A state that enjoys a temperate climate, with a jagged coastline from Rhode Island to Cape Cod, flat lands yielding to stony pastures near the center and a gently hilly region in the West, Massachusetts was one the original America colonies and the sixth state to ratify the constitution on February 6, 1788. The Pilgrims, seeking religious freedoms first settled at Plymouth in 1620 and a year after marked their survival by taking a day of thanks that has come to be known as Thanksgiving. Indian opposition was intense and peaked during the King Philip's War in 1675 and 1676. Initial demonstrations against British restrictions set off the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the Boston Tea Party in 1773. In 1775 the first battle of the American Revolution was fought at Lexington. Massachusetts has blessed American with many fine minds, including: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Samuel Adams, Horatio Alger, Clara Barton, Emily Dickinson, Emerson, Hancock, Hawthorne, Oliver W. Holmes, Winslow Homer, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Edgar Alan Poe, Thoreau, Whistler and Whittier. @
