Historical event · May 2, 1638
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.
Why it matters
The day the city chose its destiny: named not for a king or a saint, but for a university.
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What this meant before
- Date
- May 2, 1638
- Public connections
- 2
- Sources
- 1
In the public graph 2 typed relationships
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Located in
Nearby what sits within a few minutes’ walk
Historical event · 1 min walk
Founding of Newtowne (1630)
Building / Landmark · 6 min walk
Memorial Hall
University · 7 min walk
Harvard University
Historical context
Founding of Newtowne (1630)Founding of Harvard College (1636)The Mark I Computer (1944)First Printing Press in British America (1638)
An unexpected connection
Newtowne Becomes Cambridge (1638) is linked, through the graph, to Cambridge — city, 1 min walk away. The kind of thread you only find by following the connections.
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NearbyA few minutes’ walk away
More historical eventsOther historical events in the graph
Visitors also exploreReached through the same connections
One identity, 2 editorial lenses one canonical entity URL
How we know graph confidence — we explain our certainty, not just assert it
✓Source qualityBest source is primary / institutional
○Independent corroboration1 resolvable source
✓Review stateReview attributed to durjoy-ace-local-history-editor
✓Institutional backingCites a primary or institutional source
✓Record completeness80% of canonical fields present
Sources, by tier
Cambridge Historical Commission: Frequently Asked Questions Primary / institutional
Review date: 2026-08-23
Graph scores — our north star is relationship density, not page count
Relationship density25
2 connections
Record coverage66
metadata completeness
Graph authority59
centrality + reach + trust
Schema.org JSON-LD — what answer engines read
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