Connecticut is a state in the United States, located in the New England region. The state was one of the 13 states that rebelled against English rule during the American Revolutionary War. The state capital is Hartford and other major cities are New Haven, New London, New Britain and Bridgeport. In 2012, there were 3.6 million people living in Connecticut.
According to ehangzhou, Connecticut borders the Atlantic Ocean to the south, New York to the west, Massachusetts to the north, and Rhode Island to the east.
TIMELINE:
1614 – The first European explorer in Connecticut is the Dutchman Adriaen Block. After exploring the region in 1614, Dutch fur traders sailed up the Connecticut River, originally called the Versche Rivier by the Dutch, and built a fort ( Fort Hoop ) that developed into present-day Hartford.
1633 – The first English settlers arrive – they were Puritans from Massachusetts, and they founded the colony of Connecticut in 1636.
1634 – Weatherford is founded. It is the oldest permanent settlement in the state.
1637 – War between the settlers and the Pequot Indians ; Captain John Mason led the colonists to victory.
1638 – New Haven is founded.
1647 – On May 26, Alse Young becomes the first documented person to be executed for witchcraft in the 13 original colonies.
1675-76 – King Philips’ war was an armed conflict between Native Americans living in present-day southern New England and English colonists and their allies among other Native Americans.
1740 – The “Divine Revival” takes place in America. Read more here.
1776 – Yale student David Bushnell invents the first American submarine.
1781 – The Battle of Groton Heights takes place on September 6.
1787 – John Fitch builds the first steamboat.
1789 – An abstinence movement in Connecticut, started by 200 farmers to abolish whiskey production, inspired by Dr. Benjamin Rush ‘s controversial belief that excessive alcohol use was harmful to both physical and mental health.
1806 – Noah Webster publishes his first edition of his dictionary.
1820 – Capt. Nathaniel Palmer of Stonington, and Fabian von Bellingshausen, Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev, Edward Bransfield became the first Americans to discover Antarctica, on November 17th.
1821 – Capt. John Davis, the seal hunter from New Haven, was possibly the first to set foot in Antarctica on February 7th.
1836 – Samuel Colt invents the first automatic revolver in Whitney’s factory.
1839 – New Haven is home to one of the most important events in the history of the anti-slavery movement, when the trial of the Mende people’s mutiny, when they were transported as slaves aboard the Spanish slave ship Amistad, was held in New Haven’s United States District Court. In 1997, Steven Spielberg directed a film about Amistad, based on the story.
1844 – Charles Goodyear patents his discovery of the method of vulcanizing rubber, a process he discovered in 1839. Although the company Goodyear has been credited with the invention, recent archaeological finds have shown that vulcanization was known in Central America as early as 1600 BC.
On October 16, dentist Horace Wells was the first to use laughing gas anesthesia in Hartford.
1848 – Slavery is abolished in Connecticut. See a timeline of the abolition of slavery in the countries of the world here.
1856 – Charter Oak – the unusually large white oak tree that contained Connecticut’s Royal Charter of 1662 – fell during a storm called Wylly’s Hyll in Hartford. The tree became the symbol of American independence.
1860 – On May 6, Abraham Lincoln gives a speech on blah, the slave problem, shortly before he secured the Republican nomination for the presidency. Read it here.
1861-65 – 57,379 men and women volunteered for the Civil War; more than 20,000 died.
1871 – The Frisbie Pie Company is founded in Bridgeport by William Russell Frisbie. The tin plates that Frisbie used for the pies were played with by the children, where they shouted “Frisbie” to warn against the “flying plate”. As the game progressed to Yale University, some students discovered that its shape made it possible to throw the disc in different directions by a trained person. The name Frisbie was overheard by Wham-O, who renamed his disc “Frisbee” to avoid trademark issues.
1874 – What later became Mark Twain’s house was built in Hartford on Farmington Avenue.
1875 – Hartford becomes the capital.
1897 – Pope Manufacturing Co. began manufacturing cars.
1900 – The Dane Louis Lassen, owner of Louis’ Lunch, is credited as the inventor of the hamburger, as well as the steak sandwich.
1901 – First state to make traffic rules regarding the speed of the new automobiles.
1917-18 – About 67,000 served in the First World War.
1936 – Severe damage caused by the Connecticut River Valley flood.
1938 – The hurricane in New England, was the first major hurricane to hit since 1869. Bushnell Park was flooded in Hartford when the hurricane passed.
1941-45 – About 210,000 served during World War II.
1944 – On July 6, one of the worst disasters in U.S. history occurred when a circus tent in Hartford caught fire in the middle of a performance at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, where there were 7000 spectators. About 169 of them died and more than 700 wounded.
1950-52 – About 52,000 served in the Korean War.
1954 – The world’s first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus, drops anchor from Groton.
1955 – The Connecticut floods are one of the worst in the state’s history.
1962-75 – About 104,000 served in the Vietnam War.
1967 – On December 9 at New Haven Arena, The Doors perform when the concert is interrupted when Jim Morrison is arrested by police. He thus became the first rock star to be arrested on stage during a show. The incident is also part of Oliver Stone’s film adaptation of the band’s story in The Doors in 1991, which mostly focuses on Jim Morrison and his self-destructive lifestyle.
1970 – A series of lawsuits against various members of the Black Panther Party take place in New Haven.
2008 – Legendary film actor Paul Newman, dies at his home in Westport of cancer, aged 83.
2010 – The Kleen Energy Systems nuclear power plant in Middletown explodes, killing 5 and injuring dozens.
On August 3, a shooting broke out at Hartford Distributors in Manchester. The gunman, a former employee, Omar Sheriff Thornton, shot and killed 8 people before committing suicide.
2011 – When Hurricane Irene hits Connecticut, 20 homes in East Haven were destroyed and 5 others damaged by floods and storms along the coast at Long Island Sound.
2012 – A former Goldman Sachs CEO, Rajat Gupta, was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $ 5 million in October.
