There is a most definite air of history surrounding Charles Eliot. On the brass plate on the door of the house he grew up in, the inscription of the family name is gradually fading away. The 106-year-old house is being repainted now, but not even the smell of lacquer could hide the mustiness of the library where Eliot sits, clad in a kind of somber pinstripe suit he wore when he taught at Harvard.

In a tattered armchair, Eliot sits, facing the black, leather chair that his grandfather--President Charles Eliot of Harvard--once took to college. The name Eliot is practically synonymous with historical Cambridge. His father wrote the official history of the town and was president of the Cambridge Historical Society, but now--one year after he gave up his official position--he studies the history of Cambridge only as a hobby.

Eliot says that in the 80 years he's been in and out of Cambridge a lot of things have changed. His timeline of important dates in Cambridge's history is evidence enough. But one thing hasn't changed--for a relatively small city, Cambridge has an unusually strong record of producing important people, inventions and ideas. Always an intellectual and ethnic mecca, Cambridge has brought the United States everything from the porterhouse steak (served in the 19th century at Porter's Tavern) to the sewing machine to frozen yogurt. Eliot has compiled an unofficial list of "Cambridge firsts."

1631: First town plan in America.

Long, long before they decided to design the nation's capital city, the residents of Newtowne had come up with an idea that their city should be organized. Eliot, a former professor of Landscape Architecture and Plannig, says they designed a gridiron layout iwith a town center--a market place of sorts--where Winthrop Square stands today. Of the eight houses in the square, one was destined for Gov. Winthrop but it collapsed while under construction. Winthrop decided to stay in Boston.

1636: First college in America

In the same year that 90 of Newtowne's 100 families fled the city for Hartford, Conn. (they were following the Rev. Thomas Hooker), the General Court ordered 400 pounds (a princely sum then) put aside for the establishment of a college.

1639: First printing press in America

1774: American Revolution begins

Although everybody likes to talk about the battles at Lexington and Concord, it actually started here. The British Mandamus councillors Lee and Danforth--closely followed by Lt. Governor Oliver--were forced to resign by the angry townspeople. The die was cast.

1775: First American Army organized

It was under a tree on the Cambridge Common, or so legend has it, that General George Washington took command of the first battalion of American Troops. Shortly thereafter, Cambridge was proclaimed the army's headquarters.

1775: First American flag

So you believe all those rumors about Besty Ross and the late nights? The American flag was actually conceived in Cambridge, where a seamstress was asked to put together the familiar 13 bars with a British emblem of some kind. Nobody's really quite sure exactly why it was done, but the army needed something to march under.

1780: First constitution in America