Today in 1919, Connecticut companies throughout the state were effectively shuttered as thousands of workers across a multitude of different industries joined in a massive regional strike that, within the course of a week, spread from Maine to New York and brought New England commerce to a screeching halt. Connecticut, like many other states…
August 6: Dale Earnhardt Smokes the Competition in Stafford
For a small state sandwiched between two of America’s largest cities, Connecticut has enjoyed its fair share of exposure to professional sports. While Connecticut is best known for its association with professional hockey and baseball teams and for the many Olympic athletes who grew up in its suburbs, the state has also played host…
August 5: The Statue of Liberty’s Connecticut Cornerstone
While scores of Connecticut men and women have left an indelible mark on American history, sometimes it’s easy to forget that objects from Connecticut can have their own stories of national significance, too. In fact, some of the most monumental objects in Connecticut history can be traced to a single point of origin: a…
August 4: Connecticut Radio Stations Ban the Beatles
On August 4, 1966, several Connecticut pop music radio stations joined a nationwide boycott and refused to play Beatles music in response to perceived anti-Christian remarks made by John Lennon. The offending interview actually took place in March of 1966, when journalist Maureen Cleave asked John Lennon a series of questions about the rock…
August 3: Connecticut Picks Delegates For the Radical 1st Continental Congress
Today, Americans are so familiar with the imagery and historical stories surrounding the creation of the Declaration of Independence that they often forget just how radical an event it was. The very notion that representatives from all thirteen American colonies would meet in secret to discuss a coordinated, organized resistance to British rule as…
August 2: The Last Public Hanging in Connecticut
In 2012, Connecticut became the 17th state to outlaw the death penalty. For the first 200 years of Connecticut’s recorded history, however, public executions were viewed as an effective deterrent of serious crimes. They were also major community events, attracting hundreds if not thousands of onlookers to watch the morbid spectacle. Speeches and moralizing…
August 1: “Base Ball” in 19th Century Hartford
The Charter Oak Base Ball Club, founded in the summer of 1862, was the first baseball team to be formed in Hartford. Their stated mission was to “establish on a scientific basis the health-giving and scientific game of Base Ball, and to promote good fellowship among its players.” In the age before national professional…
July 31: All Aboard The Branford Trolley Line!
Today in Connecticut history, one of the first electrically-powered trolley lines in the United States began service between Branford and East Haven, Connecticut. July 31, 1900 marked the inaugural run of the Branford Electric Railway, which was hailed as a more efficient and sanitary way to transport people along the Connecticut shoreline than the…
July 30: Powder Ridge: The Epic Rock Concert That Never Was
Today in 1970, a sea of nearly 30,000 concertgoers circumvented police roadblocks and hiked up Beseck Mountain in Middlefield, Connecticut with high hopes of attending a rock concert — and party — for the ages. In an attempt to ride the momentum of the wildly popular rock n’ roll megaconcert at Woodstock in 1969,…
July 29: The Andover Lake “Wade In”
In 1926, a group of eastern Connecticut investors hoping to capitalize on the state’s new car culture, expanding highway system, and Roaring 20’s prosperity, purchased a large spring fed-wetland in Andover Connecticut. They cleared trees, cut roads, and built the 550 foot long dam that created beautiful Andover Lake. When completed in 1928, they…
July 28: New Haven Serves Up the First Hamburger
July 28, 1900 was shaping up to be an average summer day for lunch wagon owner and German immigrant Louis Lassen, who was serving sandwiches and other hot meals to factory workers in New Haven during their lunch breaks. Suddenly, a local businessman, Gary Widmore, rushed up to Lassen’s wagon and desperately asked for…
July 27: The River That Made Us.
On this day in 1998, Vice President Al Gore officially designated the Connecticut River as an American Heritage River, one of only fourteen such waterways in the nation to be labeled as such. In his remarks, Gore recognized the central role the Connecticut played in shaping not only the environment and physical character of…