Massachusetts
World-Altering Event Occurred at This Massachusetts Landmark
Chances are you’ve passed by this old red brick building at 206 Washington Street in Boston and noticed how out of place it looks against a backdrop of modern skyscrapers made of concrete, steel and glass. Maybe you even cared enough to wonder about its origin.
How did this little building get here and why is it still standing?
The building is the Old State House a/k/a the Old Provincial State House. It’s an historic building built in 1713 and was once the seat of the Massachusetts General Court (Massachusetts Legislature) until 1798.
Situated at the corner of Washington and State Streets, it is one of the oldest public buildings in the United States.
World-Altering Event Occurred At This Massachusetts Landmark
The “Towne House” acted as a merchant’s exchange on the first floor, according to the National Park Service (NPS).
“The second floor served as the seat of colonial and later state government throughout the 1700s,” according to the NPS.
The NPS says, “The royal governor, appointed by the King of Great Britain, held his office in the building until 1775, and from the balcony he gave voice to the King, 3,000 miles removed from London.”
Bostonians first heard the Declaration of Independence read from the same balcony and 200 years later Britain’s Queen Elizabeth celebrated America’s Bicentennial from there.
So why is the Old State House still relevant in 2024?
The Boston Massacre occurred in front of the Old Provincial State House on the night of March 5, 1770, as an unruly group of colonists taunted British soldiers by throwing snowballs and rocks.
World-Altering Event Occurred At This Massachusetts Landmark
The NPS says, “Firing upon the crowd, the British killed five colonists, including Crispus Attucks,” an American whaler, sailor, and stevedore of African and Native American descent from Framingham, Massachusetts.
The Library of Congress says the Boston Massacre “helped galvanize Boston and the colonies against the mother country.”
READ MORE: The Boston Photographer Who Claimed to Capture Lincoln’s Ghost on Film
John Adams, as a young lawyer and the future president served as counsel for the defense in the trial of eight British soldiers accused of murder” in the Boston massacre. Adams argued the men acted in self-defense.
All eight were found not guilty of murder. Two were convicted of manslaughter.
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Massachusetts
Swimmer pulled from Houghton’s Pond after search
A teenager was pulled from a pond in Milton, Massachusetts, after he went missing while swimming Saturday night.
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office said the teenaged male was taken to a Boston area hospital following the incident at Houghton’s Pond. It’s unclear how long the teen was under water, and there was no immediate word on his condition.
State police had said earlier that they responded to the pond shortly after 7 p.m. for a person who entered the water and didn’t resurface. State police divers, detectives, troopers, and the Milton Fire Department were all on scene involved in the search.
The DA’s office is conducting an investigation with state police that remains ongoing. Further information is not being released at this time.
This story will be updated when we learn more
Massachusetts
Mass. man charged with posing as teen, exposing himself to 12-, 13-year-old girls
A Massachusetts man is facing multiple charges for allegedly engaging in inappropriate communications and exposing himself to children.
Orate Kyle Graham, 20, of Bridgewater, was arrested this week on two counts of disseminating obscene material to a minor and one count of accosting or annoying another person.
Bridgewater police said they were made aware Tuesday of allegations involving interactions between several girls age 12 and 13 and an individual known to them only as “Jay.” The individual said he was 17 years old during conversations with the girls through FaceTime and in person.
Through an investigation, police identified “Jay” as Graham, and also found that he had regularly engaged in interactions with the minor victims. During those interactions, he allegedly exposed himself and asked the girls to expose themselves to him.
He was arrested Thursday and taken to the Plymouth County House of Correction, where he was held on $25,000 bail. The case remains under investigation by Bridgewater police and the Plymouth District Attorney’s Office.
Massachusetts
Fisherman reels in white shark off Massachusetts, then snags the hook from its toothy mouth
BILLERICA, Mass. (AP) — Elliot Sudal didn’t need a bigger boat, but he did need to find a way to get a hook out of a shark’s mouth.
Sudal, a veteran angler and boat captain, reeled in the nearly nine-foot shark — also commonly known as a great white shark or a great white — on June 7 on Nantucket. White sharks are a protected species in the U.S. and must be released immediately when accidentally caught.
That presents a nasty problem for a fisherman because the white shark is a formidable apex predator best known for the 1975 movie Jaws, in which Roy Scheider utters the famous line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” upon seeing the big fish. Sudal, who caught the shark while fishing from shore, decided to use his encounter to demonstrate how to respond to such a situation.
Sudal posted a video of himself removing the hook to his social media accounts. In the video, Sudal climbs onto the back of the shark, secures the fish in the surf, and removes the hook from its mouth. By the end of the short video, the shark is back in the water.
White sharks typically have about 300 teeth arranged into five rows, so speed was key.
“Hooks out and back on her way in 15 seconds, not sure how to do it better,” Sudal wrote in an Instagram post that included a video of the shark release.
Sudal is no stranger to sharks, and has caught and tagged hundreds of them over the years. He said in a social media post that this month’s encounter with a white shark was the first time he has ever caught one of them in more than a decade of the work.
Sudal’s practices have sometimes attracted the attention of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, such as in 2017, when the agency investigated his handling of a smalltooth sawfish, an endangered species, in Florida. The agency said in 2018 that it sent Sudal a letter “informing him of the Endangered Species Act issues and the safe handling protocol for sawfish.”
White sharks are not listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, but are subject to special federal protections. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers them vulnerable globally.
Sightings of white sharks off New England have ticked up in recent years, and some scientists have pinned that to the greater availability of the seals that they prey on. Dangerous encounters between white sharks and humans are extremely rare, and only a few dozen fatal white shark bites on people have ever been recorded.
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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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