Eight ritzy decades
1927: Hotel opens with great fanfare, including dinner of Porterhouse steaks for 200 guests.
1927: Holds special dinner -- "for aristocratic bow wows," dogs -- of plum pudding and biscuits on a doily.
1930: Rodgers and Hart write "Ten Cents a Dance" in their suite.
1931: Opens ornate, $300,000 roof garden.
1933: Changes menu from French to English, saying it will demystify and modernize the dining experience. Crème a la Narcisse becomes custard ice cream with almonds.
1934: Stocks 20 pairs of ice skates for guests to glide on the nearby Public Garden pond.
1947: Tennessee Williams writes part of "A Streetcar Named Desire" in his suite.
1949: Winston Churchill visits. Staff redoes entire suite in Chinese red, black, and gold, his favorite colors.
1961: A thief, posing as a guest, lures a jeweler to his room and steals $3,300 diamond ring.
1965: Neil Simon rewrites third act of "The Odd Couple" in his suite.
1971: Protesting dress code, which required women to wear dresses, Gloria Steinem storms lounge in a pantsuit.
1993: Mayor Raymond L. Flynn, violating dress code in a golf shirt, is asked to leave.
2000: Hotel ceases use of white-gloved elevator operators, saying it can no longer obtain spare parts for the manually operated lifts.
Nov. 9, 2006: Taj Hotels and Resorts buys Ritz for $170 million.
Jan. 11, 2007: Ritz-Carlton is renamed Taj Boston. 