Immortalized in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1837 poem “Concord,” the “shot heard round the world” marked the start of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775. While marching toward Concord, British troops encountered a group of minutemen in the town of Lexington, leading to a brief skirmish in which the first shots of the war were fired.

Before becoming Hollywood royalty, actor Paul Newman was born in the Cleveland suburb of Cleveland Heights and was raised in Shaker Heights. Newman got his acting start at seven years old, appearing in productions of the Cleveland Play House Children’s Theater. He remained an Ohio resident until moving to New York in 1951.

With more residents than major New York cities such as Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany, the New York City suburb of Yonkers is the third-largest city in New York state. Yonkers — located in Westchester County, which borders New York City to the north — is home to more than 216,000 people as of 2023.

NBA player Stephen “Steph” Curry gained national prominence during his time playing basketball at Davidson College. From 2006 to 2009, his college performance catapulted him to the NBA, where he’s gone on to become one of the league's most iconic and successful players. Davidson is a suburb of the Charlotte metropolitan area that’s home to around 13,000 people.

The suburb of St. Charles was the original capital of Missouri upon achieving statehood in 1821. Jefferson City replaced St. Charles as Missouri’s capital in 1826, and it remains the capital today. The First Missouri State Capitol in St. Charles was restored in the 1960s and stands today as a historic site.

The suburb of Overland Park actually has more full-time residents than the Kansas side of Kansas City itself. Kansas City, Kansas, is home to an estimated 160,000 people, whereas Overland Park comes in with approximately 204,000 residents. That makes Overland Park the second-most populous municipality in Kansas after Wichita.

The family house seen in the 1990 John Hughes movie “Home Alone” is located in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka. The picturesque colonial red brick Georgian remains a famous cultural landmark in the neighborhood. Hughes filmed several other films in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs — most were given the fictional name of Shermer.

Home to over 100,000 people, Atlanta’s suburb of Sandy Springs is known for its vast green space, encompassing over 950 acres of parks and other natural areas. Alpharetta is another prominent suburb of the Atlanta metro area which has seen booming development over the last three decades. Other notable Atlanta suburbs include Johns Creek and Peachtree City.

The Christopher Nolan-directed 2023 movie “Oppenheimer” primarily unfolds in the New Mexico suburb of Los Alamos. The “secret city” played a pivotal role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II, under the leadership of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Most of the film takes place in the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which was established by the U.S. Government in 1943.

The Philadelphia suburb of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, was named after an inn and tavern that opened here in 1769. The establishment itself was named after King Frederick II of Prussia, a European monarch who staunchly opposed British imperialism in the 18th century. By 1850, the name had expanded to refer to the surrounding region in addition to the inn.

The United First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts — a suburb located outside of Boston — is the final resting place of America’s second President, John Adams, and his wife Abigail Adams. Not only is the elder Adams interred on site, but his son John Quincy Adams, who served as America’s sixth President, is also buried here along with his wife, Louisa Catherine Adams.

The popular teen drama “Dawson's Creek” was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, and the surrounding suburban areas of Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach, among others. The show aired from 1998 to 2003 and relied on the area’s scenic coastal landscapes to create the fictional town of Capeside. Another popular show, “One Tree Hill,” also filmed in the area starting in 2003.

Once known by the name Athensville, Ardmore was given its current name in 1873. Its Suburban Square, which opened in 1928, is considered one of the earliest official shopping centers anywhere in the United States. The suburb is located about 10 miles northwest of downtown Philadelphia, and is accessible by the city’s Main Line railway service.

The first chocolate chip cookie was made by Ruth Wakefield at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. In the 1930s, Wakefield was baking cookies for the inn’s guests when she realized she was out of her usual baker’s chocolate. Instead, she broke pieces off a semi-sweet Nestle block, inadvertently creating the chocolate chips — and the cookies — that would become an American staple.

Along with many other tech companies, Apple is based in Cupertino, California. The suburb is part of the famed technology hub of Silicon Valley, located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay west of San Jose. Apple’s futuristic headquarters opened in 2017 and cost nearly $5 billion to construct.

Located about 10 miles west of Las Vegas, Summerlin is an affluent community located partly within Vegas city limits and partly within unincorporated Clark County. The land was originally owned by eccentric business magnate, aviator, and filmmaker Howard Hughes. After buying the land in the 1950s for his own businesses, Hughes announced the development of a planned community in the late 1980s. Summerlin welcomed its first residents in 1991.

Located outside of Detroit, the suburb of Dearborn is known for its history as a hub of America’s automotive industry. It was the hometown of industrialist Henry Ford, and it still serves as the headquarters of the Ford Motor Company. Dearborn is also known for its diverse population and is home to the Arab American National Museum.

The infamous Salem witch trials occurred in the Massachusetts suburb of the same name between 1692 and 1693. During these events, more than 200 individuals were accused of witchcraft. Several of those accused were later pardoned in 1711, with the last accused “witch” finally exonerated in July 2022. The suburb is now home to the Salem Witch Museum and Witch Trials Memorial.

The first suburb north of downtown Chicago, Evanston is best-known for being the home of Northwestern University. The school first opened its doors to a mere 10 students in 1855, and the scenic lakefront suburb as a whole was named after one of the school’s founders, John Evans. Evanston is now a thriving suburban community home to 77,000 people.

The Metro-North Commuter Railroad is the third-most heavily trafficked suburban rail system in the U.S., behind the Long Island Railroad and New Jersey Transit. The railway system services up to 87 million annual passengers. It connects New York City with the suburbs located throughout Hudson Valley, Westchester County, and Connecticut.

The suburban village of Pinecrest, located southwest of Miami, is home to around 18,000 residents. With a reputation as one of the best places to live in Miami, Pinecrest is known for its thriving local arts and music scene, offering the best of a connected community that’s also not far from Miami’s vibrant nightlife.

Located 10 miles south of downtown Minneapolis, the suburb of Bloomington is home to the Mall of America, the largest retail shopping mall in the U.S. Encompassing over 2.7 million square feet — which doesn’t even include the amusement park contained within — the Mall of America is home to over 500 stores and 50 restaurants.

The Fig Newton was invented in 1891 when Bostonian James Henry Mitchell created a device that squeezed both cookie batter and fig filling through two separate funnels simultaneously. James Hazen, the plant manager at Kennedy Biscuit Works, then came up with the name “Newton,” after a Boston suburb, as it was his general practice to name the plant’s products after nearby areas.

The Texan ZIP code of 77449 has a population of 128,294 people and belongs to Katy, Texas, a suburb located 30 miles west of Houston. Interestingly, the second-most populated ZIP code in the country also belongs to Katy, with 118,291 residents living in the 77494 ZIP code. Five of the top 10 ZIP codes by population are located in the Lone Star State.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Home and Studio in Oak Park, a western suburb of Chicago, is an American architectural treasure. The complex, first built in 1889, is a testament to the architect’s innovative style, featuring long horizontal lines and overhanging eaves. Wright founded his architectural practice in Oak Park, and his groundbreaking Prairie- style designs became popular in Chicago in the early 1900s.

The city of Los Angeles itself is home to 3.8 million people, but there are 9.8 million people living in Los Angeles County. Santa Monica, known for its beaches, and Pasadena, located northeast of downtown, are two of L.A.’s most populous suburbs. Other notable L.A. suburbs include Venice Beach, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and Bel Air.

Located east of New York City on Long Island, Levittown redefined the concept of planned communities, laying the groundwork for many future suburban neighborhoods post-World War II. Levittown was developed between 1946 and 1951 and contained more than 17,000 low-cost homes accompanied by shopping centers, playgrounds, and schools. The name “Levittown” subsequently entered the collective lexicon as a generic descriptor for American suburbia.

With a population of 525,000 people, Mesa, Arizona, is the largest suburb in the United State — home to more people than reside in cities such as Atlanta and Kansas City. Mesa is located east of Phoenix, though wasn’t always the bustling community it is today. In the mid-20th century, Mesa only had around 16,000 residents who called the suburb home, but the city has grown exponentially in recent decades.

Located directly across the Charles River from Boston is the suburb of Cambridge, home to Harvard University. The historic school is one of eight Ivy League institutions in the northeastern U.S. It was founded in 1636, making it America’s oldest college. Harvard’s campus, with its historic brick buildings and lush green spaces, continues to be a major draw for tourists as well as students.

In 1888, Frank J. Sprague, an inventor from Richmond, Virginia, established the first successful commercial electric tram in the United States. “Streetcar suburbs” such as Barton Heights and Woodland Heights grew around the city of Richmond as a result. Streetcars quickly became popular around the U.S., but declined with the rise of the automobile in the 20th century.