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Home > My Ancestors
> Italians > Timeline: 1850-1949
- 1854:
Nicholas A. Apollonio, son of an Italian immigrant,
is elected City Registrar of Boston, a position he
occupies with distinction for the next thirty-seven
years.
- 1861:
Most of Italy is unified under the crown of Savoy.
Gustovo Finotti of Brookline is appointed the first
Consul of the Kingdom of Italy in Boston.
- 1873:
St. Leonard's Church, on Prince Street in the North
End was founded by Italian immigrants. It is the oldest
Italian church in Boston and second oldest in the
United States.
- 1873:
Italian-Portuguese Catholic Church, St. John the Baptist,
is dedicated.
- 1882:
Italian Charitable and Relief Society is established
at 193 Hanover Street with A. Garbati serving as President.
- 1887:
Father Nicholas Russo is elected the Seventh President
of Boston College.
- 1891:
The Immigrants' Home is established at 73 Marginal
Street with Mrs. A. C. Clark, missionary, in charge.
- 1901:
John Cifrino of Dorchester
founds the nation's first supermarket in Upham's Corner.
- 1906:
Frank Leveroni of Boston becomes Massachusetts first
Italian-American judge (a Special Justice of the Boston
Juvenile Court).
- 1910:
Banca Italo-Americano sets up business in the Paul
Revere House in Boston's North
End.
- 1906:
Banca Ettore Forte is established in Boston by Ettore
Forte at 3 North Square.
- 1914:
The Boston Spaghetti Manufacturing Co. is established
by Michael La Marca, Joseph Scaminara, and Michael
Cantella in Boston's North
End. La Marca was born in Villarosa, Enna, Italy
in 1871, son of Calogero and Giacoma La Marca. He
was educated in his native town and served in the
Italian army before immigrating to the US in 1898.
He, along with his brother Joseph, established a baking
company in 1900 before establishing the Boston Spaghetti
Manufacturing Co. in 1914.
- 1916:
John Ciardi, the great poet, translator of Dante and
Saturday Review Editor, is born in Boston. The Boston
City Directory names four Italian Banks in Boston:
Banca Centrale Italiana at 130B Salems St.; Banca
Commerciale at 424 Hanover Street; Banca Popolare
Italiana at 168 Endicott Street; Banca Stabile & Co.
at 115 Devonshire Street
- 1919:
January 15, Great Molasses Flood in Boston's North
End creates devastation and results in over one
dozen deaths. Martin Clougherty, whose mother and
brother Stephen died in the accident, told his story
to the Boston Globe. "I was in bed on the third floor
of my house when I heard a deep rumble. I was asleep
and the rumble did not wake me thoroughly. The first
impression I had that something unusual had happened
was when I awoke in several feet of molasses. It didn't
dawn on me that it was molasses I was in. I thought
I was overboard. A pile of wreckage was holding me
down, and a little way from me I saw my sister. I
struggled out from under the wreckage and pulled my
sister toward me and helped her onto a 'raft'. I then
began to look for my mother."
- 1919:
Home for Italian Children is established at 1125
Centre Street, Jamaica
Plain. The home is founded as an orphanage in
response to the devastating swine flu epidemic of
1918 that struck Boston and the nation. In the beginning
it was primarily occupied by female orphans, in an
old farmhouse located on the same site it occupies
today. Now the home aids abused children of all ethnic
groups and is in active operation having celebrated
its 75th anniversary in 1994.
- 1920:
April 15, Robbery and murder of a shoe manufacturing
company paymaster leads to the arrest, in May 1920,
of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Worldwide
hysteria resulted in what appeared to be prosecution
based on prejudice towards Italian immigrants.
- 1921:
The first Italian Newspaper (printed in English) in
Boston, The Italian News, is established. The
newspaper is printed weekly, on Friday. The Feast
of San Rocco is established in the North End by Italian
immigrants from the village of San Michele Baronia,
Avellino Province.
- 1925:
The Boston City Directory lists only one surviving
Italian Bank in Boston, Banca Stabile & Co. at 329
Hanover Street in the North
End. By 1926 none are listed.
- 1927:
August 23, Sacco and Vanzetti are executed. Langone
Funeral Home on Hanover Street in the North End handled
the massive funeral that attracted thousands of onlookers.
- 1931-35:
Andrew Casassa serves as first Italian State Senator.
- 1934:
Vincent Brogna of Boston (born in Montefalcione, Italy
in 1887) is named as Massachusetts' first Italian
American Superior Court Justice.
- 1936:
Felix Forte is nominated for Massachusetts Attorney-General
on the Republican ticket. The Boston University law
professor and future State Superior Court Judge is
the first Italian-American nominated for statewide
office.
- 1939:
Attorney Michael A. Fredo is appointed trustee of
Massachusetts General Hospital.
- 1940:
Italian Chamber of Commerce of Boston and Vicinity
is established at 199 Washington Street.
- 1942:
Boston's tragic Coconut Grove fire takes over
100 lives, including over forty Italian-American's
from Boston's North
End and vicinity.
- 1944:
Captain Louis Polcari, Boston's first Italian-American
to graduate from West Point (in 1942) is killed in
action during World War II.
- 1946:
John Diferrari, Italian-American businessman, donates
two million dollars to the Boston Public Library.
The Diferrari wing is named in his honor.
- 1948:
Foster Furcolo, of East Longmeadow, is elected Massachusetts'
first Italian-American Congressman.
See 1750-1849
| See 1950-present
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