41 Facts About Connecticut – 1st Phone Book Had 50 Names

by Petr Novák, ? The accuracy of the information provided in this article was last verified on this date. If you spot any errors, please let us know in the comments. Thank you. :-) Updated 01/08/2024 Connecticut, Trivia About the US states

The world’s first telephone directory was published in Connecticut in the eastern United States. Who published it? And why were some of the state’s residents in colonial times unkindly nicknamed “pumpkinheads”?

41 Interesting Facts About the State of Connecticut

1. New Haven, the second-largest city in Connecticut, was founded in 1638 and incorporated as a city in 1784, now home to 129,779 residents.
2. In 1937, Connecticut became the first USA state to adopt permanent license plates for cars.
3. The Hartford Courant, Connecticut’s largest daily newspaper, has been published continuously since 1764, making it the oldest continuously published newspaper in the country.
4. Around 144 daily, Sunday, weekly, and monthly newspapers are published throughout Connecticut.
5. Neither Connecticut nor Rhode Island ratified the so-called 18th Amendment to the Constitution concerning prohibition.
6. Cattle branding originated in Connecticut, where all farmers were required to mark their pigs with a unique brand.
7. In 1762, the first blast furnace for producing pig iron was built in Lakeville.
8. The famous PEZ candies, served in their typical dispensers, are manufactured in the town of Orange, Connecticut. Interestingly, PEZ originated in Vienna, Austria, not the USA.
9. Incendiary cords for explosives have been manufactured in Simsbury since 1836.
10. The first machine to produce the then-new candy, the lollipop, began operating in New Haven in 1908. The English term “lollipop” was named by its creator George Smith after a popular racehorse at the time.
11. The first English settlers arrived in Connecticut in 1636, founding the villages of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor.
12. Bristol is known as the city of chrysanthemums for its abundant growth of the flower.
13. Hartford has been Connecticut’s capital since 1875.
14. On January 28, 1878, 21 residents of New Haven became the world’s first telephone service subscribers.
15. In February of that year, the New Haven District Telephone Company published the world’s first telephone directory, listing only 50 names.
16. The bicentennial emblem of New Hartford’s city incorporation was designed by James Thorsell when he was just seven years old.
17. The first women-only golf tournament in Connecticut was held on the Waterbury green on June 12, 1917.
18. Connecticut is considered the birthplace of the hamburger (1895), the Polaroid camera (1934), the helicopter (1939), and color television (1948).
19. B. F. Clyde’s Cider Mill in Mystic is the only mill in the USA that uses steam to power its cider production.
20. Connecticut is also home to the city of Washington, which was incorporated in 1779 and named in honor of General George Washington.
21. The first steel mill in the USA opened in the town of Simsbury in 1728.
22. The first safety matches were made by Thomas Sanford in Beacon Falls in 1834. These are called safety matches because they need to be struck on a surface, typically the side of a matchbox.
23. Noah Webster, author of the first English dictionary published in 1807, was born in West Hartford.
24. In 1902, New Milford experienced perhaps the greatest disaster in the town’s history when a major fire destroyed most of the commercial district along Bank Street.
25. On May 15, 1908, Mary Kies of South Killingly became the first woman in the USA to register a patent, which pertained to a unique process for weaving straw and silk.
26. The first law relating to automobiles was passed in Connecticut in 1901. It set a maximum speed limit of 12 mph.
27. The world’s first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN 571), was commissioned in Groton in 1954.
28. Groton is also home to the USA Army’s official submarine museum.
29. Ella Grasso became the first female governor in the USA in 1974 to be elected without her husband having served in a similar capacity.
30. The first trade association in the USA was founded in the town of Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut.
31. West Haven, one of the state’s youngest towns (declared in 1972), has a history dating back to 1648, making it one of the oldest inhabited settlements in the USA.
32. Connecticut’s most important agricultural products include milk, poultry, tobacco, vegetables, and fruits.
33. In colonial times, hollowed-out pumpkins were used to give soldiers a uniform hairstyle, leading to New Englanders being nicknamed “pumpkinheads.”
34. The town of Wallingford is globally recognized for the silverware produced there.
35. North Stonington, one of Connecticut’s oldest settlements, was incorporated as a town in 1807. Its name originates from the rocky character of the area.
36. The Scoville Memorial Library in Salisbury, founded by local blast furnace owner Richard Smith in 1771, is believed to be the oldest public library in the USA. Smith used collective funding to purchase the first 200 books. Contributors could borrow or return a book on the third Monday of every third month. There were fines for damaging books, usually from wax dripping from candles.
37. The port city of New London is one of the oldest native settlements in the USA. Founded in 1646 under the name Pequot (after a local Native American tribe), it was not renamed New London until 1658.
38. Dr. Henry Bronson was the first expert to cure cholera in 1832, during his tenure as a professor at the Yale School of Medicine.
39. In 1705, copper deposits were discovered near the town of Simsbury. The copper mine became the infamous “Old Newgate Prison” during the American Revolutionary War.
40. Dr. Samuel Higley began minting the first copper coins in Simsbury in 1737.
41. The town of Danbury was an important military depot during the American Revolutionary War. In 1777, the British, led by Major General William Tryon, sacked and then burned the town.