1. In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, granting women the right to vote. Massachusetts had already granted women suffrage in 1915, making it one of the first states to do so.

2. On August 26, 1635, the first public school in the United States was founded in Boston, Massachusetts. Known as the Boston Latin School, it is still in operation today.

3. In 1775, the Battle of Long Island began, marking the start of the Revolutionary War. Among the troops fighting for the American side were soldiers from Massachusetts, including future President John Adams.

4. On August 26, 1945, U.S. Navy pilot Lieutenant Richard Best, a native of Massachusetts, dropped the second atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, helping to bring an end to World War II.

5. Massachusetts native and famous abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison was born on August 26, 1805. Garrison was a prominent voice in the fight against slavery and co-founded the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.