Two people were killed and more than 20 were wounded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday. The blasts hit Boston on one of its busiest days of the year.
In Massachusetts, Patriots’ Day has been held on the third Monday in April since 1969. The day commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War, which took place April 19, 1775. The legal holiday is marked by reenactments of Paul Revere’s Ride from Charlestown to Lexington, William Dawes’s Ride from Boston and Roxbury to Concord, and the battles, themselves, in Lexington and Concord. “Marathon Monday” also normally includes a home game played by the Boston Red Sox.
As a legal holiday, all state, county, and municipal offices are closed on Patriots’ Day, as are many schools.
The Boston Athletic Association organized the first Boston Marathon on April 19, 1897. The current marathon course runs from the town of Hopkinton, Mass. to Boylston Street in Boston, near the John Hancock Tower in Copley Square.
