Few people did more to shape twentieth-century popular culture in Connecticut than the man they called “the King of Diamonds” – the jeweler and marketing genius Bill Savitt, who died today in 1995, at age 94. Savitt combined a P. T. Barnum-worthy sense of marketing possibilities with a passion for sports and philanthropy to…
Author: waltwould
I am the State Historian of Connecticut and an Associate Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. Check my links to 1) See What Happened Today in Connecticut History; 2) Listen to our latest Connecticut History podcast
February 27: The Man Who Defined “Early America” for the Greatest Generation
Many Americans think of Eric Sloane as the man whose paintings, drawings, books, and stories defined early American life, work, culture, and values to a post-World-War-II generation of proud and patriotic Americans. But even a cursory examination of Sloane’s extraordinarily diverse accomplishments reveals him to be a true Renaissance person, one of the most…
February 6: The “Blizzard of ’78” Takes Connecticut by Storm
Today in 1978, Connecticans went to work well aware that snow –possibly even heavy snow – was predicted, if a storm developing off the North Carolina Coast fully lived up to its “impressive potential.” But the snow that was supposed to have begun falling during the night had not materialized, nor had the predicted…
February 4: Woodstock Helps A New Nation Create a New Kind of Education
Today in1802, responding to post-revolutionary war Connecticans’ desire for secondary education suited to the needs of a new kind of nation, the Woodstock Academy, Connecticut’s oldest coeducational secondary school, welcomed its first students. It’s creation helped mark a new era in the state support of secondary education and was a key event of in…
January 22: The U S National Park Service’s Founding Champion and First Director
Although born in San Francisco and educated at the University of California at Berkeley, Stephen Tyng Mather always considered the 1778 Mather homestead in Darien his home. Built by his great grandfather Deacon Joseph Mather during the American Revolution, Stephen spent summers there as a boy, inherited the house and 22 acres from his…
December 24th: The Ghost Ship Sails Into New London
Perhaps no object symbolizes the importance of craftsmanship and historic preservation better than the ghost ship Captain James Buddington and a skeleton crew of 11 sailed into New London harbor on Christmas Eve 1855. The prize vessel, which the veteran whaler had discovered abandoned on an ice floe off Baffin Island three months before,…
September 27: The Man Who Made Long Wharf the Longest Wharf in the Country
Though the name Long Wharf is today associated with a number of shops, businesses, ships and projects along the New Haven coastline (not to mention Allen wrenches and cinnamon buns), it originally referred to an actual wharf that extended into the harbor, reaching ¾ of a mile out into deep water. The wharf construction…
September 22: The Man Who Proved You Are What You Eat
Wilbur Olin Atwater, who died today in 1907, was a nineteenth-century pioneer in nutrition science who talked about food and metabolism 150 years ago in a way that would seem totally at home on the pages of a health magazine or nutrition brochure today. The son of a New York minister and librarian, Atwater…
September 19: “Schoolboy” Johnny Taylor Throws No-Hitter Against Baseball Giant Satchel Paige
The man considered by many to be the greatest baseball player ever to come out of Connecticut got off to an unusual start. The future pitcher and slugger who would be idolized by fans across the Americas as “Schoolboy” Johnny Taylor (“Escolar Taylor” in Mexico), was a track team member focused on high-jumping and…
September 8: “Old Nan” Comes to the End of the Line
When Amtrak’s Northeast Regional train 67 crossed the Niantic River on its nighttime run from Boston to New York at 11:39 p.m. on September 7, 2012, it was the last train ever to travel on “Old Nan,” the 105 year old railroad drawbridge between East Lyme and Waterford, a historic “choke point” on the nation’s busiest rail line. At…
August 31: Hurricane Carol, A Storm So Devastating They Stopped Using Its Name
After living through 10 consecutive years without a single hurricane, complacent Connecticans and all New Enganders received a rude and disastrous awakening the morning of August 31, 1954, when giant Category 5 hurricane Carol, with winds gusting to 130 miles per hour, moved swiftly across Long Island, and then slammed into the area between…
July 14: Bridgeport Throws Express Train 172 a Deadly Curve
Whenever a train approached Bridgeport’s “Jenkins Curve,” the sharpest curve of the New Haven Railroad system, safety regulations required the engineer to slow down to 30 mph. At 3:42 in the morning of July 14, 1955, however, the driver of New Haven Railroad’s express train 172, from New York City to Boston, inexplicably continued…