What is the capital of Massachusetts?

Boston is the capital of Massachusetts and the largest city in New England, located on Boston Harbor on the Atlantic coast in the eastern part of the state. Boston has been the capital since the founding of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, when Puritan colonists led by John Winthrop settled the Shawmut Peninsula and named it after Boston, England. Massachusetts ratified the Constitution on February 6, 1788 as the sixth state.

Boston was the most important city of British North America for much of the colonial period and the cradle of the American Revolution. Key Revolutionary events in or near Boston include the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, the British siege from June 1775 to March 1776, and the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

The Boston Common (1634) is the oldest public park in the country. The Freedom Trail, marked since 1951, links 16 historic sites including Faneuil Hall (1742), the Old North Church (where two lanterns were hung the night of April 18, 1775 to signal British troop movements), the Old South Meeting House (where the Tea Party was planned), Paul Revere's house (the oldest surviving residential building in downtown Boston), and the USS Constitution (the oldest commissioned warship still afloat in the world, launched 1797). The Massachusetts State House, completed in 1798 with its famous gold leaf dome (originally wood, replaced by copper sheeting and gilded), sits on Beacon Hill overlooking Boston Common.

Boston's population is about 675,000 (city), with a metropolitan area of about 4.9 million people, the tenth largest in the country. The Greater Boston Area is a major center for higher education and research. Harvard University (founded 1636 in nearby Cambridge), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (founded 1861, also in Cambridge), Boston University, Northeastern, Tufts, Boston College, and dozens of smaller colleges and universities together enroll about 250,000 students.

The city's economy is dominated by education, healthcare (the Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School form one of the world's leading medical communities), finance (Fidelity Investments, Liberty Mutual, State Street), biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, and technology. Major sports teams include the Red Sox (founded 1901), Bruins, Celtics, and Patriots. Boston has been the site of major moments in U.S. history including the integration of Boston schools after Brown v. Board of Education and contentious busing disputes in the 1970s, and the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013.