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: Whalers Play Their First Hockey 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: Legendary Arms Maker Samuel Colt Dies at 47
Today in 1862, gunmaker Samuel Colt died in Hartford. Though he was just 47 years old, Colt died one of the richest men in the United States. He also left a legacy of manufacturing and innovation that changed the face of Hartford, and whose impact was felt from Connecticut to the Western American frontier…
January 9: Connecticut Votes to Join 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 8: Washington Gives His First State of the Union Address, Dressed in Connecticut’s Finest
As the first President of the newly-formed United States of America, George Washington was acutely aware that his his every decision would be scrutinized, and his every move would set a precedent for how the nation’s future chief executives should act. As a firm believer in the republican principles laid out in the new U.S….
January 7: Hiram Bingham III, Connecticut’s Governor For One Day Only
It would be an understatement to say that Hiram Bingham III, Connecticut’s famous archaeologist, explorer, professor, pilot, politician, and best-selling author who likely was the inspiration for the fictional adventurer Indiana Jones, accomplished much in his lifetime. It remains an irony, however, that one of Bingham’s most well-known accomplishments was also one of the…
January 6: The Inaugural Ball That Didn’t Happen
Long known as “the Land of Steady Habits,” Connecticut is home to scores of political and cultural traditions that span generations, including many that stretch back into the colonial era. One such tradition has been the Inaugural Ball, a ceremony filled with plenty of pomp and circumstance thrown for newly elected governors by the…
January 5: Ezra Warner Invents the Can Opener
In the early 1800s, responding to Napoleon’s request to find a more efficient way to feed his armies in the field, French inventor Nicholas Appert discovered that heating food stored in glass jars would sterilize it, keeping it safe to eat for long periods of time. Shortly thereafter, Englishman Peter Durand invented a similar…
January 4: Connecticut’s First Female Pilot’s Final Journey
In the heady days of early American aviation, when tales of plucky pilots and ingenious innovators were a dime a dozen, few pilots stood out from the crowd as much as Mary Goodrich Jenson, the first woman to earn a pilot’s license in the state of Connecticut. Born in Hartford in 1907, young Mary…
January 3: Senator Joe Decides to Go.
Today in 2013, after over 40 years of public service to the people of Connecticut and having earned a reputation as a politician who defied conventional political labels, Senator Joseph Lieberman retired from politics after deciding not to run for re-election to the U.S. Senate. Born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1942, Lieberman grew up…
January 2: Interstate 95 – The Connecticut Turnpike – Opens
January 2nd remains a date in Connecticut history that is bound to provoke strong feelings among the state’s road warriors: On this day in 1958, the Connecticut Turnpike — better known today as Interstate 95 — first opened to the public. The course of the well-traveled highway largely paralleled the path of U.S. Route…
January 1: The Spy “Queen” Who Triggered the Red Scare of the 1950s
Today in 1908, one of the most high-profile American-born Soviet spies of the 20th century was born in New Milford, Connecticut. Elizabeth Bentley was born to a middle-class family — a dry-goods sellers and a schoolteacher — and by several accounts was a clever and intellectually bright young women who seemed to have trouble…