Today in 1970, an iconic pop music duo consisting of a New Haven-born brother and sister, experienced the first major breakthrough of their musical careers. They did so with a song that had previously been recorded by a host of other performers. The pair achieved “overnight stardom” (after a decade of effort) with their…
Tag: 20th century
July 24: Ancient Incan City Puts Hiram Bingham III on the Map
Hiram Bingham III was, without a doubt, one of the most colorful people to grace the annals of Connecticut history. Born in 1875, over the course of his lifetime he became an Ivy League-educated scholar of Latin America, pilot, amateur archaeologist, Yale professor, United States senator, best-selling author, and the duly elected governor of…
July 20: Mass-Marriage-Minded “Moonies” Minister Moves Into Danbury Prison.
Sun Myung Moon, the late 20th century Korean evangelist whose Unification Church once claimed over three million members worldwide, was a figure dogged by controversy throughout his life. Born in occupied North Korea in 1920, Moon developed strong anti-Communist views as an adult and founded the Unification Church in Seoul, South Korea. The church’s…
July 19: American Impressionism Is First Planted at a Farm Called “the Great Good Place.”
J. Alden Weir loved his Ridgefield, Connecticut farm so much, he called it “the Great Good Place.” Today, as one of Connecticut’s two National Historic parks (Coltsville in Hartford is the other)the Weir Farm National Historic Site memorializes the life and historic contributions of Weir, one of the most iconic painters of the American…
July 18: Connecticut’s Biggest Beach & State Park Welcomes Its First Crowd
Hammonasset Beach State Park, Connecticut’s largest public beach and one of the state’s most popular attractions, first opened to the public today in 1920. Located in Madison, Hammonasset features a continuous two-mile-long stretch of sandy beaches lining a shoreline peninsula that juts southward into Long Island Sound. Before opening to the public in 1920,…
July 17: Bridgeport Baseball Team Arrested. . . 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…
July 15: Constructing Connecticut’s Largest Lake
With an area of 8.4 square miles and over 60 miles of coastline, Candlewood Lake is the largest lake in the state of Connecticut. Located in five towns and straddling both Litchfield and Fairfield counties, its shores are also home to some of the state’s highest-priced real estate. The lake has served as a…
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…
July 12: The Car of the Future — in 1933
R. Buckminster Fuller, the inventor, architect, author, and futurist best known for his popularization of the geodesic dome, was one of the most prolific public intellectuals of the early 20th century. In the early 1930s, Fuller coined the word “Dymaxion” — a portmanteau of the words “dynamic,” “maximum,” and “tension” — and applied it…
July 10: The Worst Tornado Outbreak in Connecticut History
Today in 1989, the worst recorded tornado outbreak in state history tore through the state, as multiple twisters devastated a historic forest, left behind numerous swaths of destruction, killed two people, and injured hundreds more. Local meteorologists had warned residents about the high potential for severe weather on July 10, 1989, but no…
July 6: The Saddest Day in Hartford History
What began as an innocent day at the circus ended in one of the worst fire disasters in U.S. history, today in 1944. In early July of that year, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus had set up one of their largest “Big Top” tents in a field in Hartford’s North End…
July 1: Concerns Over Prison Unrest Produce the State Department of Correction
Today in 1968, the Connecticut General Assembly voted in favor of consolidating the state’s prisons into a single organization, creating the State Department of Correction. Previously, every prison in the state had been independently managed, with its own Board of Directors, administrative staff, and policies for inmate behavior and rehabilitation. This sweeping reform of…