During the War of 1812, warning signals in the form of two blue lights prevented US ships from slipping past the British blockade of New London’s harbor. This left officials and the public to wonder: who was lighting these “torches of treason,” and why?
ReadErnest Borgnine, a native of Hamden who served ten years in navy, became one of the world’s most recognized and revered actors.
ReadIn 1968 the prospect of nuclear power energized those hoping to find an alternative to coal, oil, and other fossil fuels.
ReadOn January 21, 1954, First Lady Mamie Eisenhower launched the…
ReadOn January 20, 2007, the 35-year-old New Haven Veterans Memorial…
ReadAnna Louise James was born on January 19, 1886, in…
ReadEmma Irene Boardman was born January 17, 1889, in Great…
ReadThis accomplished New London resident chronicled his daily life over a 47-year period from 1711 to 1758.
ReadEmbracing the ideals supported by Hartford founder the Rev. Thomas Hooker, the Fundamental Orders represent what many consider to be the first written constitution in the Western world.
ReadThe funeral of America’s first great munitions maker was spectacular—certainly the most spectacular ever seen in the state’s capital city.
ReadOn January 13, 1840, over 150 people perished on Long Island Sound when the steamboat Lexington caught fire. Only four survived the “Appalling Calamity,” as newspapers across the country described it.
ReadJames Williams was an escaped slave who became a janitor at Trinity College from the institution’s founding in 1823 until his death in 1878.
ReadElihu Burritt, a blacksmith by trade, became an advocate for peace around the world throughout the 19th century.
ReadThe Embargo Act of 1807 stifled Connecticut trade with Europe, but ultimately boosted local manufacturing.
ReadThe daughter of Italian immigrants becomes Connecticut’s first woman governor.
ReadThis profitable exchange brought wealth and sought-after goods to the state but came at the price of supporting slavery in the bargain.
ReadControversy over seat belt laws has long been a part of their evolutionary history.
ReadTales of a spectral ship seen sailing in the skies above New Haven have haunted Connecticut’s imagination since the late 1640s.
ReadEllis Ruley, the son of a slave who escaped to Norwich, rose to prominence as an artist, but prosperity and racial tensions created resentment among members of the local population.
ReadOn January 4th 1899, George Edward Lounsbury was elected the…
ReadThe first Latina elected to the Connecticut General Assembly started as a grassroots activist for Hartford’s Puerto Rican community.
ReadPollution of Connecticut’s waters by industrial waste and sewage in the decades after the Civil War was arguably the state’s first modern environmental crisis.
ReadOn January 2, 1958, Governor Abraham Ribicoff officially opened the Connecticut Turnpike—today the Governor John Davis Lodge Turnpike—to traffic.
ReadOn January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, declaring more than three million African Americans in those states in rebellion against the United States to be forever free.
ReadHailed as the “Century Celebration,” the evening of December 31,…
ReadCitizens’ dedication on the battlefield and home front did not always signal agreement on key issues of the day.
ReadGuy Hedlund was a Connecticut native made famous through his…
ReadEarly Connecticut laws deemed anyone who spent excessive time in taverns as a “tavern haunter” and subjected them to fines and ridicule.
ReadConnecticut-born Adrian, the American clothing designer who found success in Hollywood, designed Dorothy’s ruby slippers for The Wizard of Oz.
ReadPhilanthropist Caroline Ferriday aided women whose internment at a German concentration camp during WWII left them scarred, physically as well as psychologically.
ReadOn December 24, 1925, aviation engineer and head of the…
ReadA refusal to compromise became the governing principle of this religious group active in the New London area for some 200 years.
ReadOn December 22, 1773, John Hinson the state’s first inmate…
ReadThe Barkhamsted Reservoir is the primary water supply for the…
ReadThe Kewpies originally appeared as a comic strip in the Christmas issue of the 1909 Ladies Home Journal.
ReadModes of dress and means of play for youngsters reflect more than changing tastes; they reveal shifts in societal attitudes toward the pre-adult years.
ReadA. Everett “Chick” Austin Jr. and his wife, Helen, designed one of the most unique homes of the 20th century in Hartford.
ReadA 28-year-old nurse from Hartford, Ruth Hovey served on the battlefields of World War I.
ReadThe Monumental Bronze Company of Bridgeport was the only producer of a unique type of grave marker in the United States between 1874 and 1914.
ReadFor more than three centuries, ferry service has provided vital transportation to residents and businesses around New London.
ReadA political cartoon lampoons radical members of New England’s Federalist party by poking fun at their motivations for gathering in Hartford to end the War of 1812.
ReadAt the break of dawn on December 14, 1807, a…
ReadDespite the known dangers of prolonged exposure to mercury, the hat-making industry was slow to safeguard workers against its toxic effects.
ReadLeroy Anderson, a long-time resident of Woodbury, was one of…
ReadFollowing the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament passed a…
ReadThe town of East Hampton is informally known as “Belltown,…
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