Today in 1903, pediatrician Benjamin Spock, the most influential doctor of the Baby Boomer generation, was born in New Haven. A graduate of Yale University and Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, Spock is considered to be the first doctor to apply Freudian psychoanalysis to child care. In 1946, Spock published The Common…
Tag: april
May 1: The Pequot War
On this date in 1637, Connecticut colonists formally declared war against the Pequots, the Native American tribe whose territory covered approximately 250 square miles of land in southeastern Connecticut and Rhode Island. Relations between Connecticut colonists and the Pequots had been tense ever since the first permanent English settlements had been established along the…
April 30: The New England Patriots Back Out of Hartford Stadium Deal
In 1998, Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots pro football team, was seeking a new home for his franchise, which had outgrown their small and outdated stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. After failing to secure stadium deals in South Boston and then Rhode Island, Kraft set his sights on Connecticut. His quest for…
April 29: Oliver Ellsworth, Founding Father of the U.S. Supreme Court, Born in Windsor
Oliver Ellsworth, a Connecticut jurist who played a key role in drafting both the U.S. Constitution and the Judiciary Act of 1789 that helped establish the federal court system and U.S. Supreme Court, was born on this day in 1745 in Windsor. After graduating from the College of New Jersey (modern-day Princeton University), Ellsworth…
April 28: Connecticut’s Historic Merritt Parkway Marred By Corruption Charges
Connecticut’s historic Merritt Parkway is the oldest scenic parkway in the United States. One of the first limited-access, divided-lane highways in the United States, its novel use of entrance and exit ramps preceded the Eisenhower interstate system by decades. Lined with trees, carefully maintained green spaces, and passing underneath dozens of uniquely decorated stone…
April 27: The Battle of Ridgefield, 1777
On this day in 1777, one day after William Tryon destroyed the Continental Army’s supply depot in Danbury with a party of 2,000 British troops and loyalists, a force of American troops and Connecticut militiamen struck back near the town of Ridgefield. Tryon’s raid on Danbury took local patriots by surprise; they had assumed…
April 26: British Troops Attack Danbury, Connecticut
During the American Revolution, the western Connecticut town of Danbury served as a critical supply depot for Continental Army troops stationed in the New England and mid-Atlantic states, including the strategically-important Hudson River Valley area. In early 1777, Royal Governor William Tryon of New York attempted to sever the American supply line that ran through…
April 25: Winchester Arms Company Founded in New Haven
In early 1857, businessman Oliver Winchester bought a controlling interest in a struggling Connecticut firearms company from two inventors by the name of Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson (who would soon move to Massachusetts to found a second and much more successful firearms venture of their own). With access to a number of patents,…
April 24: New Haven Colony Settled in 1638
In the 1630s, John Davenport, like many Puritan ministers preaching in 17th century London, yearned to create a “New Jerusalem” in a place free of the persecution and political pressures of England. Arriving in the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1637, Davenport and his congregants couldn’t find a large enough plot of land to their…
April 23: Connecticut’s Worst Construction Disaster: L’Ambience Plaza
In early 1987, excitement was building in Bridgeport for “L’Ambience Plaza,” a new luxury apartment complex slated to open later that year on the corner of Washington Avenue and Coleman Street. Those dreams of downtown revitalization were suddenly dashed, however, in the afternoon hours of April 23. At 1:36pm, construction crews had just hoisted…
April 22: Noah Webster Calls for Environmental Sustainability (in 1817!)
On this day in 1817, Noah Webster’s visionary essay on environmental sustainability, which he modestly titled “Domestic Consumption,” was published on the front page of the Connecticut Courant. Born in West Hartford, Connecticut and a graduate of Yale College, Webster is best known to history as the creator of the first American dictionary in 1806. …
April 20: Connecticut Soldiers Fight at WWI Battle of Seicheprey
100 years ago today, a division full of new Connecticut recruits encountered their first taste of modern warfare in a small village in northeastern France, repelling a regiment of elite German stormtroopers and holding the front lines against all odds. The US 26th Infantry Division, nicknamed the Yankee Division because all of its subordinate…