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…
Tag: environment
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 what is now West Hartford, Connecticut and a graduate of Yale College, Webster is best known to history as the creator of the first American…
March 28: Aquaculture Comes Out Of Its Shell.
By the time the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries first assigned a resident scientist to study Connecticut’s shellfish industry in the 1920s, Connecticut residents had been harvesting oysters and clams from the waters of Long Island Sound for hundreds of years. Created in the late 19th century, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries’ mission was…
July 29: Heavy Rains Devastate Bridgeport
On this night in 1905, heavy summer rains brought sudden disaster to southwestern Connecticut. In the span of only seventeen hours, more than 11 inches of rain fell on the greater Bridgeport area, causing widespread street and coastal flooding. As the deluge stretched into the early morning hours of the following day, the Ward’s…
July 27: The Connecticut River Becomes an “American Heritage River”
On this day in Connecticut history, twenty years ago, Vice President Al Gore officially designated the Connecticut River as an American Heritage River, one of fourteen such waterways to be labeled as such. In his remarks, Gore recognized the central role major waterways like the Connecticut played in shaping not only the environment and…
June 8: John Adams Writes of Connecticut’s Natural Beauty
On this day in 1771, thirty-five-year-old lawyer — and future President of the United States — John Adams traveled by horse southward along the Connecticut River, from Windsor through Hartford and Wethersfield to Middletown, as part of a Connecticut sojourn intended to improve his health. Adams, a prolific writer, kept a detailed diary of…