by Hudson Hoagland, develops the birth-control pill.

Digital Equipment Company invents minicomputer (predecessor of PC).

Television pervasive - 60,000,000 sets. First debate - Kennedy vs. Nixon.

1961 Berlin Wall constructed to prevent emigration of East Germans; in "Ich Bin Ein Berliner" speech, President Kennedy reminds the world that "Our country is far from perfect, but we have never had to fence our people in."

In South, non-violent segregation protests by both black and white "freedom riders" culminate in Birmingham, Alabama beatings; television coverage raises national conscience and prompts Presidents Kennedy and then Johnson to act.

American Universalist Association merges with Universalist Church of American to form Unitarian Universalist Association. Wallace Robbins becomes first president of Central Massachusetts District.

Ralph U. Cross moderator.

1962 On February 20, John Glenn orbits the earth three times.

Hannah Kalajian founds Near East Food Products, packaging her popular rice pilaf.

1963 On August 28, 200,000 join Freedom March in Washington; Martin Luther King delivers "I Have a Dream" speech.

On November 22, President John F. Kennedy is assassinated.

Quinsigamond Community College founded.

Worcester Consortium for Higher Education founded; now Colleges of Worcester Consortium, recently relocated to Denholm Building on Main Street.

Harvey Bell designs the Smiley Face.

Robert S. Bowditch moderator.

1964 On November 29, new Aeolian-Skinner organ dedicated.

Civil Rights Act, pushed through by President Johnson, bans discrimination on color, race, national origin, religion or sex. Includes freedom to seek employment, vote, use hotels, parks, restaurants, etc.

1965 U.S. enters Vietnam War, then in its 9th year, as a "peace action." Ends with defeat in 1975; 57,000 U.S. deaths.

1966 Everett M. Hicks moderator.

1968 Martin Luther King, Jr assassinated.

Robert F. Kennedy assassinated.

1969 Astronaut Neil Armstrong takes "one big step for mankind" on the moon, wearing Worcester-made headset.

Richard W. Mirick moderator.

1970 U.S. 203,000,000.

Worcester's population 176,000

First jumbo jets in service

U Mass Medical Center opens after successful campaign for Worcester location.

1971 Roger C. Van Tassell, H Waite Hurlburt moderators.

Worcester Center Galleria opens.

Curbside rubbish collection by City begins.

197? Worcester Police Station built at Lincoln Square.

1972 Watergate break-in leads to investigation of President Nixon.

1973 On January 24, Reverend Robbins installed as first president of Worcester County Ecumenical Council which succeeded the Worcester Area Council of Churches and includes Roman Catholic churches, the first in Massachusetts to do so.

Roger C. Van Tassel moderator.

1974 President Nixon resigns; Gerald Ford takes over.

1975 World population 4 billion.

Oil shortage driven by Middle East restriction of output and price increases disrupts economy and drives inflation.

1975 William J. Whipple moderator.