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…
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.
August 10: The First Union General to Die in the Civil War
Today in 1861, Eastford’s Nathaniel Lyon – a little-known figure the day before – instantly became one of the most celebrated figures in the United States when he was shot in the chest at Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, making him the first Union General to die in the Civil War. Lyon’s death came as the…
March 10: Connecticut’s First Congresswoman Did Just About Everything!
Connecticut’s first congresswoman, Clare Boothe Luce, was one of the most professionally-accomplished women of her time. Born Ann Clare Boothe on March 10, 1903, her parents instilled in her a love of music and the performing arts. After acting in a few minor theater roles as a young adult, she married New York City…
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…
November 18: A Celebrity Murder Trial with Two Surprise Endings
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…
May 31: Rev. Thomas Hooker Declares “the People” the Foundation of Government
To many students of Connecticut history and colonial America, Thomas Hooker is considered the “founding father” of Connecticut. A Puritan minister who journeyed from England to Holland to Massachusetts in search of a place where he could preach his message of reformed Christianity free from persecution, Hooker served with distinction as the first established…
January 24: A. C. Gilbert, the Greatest Generation’s Greatest 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…
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 14: Tragedy at the Hazardville Gunpowder Mill
The community of Hazardville, Connecticut unintentionally lived up to its name on this day in 1913, when an errant spark of unknown origin caused a deadly chain reaction of four massive explosions at the Hazard Powder Company. Situated on the banks of the Scantic River in the southern half of the town of Enfield,…
September 27: The Man Who Made Long Wharf the Longest in the United States
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 three-quarters of a mile out into deep water. The wharf construction…
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…
June 17: The First Black Playwright To “Take a Giant Step” to Broadway
Award-winning playwright and filmmaker Louis Peterson spent his career creating dramatic stories that explored conflict and relationships especially as they turned around issues of race. He achieved a number of firsts, becoming the first Black playwright to have his work produced on Broadway and one of the first Black Emmy nominees – but before…