The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics,public service,entertainment,and business. In 1884,35 years after the family's arrival from County Wexford,Ireland,Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy became the first Kennedy elected to public office,serving in the Massachusetts state legislature until 1895. At least one Kennedy family member served in federal elective office from 1947,when P. J. Kennedy's grandson John F. Kennedy became a member of Congress from Massachusetts,until 2011,when Patrick J. Kennedy II retired as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island.
John Hancock was an American Founding Father,merchant,statesman,and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He was the longest-serving president of the Continental Congress,having served as the second president of the Second Continental Congress and the seventh president of the Congress of the Confederation. He was the first and third governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence,so much so that in the United States,John Hancock or Hancock has become a colloquialism for a person's signature. He also signed the Articles of Confederation,and used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution in 1788.
Paul Revere was an American silversmith,military officer and industrialist who played a major role during the opening months of the American Revolutionary War in Massachusetts,engaging in a midnight ride in 1775 to alert nearby minutemen of the approach of British troops prior to the battles of Lexington and Concord.
Michael Stanley Dukakis is an American retired lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history and only the second Greek-American governor in U.S. history,after Spiro Agnew. He was nominated by the Democratic Party for president in the 1988 election,losing to the Republican nominee,Vice President George H. W. Bush.
The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces.
Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County,Massachusetts,United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation,Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A residential community with a vibrant tourism industry,the town is famous for its clams,celebrated annually at the Ipswich Chowderfest,and for Crane Beach,a barrier beach near the Crane estate. Ipswich was incorporated as a town in 1634.
John William McCormack was an American politician from Boston,Massachusetts. McCormack served in the United States Army during World War I,and afterwards in the Massachusetts State Senate before winning election to the United States House of Representatives.
Joseph Bradley Varnum was an American politician from Massachusetts. He served as a U.S. representative and United States senator,and held leadership positions in both bodies. He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party.
Michael Everett Capuano is an American politician and attorney who served as a U.S. Representative of Massachusetts from 1999 to 2019. A Democrat,his district included the northern three-fourths of Boston,as well as parts of Cambridge,his hometown of Somerville,and other communities immediately north and south of Boston. Prior to being elected to Congress,he served as an Alderman and Mayor of Somerville.
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in New England which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7,1691,by William III and Mary II,the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England,Scotland,and Ireland,and was based in the merging of several earlier British colonies in New England. The charter took effect on May 14,1692,and included the Massachusetts Bay Colony,the Plymouth Colony,the Province of Maine,Martha's Vineyard,Nantucket,Nova Scotia,and New Brunswick;the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the direct successor. Maine has been a separate state since 1820,and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are now Canadian provinces,having been part of the colony only until 1697.
William Floyd Weld is an American attorney,businessman,author,and politician who served as the 68th Governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997. A Harvard graduate,Weld began his career as legal counsel to the United States House Committee on the Judiciary before becoming the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts and later,the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division. He worked on a series of high-profile public corruption cases and later resigned in protest of an ethics scandal and associated investigations into Attorney General Edwin Meese.
John Anthony Volpe was an American businessman,diplomat,and politician from Massachusetts. A son of Italian immigrants,he founded and owned a large construction firm. Politically,he was a Republican in increasingly Democratic Massachusetts,serving as its 61st and 63rd Governor from 1961 to 1963 and 1965 to 1969,as the United States Secretary of Transportation from 1969 to 1973,and as the United States Ambassador to Italy from 1973 to 1977. As Secretary of Transportation,Volpe was an important figure in the development of the Interstate Highway System at the federal level.
Massachusetts,officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Maine to its east,Connecticut and Rhode Island to its south,New Hampshire and Vermont to its north,and New York to its west. Massachusetts is the sixth-smallest state by land area. With a 2024 U.S. Census Bureau-estimated population of 7,136,171,its highest estimated count ever,Massachusetts is the most populous state in New England,the 16th-most-populous in the United States,and the third-most densely populated U.S. state,after New Jersey and Rhode Island.
William Claflin was an American politician,industrialist,and philanthropist from Massachusetts. He served as the 27th governor of Massachusetts from 1869 to 1872 and as a member of the United States Congress from 1877 to 1881. He also served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1868 to 1872,serving as a moderating force between the Radical and moderate wings of the Republican Party. His name is given to Claflin University in South Carolina,a historically black college founded with funding from him and his father.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy,also known as JFK,was the 35th president of the United States,serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person elected president. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War,and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat,Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the United States Congress prior to his presidency.
John Adams was an American Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency,he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain. During the latter part of the Revolutionary War and in the early years of the new nation,he served the U.S. government as a senior diplomat in Europe. Adams was the first person to hold the office of vice president of the United States,serving from 1789 to 1797. He was a dedicated diarist and regularly corresponded with important contemporaries,including his wife and adviser Abigail Adams and his friend and political rival Thomas Jefferson.
Samuel Adams was an American statesman,political philosopher,and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts,a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution,a signatory of the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents,and one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States. He was a second cousin to his fellow Founding Father,President John Adams. He founded the Sons of Liberty.
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States:Connecticut,Maine,Massachusetts,New Hampshire,Rhode Island,and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick to the northeast and Quebec to the north. The Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Ocean are to the east and southeast,and Long Island Sound is to the southwest. Boston is New England's largest city and the capital of Massachusetts. Greater Boston is the largest metropolitan area,with nearly a third of New England's population;this area includes Worcester,Massachusetts,the second-largest city in New England;Manchester,New Hampshire,the largest city in New Hampshire;and Providence,Rhode Island,the capital of and largest city in Rhode Island.
Charles Duane Baker Jr. is an American politician serving since 2023 as the 6th president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. A member of the Republican Party,he served as the 72nd governor of Massachusetts from 2015 to 2023,and held two cabinet positions under two of the state's previous governors. He also served for ten years as the CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy III is an American politician and diplomat who most recently served as the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland from 2022 to 2024. Prior to this,Kennedy served as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district from 2013 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party,he represented a district that extends from Boston's western suburbs to the state's South Coast. He worked as an assistant district attorney in the Cape and Islands and Middlesex County,Massachusetts,offices before his election to Congress. In January 2021,he became a CNN commentator.
