In June 1916, while the horrors of the Great War in Europe remained an ocean away, President Woodrow Wilson anticipated a more immediate threat along the United States’ border with Mexico. Earlier that year, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa had led a deadly raid into New Mexico that left an American town destroyed. After months…
Tag: world war i
June 5: Mandatory “Registration Day” for the Great War.
The United States’ entry into World War I on April 6, 1917 marked the end of a long period of military non-intervention, resulting in a scramble to recruit men to fill the ranks of America’s army and navy before engaging the enemy in Europe. After a national volunteer recruitment drive only attracted a fraction…
May 19: America’s World War I Flying Ace Killed In Action
Today in 1918, one of America’s greatest and most colorful World War I flying aces was killed in action after being shot down over France by a German triplane. Raoul Lufbery, a proud Franco-American who had lived in Connecticut before joining the Allied war effort, was only 33 years old at the time. Born…
April 20: Green Connecticut Troops Fight Germany’s Best at WWI Battle of Seicheprey
On this day in 1918, 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 troops and holding the front lines against all odds. The US 26th Infantry Division, nicknamed the Yankee Division because all of its…
April 11: How the Subs Got to Groton
Today in Connecticut history, Naval Submarine Base New London — the home of the United States submarine force — was first established as a navy yard and storage depot. In 1868, several towns in Southeastern Connecticut jumped at the chance to host a naval installation in their area, pooling their resources to offer the…
April 7: Hartford Residents Gather to Show Support for WWI
On this day in 1917, citizens of Hartford gathered in the streets for a “mass patriotic meeting” to show their support for America’s formal entry into World War I. Even though the Great War had been raging in Europe for three years, the United States had been reluctant to officially join the fight against…
April 2: The Deadly Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919 Hits Connecticut
On this day in 1919, the medical paper “Complications of Influenza” was read to a desperately worried Hartford County Medical Society, who had been fighting a devastating global flu pandemic that had first reared its ugly head in Connecticut nearly twelve months before. This particular strain of flu, commonly referred to as “Spanish influenza,”…
March 29: Knights of Columbus Incorporated in New Haven
Late-19th century Connecticut was marked by the growing prevalence of fraternal benefit societies, hostility toward a recent influx of Catholic immigrants from Europe, and dangerous working conditions in factories that left many families fatherless. In response to these societal pressures, Father Michael J. McGivney, the 29-year-old Irish immigrant and assistant pastor of St. Mary’s…
February 7: Electric Boat Begins a Century of Submarine Building
For over 100 years, Electric Boat has been the primary producer of submarines for the United States and allied countries around the world. From its headquarters and shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, and auxiliary shipyards located in Quonset, RI and Newport News, VA, Electric Boat has designed and built dozens of technologically-advanced submarines for the…
February 5: World War I’s Most Decorated Pet
Today in 1918, an unlikely war hero in the shape of a small, short-tailed puppy arrived at the front lines in France alongside the 102d Regiment of the Yankee Division, a unit composed of mostly Connecticut soldiers who had been recruited in New Haven. That puppy, named “Stubby” by his comrades on account of his…
January 12: Mary Townsend Seymour, Civil Rights Champion
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 7: Hiram Bingham III, Connecticut’s One-Day Governor
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…