On November 20, 1887, fire raged through the winter quarters of Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth. The five-acre compound in what is now Bridgeport’s Went Field Park housed circus animals, staff and equipment during the chilly off-season. Unfortunately, if there was anything to be said about the nineteenth-century circus, it’s that…
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
November 10: Unusual Funeral Ends Connecticut’s Tong Wars
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, as Chinese immigrants flocked to American shores in increasing numbers, insular Chinese-American communities known as “Chinatowns” sprang up in large coastal cities like San Francisco and New York. Here, recent immigrants could more freely speak their native language and observe Chinese customs while adapting to…
July 23: Abby Smith and Her Cows Go Viral –– in 1874
Today in 1879, Abigail “Abby” Hadassah Smith, — who achieved instant national fame at age 76 because of the way she responded to the man who took her cows — passed away at her home in Glastonbury. Born into a prominent activist Glastonbury family, Smith and her four sisters were educated from birth to…
July 17: Warrants Issued for the Arrest of the Bridgeport Baseball Team . . . Again
Today in 1913, arrest warrants were issued in Bridgeport for players on the Bridgeport Mechanics minor league baseball team. It was not the first time members of the Bridgeport nine had faced justice. They had, in fact, been arrested, tried, and convicted twice previously during the preceding two months. Their crime? Playing baseball on…
February 29: Whaler Legend Gordie Howe Leaps Into NHL History One Last Time
Today in 1980, at the tender age of 51, hockey legend and Hartford Whaler Gordie Howe became the first NHL player – and still only one of two players – to score an astonishing 800 goals. He did so in a 3-0 Whalers’ victory over the St. Louis Blues. Known as “Mr. Hockey” and…
January 25: A Building Built for the Battles to Come
Today in 1940, nearly 3000 people came to East Hartford to go on a three-quarter mile walking tour of a brand new two-million-dollar factory expansion at the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft company. The 280,000 square foot expansion, for which planning had begun the previous February and ground had been broken and construction started only four…
January 24: A. C. Gilbert, the Greatest Generation’s Toymaker
Today in 1961, A. C. “A. Co.” Gilbert, the man whose hands-on-learning toys were the foundation of the American toy industry during the first half of the twentieth century, died at age 76. A gifted athlete and pole-vaulting gold medalist at the 1908 London Olympics, Gilbert was also a talented illusionist who financed his Yale…
November 28: State Librarian Rewrites the Book.
Today in 1900, Granby native George Seymour Godard was appointed Connecticut’s third State Librarian. The hand-picked choice of his predecessor Charles J. Hoadley, who had died the month before, Godard served as State Librarian for 35 years. He radically expanded the mission of the state library system, making it a nationally and internationally acclaimed…
November 21: Football’s Largest Crowd Gathers to Launch Football’s Largest Stadium
Today in 1914, over 68,000 fans gathered in the largest sports arena the world had ever seen to watched Yale University’s football team lose to Harvard in a 30 – 0 shutout in the first game ever held at the Yale Bowl. The Yale Bowl was an architectural marvel upon its completion in 1914….
November 20: A Great American Mastodon Challenges the Bible in a Hartford Saloon
Today in 1845, awestruck visitors gathered at Gilman’s Saloon in Hartford to view the skeleton of an extinct great American mastodon recently unearthed at a marl pit near Newburgh, New York. At a time before the discovery of the great dinosaurs, when ideas about the world’s origins conflicted with deeply held theological views of…
November 19: The International Silver Company Founded in Meriden
Today in 1898, the International Silver Company, one of Connecticut’s most famous and globally-recognized brands, was formally incorporated in Meriden. The central Connecticut city had already established a national reputation as a leading producer of silver and silver-plated goods by the late 19th century, earning it the nickname “the Silver City.” By 1898, over…
November 18: Samuel Colt’s Murderous Brother John Cheats the Hangman
Today in 1842, hours after he had married his beautiful mistress and moments before he was to be hanged for murder, gunmaker Samuel Colt’s brother John took his own life with a six-inch-long Bowie knife in a New York City prison cell. In doing so, he cheated the “sweating, swearing mob” of 400 invited…