In 1941, even though the United States had not yet formally entered World War II, the U.S. military was anxious to shore up defenses along the eastern seaboard, which some feared was a vulnerable target for a German attack. Early that year, the Connecticut General Assembly approved the purchase of 1,700 acres of former…
Tag: windsor locks
November 5: Ella Grasso, First Female Governor
Born to Italian immigrants in 1919, Ella Rosa Giovanna Oliva Tambussi grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood of first and second-generation Americans in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. Her parents, determined to invest in a better future for their daughter, saved up enough money to send Ella to the prestigious Chaffee School in Windsor. Afterwards, she…
October 3: Windsor Locks Devastated by Massive F-4 Tornado
On this day in 1979, one of the most devastating freak storms in state history spawned a massive F-4 tornado that tore through north-central Connecticut. Just after 3:00pm, a funnel cloud touched down in the Poquonock area of Windsor and carved a path four miles long and a quarter-mile wide northward through Windsor Locks,…