Today in 1800, the farm boy turned inventor, philanthropist, publishing magnate and founder of the nation’s first mass communications network Moses Yale Beach was born in Wallingford. Beach’s entrepreneurial life and achievements exemplified the imaginative, “go ahead spirit” that propelled America’s astonishing early nineteenth century growth. Apprenticed as a boy to a Hartford cabinetmaker…
Author: waltwould
I am State Historian of Connecticut Emeritus and an Associate Professor of HistoryEmeritus 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; 3) Attend my next lecture, performance, or book signing. See you soon, I hope.
January 12: Bob Dylan’s “Strangest and Longest” Concert Ever
Today in 1990, in a final warm-up, or perhaps the kick-off, to a tour that would see him present multiple concerts in the United States, Brazil, France and England in under 30 days, rock legend and Nobel Prize laureate Bob Dylan played what one reporter called “the strangest and longest show of his career”…
January 12: Lifelong Civil Rights Champion Mary Townsend Seymour
Born in Hartford in 1873, lifelong civil rights activist Mary Townsend lost both her parents at the age of 15, and was adopted into the family of local black activist and Civil War veteran Lloyd Seymour. A few years later, she married one of his sons, Frederick Seymour, and the newlyweds settled in the…
January 11: New England Whalers First Game at Hartford Civic Center
On this day in 1975, Hartford became home to a professional hockey team for the first time in its history as the New England Whalers played their first home game at the brand-new Hartford Civic Center. The Whalers had been organized in 1972 as one of the inaugural teams of the World Hockey Association,…
January 10: A Shocked City Mourns the Death of Samuel Colt at 47
Today in 1862, gunmaker Samuel Colt died in Hartford. Though he was only 47 years old, Colt died one of the richest men in the United States and left a legacy of manufacturing and innovation that changed the face of Hartford, Connecticut to the Western American frontier and beyond. Internationally recognized for his formative…
January 9: Connecticut Joins the United States
Today in 1788, the delegates at the Connecticut state convention ratified the United States Constitution by a vote of 128 to 40, making Connecticut the fifth state to join the Union. While certain states, most notably New York and Virginia, remained skeptical of the new Constitution and required lots of convincing in order to…
January 7: Connecticut’s One-Day-Only Governor
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO HEAR AN AI WRITTEN AND AI NARRATED VERSION OF TODAY’S STORY. This is an experiment in seeing how artificial intelligence can be applied to public history. The AI participants (Chat GPT AND Eleven labs) were prompted by curator Walt Woodward to write and narrate new stories based on…
January 3: Hunger Pangs – Glastonbury Grocery Stores Run Out of Food
Today in 1943, concerned and sometimes panicky homemakers in Glastonbury flocked to area farms seeking potatoes, eggs, poultry and vegetables to feed their families. The food rush came following weeks of increasing food shortages that had culminated in the sudden closure of several local grocery stores the day before, after they simply ran out…
January 1: A Brand New New Year’s Day
CLICK THE LINK BELOW to hear today’s story as narrated by an AI announcer created by ELEVENLabs. Today in 1752, Connecticans woke up to the realization that January first was, and henceforward always would be, New Year’s Day. The year before, and for 597 years before that, both in Old and New England,…
December 31: The American Revolution’s First Year Ends in Disaster
The first year of the American Revolution against British oppression had gotten off to an unexpectedly positive start. The American “Minute Men’s” effective resistance at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775 had been followed both by a surprise Connectican-led takeover of the strategically important British Fort…
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,…
December 15: America’s First Attempt to Bring Canada Into the Union Wasn’t Very Subtle
Today in 1775, the icy gray ramparts of Quebec trembled to the sound of Connectican-commanded guns. From a frozen patch of ground within musket-shot of the city’s St. John’s Gate, Norwich-born Colonel Benedict Arnold— who only seven months before had captured Fort Ticonderoga and its guns from the British with another Connect-born leader – Ethan Allan—ordered…