Worcester

Central Massachusetts’ largest art, music, and performance festival takes place every September on Park Avenue, within walking distance of Clark.

Worcester’s unofficial kickoff to summer features amazing food, live entertainment, and block parties along the city’s “Restaurant Row.”

International artists descend on Worcester for a week in September to create large-scale murals, art installations, and immersive experiences.

More than 15,000 people enjoy Worcester’s annual celebration of Latino culture, music, and food. It’s one of Worcester’s biggest parties.

The Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary is a 400-acre oasis located within the city, though you’ll swear you’re hiking in the country.

Worcester takes a back seat to no city — not even Boston — when it comes to celebrating all things green. On parade day, everybody’s Irish.

Lace ’em up to enjoy one of Worcester’s newer traditions and one of its most fun. The oval on Worcester Common is open for ice skating throughout the winter.

Hair, harmony, and hell-raising set The Palladium apart from other city music venues, in decibel levels alone. The metal-rock gods haunt this raucous hall.

The first American valentines were popularized and mass-produced by a Worcester woman named Esther Howland. Hearts have been gladdened (and broken) ever since.

In 1963, Worcester commercial artist Harvey Ball was commissioned to design an image that would boost morale among employees at a local insurance company. That image became the internationally known Smiley Face.

On May 19, 1969, astronaut Buzz Aldrin cut the ribbon on the newly built Goddard Library at Clark University. Two months later, he and Neil Armstrong were walking on the moon.

Ever watch the hit animated series “Bob’s Burgers” and “Archer”? If so, then you should know the voices of Bob and Archer are supplied by Worcester’s own H. Jon Benjamin.

Lee Richmond of the Worcesters pitched the first perfect game in major league baseball history on June 12, 1880, in Worcester. A monument commemorates Richmond’s feat.

The Beatles were four anonymous musicians from Liverpool until Dick “The Derby” Smith became the first DJ in the U.S. to play their first record, “She Loves You,” on radio station WORC. It caught on.

On July 14, 1776, Isaiah Thomas, publisher of the Worcester-based Massachusetts Spy, gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. He also made sure the Spy was the first paper to publish the historic document.

Worcester’s Mechanics Hall has hosted countless world-class musicians and comedic performers, but two of its most renowned presenters were the authors Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.

The Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology developed the first oral contraceptive during the 1950s and marketed it in 1960. The invention changed the social and political landscape for generations to come.

At the turn of the last century, Marshall “Major” Taylor, aka “The Worcester Whirlwind,” was the fastest bicyclist in the world. He was also among the first African-American athletes to confront racism in professional sports.