Camb400 as living memory
Open one object and the anniversary becomes a person, a place, a route, and a thread through the city.
The place opens into an event: Newtowne Becomes Cambridge (1638) is where the civic record changes tense.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was incorporated in Boston in 1861 and moved across the Charles River to Cambridge in 1916.
Washington Takes Command (1775) extends the story from Longfellow House–Washington’s Headquarters: his headquarters.
Harvard University anchors the story behind Harvard Square.
Upcoming anniversaries computed live from the graph · full timeline →
The road to 2030 the program of quadricentennial moments
Historic geography browse by place
Harvard Square
At the meeting of town and university, Harvard Square has long combined transportation, commerce, civic institutions, and Harvard Yard around a mix…
East Cambridge
East Cambridge combines a longstanding retail corridor along Cambridge Street with residential blocks and a redeveloped riverfront stretching towar…
The timeline — oldest first ordered by year
Founding of Newtowne (1630)
The site for Newtowne was selected on December 21, 1630, and the settlement was named on December 28; its grid was laid out the following spring.
Newtowne Becomes Cambridge (1638)
On May 2, 1638, the settlement founded as Newtowne in 1630 was formally renamed Cambridge, establishing the name the city still uses today.
Longfellow House–Washington’s Headquarters
Built in 1759, the house served as George Washington's headquarters from July 1775 to April 1776 and later as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's home.
Washington Takes Command (1775)
George Washington arrived in Cambridge on July 2, 1775 and took command from Artemas Ward that evening, beginning the work of organizing the Contin…
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was incorporated in Boston in 1861 and moved across the Charles River to Cambridge in 1916. Its campus no…
Harvard Square
At the meeting of town and university, Harvard Square has long combined transportation, commerce, civic institutions, and Harvard Yard around a mix…
East Cambridge
East Cambridge combines a longstanding retail corridor along Cambridge Street with residential blocks and a redeveloped riverfront stretching towar…
From Cambridge's past to what comes next.
History Is For Everyone opens the people and events that shaped Cambridge. This guide follows the living place: its institutions, streets, ideas, and next chapter.
Why CambridgeFrom a cow pasture to the mRNA vaccine in four hundred years — proof that the future is built in small places by people who refuse to leave well enough alone.
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