78 Fun Facts About Connecticut

Which city is Connecticut's most populous?

Hartford is only the state's fourth-largest city; Bridgeport, on Long Island Sound, has led the population table for decades.

The 'Constitution State' nickname refers to the Fundamental Orders, adopted by Connecticut in what year?

The Fundamental Orders were adopted in 1639 by the Connecticut River towns, and some historians call them the first written constitution in Western history.

Which spice gives Connecticut its unofficial nickname?

Connecticut is the Nutmeg State; one tongue-in-cheek origin story says its peddlers sold carved wooden nutmegs as the real spice to unsuspecting customers.

Which song is Connecticut's official state song?

Connecticut adopted 'Yankee Doodle' as its official state song in 1978, embracing a Revolutionary-era tune sung by Continental Army troops.

The state's name comes from a Mohegan-Pequot word translated as what?

The word refers to the river that roughly bisects the state and empties into Long Island Sound between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme.

Connecticut's high point sits on the slope of which peak, whose summit lies across the state line?

Connecticut's 2,380-foot high point lies on the south slope of Mount Frissell, whose 2,454-foot summit stands just across the state line to the north.

Which body of water, created behind a hydroelectric dam in the 1920s, is the largest in Connecticut?

Candlewood Lake, Connecticut's largest lake at about 5,400 acres, was created when Connecticut Light & Power dammed the Rocky River and pumped Housatonic water into the valley from 1928.

Which of these states does not share a border with Connecticut?

Vermont is separated from Connecticut by the full width of Massachusetts; Connecticut's land neighbors are New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with Long Island Sound forming the fourth side.

Connecticut has no true oceanfront because Long Island Sound is what kind of water body?

Long Island Sound is an estuary, where fresh water from the Connecticut, Housatonic and Thames rivers mixes with Atlantic salt water behind the shelter of Long Island.

Bear Mountain, the highest summit entirely within Connecticut, stands in which northwestern town?

Bear Mountain stands in Salisbury, in Connecticut's northwest corner; the 2,316-foot summit belongs to the southern Taconic range and carries the Appalachian Trail.

How many counties does Connecticut have?

Connecticut has 8 counties, but they are little more than lines on a map: county governments were abolished in 1960, leaving towns and cities to run local affairs.

When Connecticut ratified the US Constitution in January 1788, which number state did it become?

Connecticut was the fifth state to ratify: its convention voted 128 to 40 on January 9, 1788, after four other states had already approved the Constitution.

Which Dutch navigator was the first European to explore Connecticut, in 1614?

Adriaen Block sailed up the Connecticut River in 1614; Block Island off Rhode Island also bears his name, and the Dutch later built the House of Hope trading post at present-day Hartford.

Thomas Hooker led his followers from which colony to found the Connecticut Colony?

Thomas Hooker left the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636 and led about a hundred followers overland to found Hartford, the heart of the new Connecticut Colony.

By legend, colonists hid Connecticut's 1662 charter in the Charter Oak in 1687 to keep it from which official?

Sir Edmund Andros, governor of the Dominion of New England, demanded the charter in October 1687; legend says the candles went out and Captain Joseph Wadsworth slipped away with it.

The Charter Oak was commemorated on Connecticut's coin in the 50 State Quarters program in what year?

Connecticut's quarter was released in 1999, early in the state quarters series, showing the Charter Oak, which was toppled by a storm in August 1856.

What species of tree was the Charter Oak, Connecticut's official state tree since 1947?

The Charter Oak was a white oak (Quercus alba), and Connecticut named the white oak its state tree in 1947, nearly a century after the original fell in 1856.

The world's first telephone directory, issued in New Haven in February 1878, listed how many subscribers?

The New Haven District Telephone Company's directory of February 21, 1878, listed 50 subscribers on a single sheet of cardboard, not in a book.

How does New Haven's Louis' Lunch, claimed birthplace of the hamburger, serve its burgers?

Louis' Lunch serves its burgers on toasted white bread, cooked on vertical cast-iron gas broilers dating from 1898, and the house rule is no ketchup.

Louis' Lunch, the New Haven restaurant that claims to have invented the hamburger, opened in what year?

Louis Lassen, a Danish immigrant, opened Louis' Lunch as a lunch wagon in 1895; the family says the first hamburger sandwich followed in 1900.

Which New Haven pizzeria is credited with inventing the white clam pie?

Frank Pepe's, founded on Wooster Street in 1925, is credited with creating the white clam pie, topped with fresh clams, garlic, oregano and grated cheese instead of tomato.

In 2021 Connecticut named which dish its official state food?

Pizza became Connecticut's official state food in June 2021, a nod to New Haven's coal-fired apizza; Meriden's steamed cheeseburger was passed over.

PEZ candy's US factory and visitor center are in which Connecticut town?

PEZ Candy has made its US product in Orange since 1973, and the Austrian-founded company opened a 4,000-square-foot visitor center beside the factory in 2011.

Wiffle ball was invented in 1953 in which Connecticut town?

David N. Mullany invented the Wiffle ball in his Fairfield backyard in 1953, perforating a plastic ball so his 12-year-old son could throw curves without straining his arm.

ESPN broadcasts from studios in which Connecticut town?

ESPN has been headquartered in Bristol since its founding; Getty Oil bankrolled the fledgling network, and its campus there grew from a single building into a sprawling studio complex.

In what year did ESPN launch from Connecticut with the first telecast of SportsCenter?

ESPN went on the air on September 7, 1979, opening with the first SportsCenter, which reached about 1.4 million cable households.

Lake Compounce, opened in 1846, is the oldest continuously operating what in the United States?

Lake Compounce opened in 1846 and is the oldest continuously operating amusement park in the United States; its wooden coaster Boulder Dash runs along the side of a mountain.

Foxwoods, once the largest casino in the Western Hemisphere, sits on the reservation of which tribe?

Foxwoods sits on the Mashantucket Pequot reservation in Ledyard; the tribe opened the casino in 1992, and rival Mohegan Sun followed in 1996.

Who became head coach of the UConn women's basketball team in 1985?

Geno Auriemma took over the UConn women in 1985 and built the program into a dynasty, winning his first national title in 1995 with an undefeated 35-0 team.

How many consecutive games did the UConn women win in the record streak that ended in the 2017 Final Four?

UConn's 111-game winning streak ended in the 2017 Final Four on Morgan William's overtime buzzer-beater for Mississippi State; the previous record was UConn's own 90-game run.

Yale was founded in 1701 under what original name?

Yale began in 1701 as the Collegiate School, opening in the home of its first rector, Abraham Pierson, and took the Yale name in 1718 after gifts from Elihu Yale.

What is the name of the live bulldog that serves as Yale's mascot?

Handsome Dan has been Yale's live bulldog mascot since 1889, when student Andrew Graves bought the first one from a New Haven blacksmith; each successor inherits the name and a number.

In what year did Yale become the first American university to award a PhD?

Yale awarded the first American PhDs in 1861, to three graduates including Arthur Williams Wright and Eugene Schuyler, after a bachelor's degree, prescribed study and a dissertation.

Nathan Hale, Connecticut's official state hero, was born in 1755 in which town?

Nathan Hale was born in Coventry on June 6, 1755, entered Yale at fourteen, and was hanged by the British as a spy in New York in September 1776.

In which town did Prudence Crandall run her 1830s school for African American girls?

Prudence Crandall's Canterbury school for African American girls ran from 1833 until a mob attack closed it in 1834; the legislature's 'Black Law' targeted it, and she became state heroine in 1995.

After the 1839 slave revolt aboard La Amistad, the ship was towed into which Connecticut port?

The US Navy brig Washington seized La Amistad off Long Island and brought her into New London in August 1839; the Mende captives were jailed in New Haven before the Supreme Court freed them in 1841.

USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered vessel, was built in which Connecticut town?

USS Nautilus was built by Electric Boat in Groton, launched in January 1954, and returned there in 1986 as a museum ship on the Thames River.

In August 1958, USS Nautilus became the first watercraft to reach what?

Under Operation Sunshine, USS Nautilus passed beneath the geographic North Pole on August 3, 1958, during a 96-hour, 1,830-mile transit under the Arctic ice from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Sikorsky Aircraft, maker of the first practical helicopter, has its headquarters in which Connecticut town?

Sikorsky's headquarters and main plant sit in Stratford on the Housatonic; Igor Sikorsky made the first free flight of his VS-300 on May 13, 1940, and Lockheed Martin bought the company in 2015.

Ella Grasso, elected in 1974, was the first woman elected governor of any US state without what?

She was born in Windsor Locks to Italian immigrants and had already been the first woman to lead the state House floor.

Joe Lieberman in 2000 was the first person of which faith on a major-party presidential ticket?

Joe Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew and Connecticut senator, was Al Gore's 2000 running mate, the first Jewish candidate on a major-party ticket; the ticket won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College.

Which Hartford-born actress won a record four Academy Awards for Best Actress?

Katharine Hepburn, born in Hartford in 1907, won Best Actress for Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond.

Which Bethel-born circus showman served as mayor of a Connecticut city in 1875?

P. T. Barnum, born in Bethel in 1810, served a one-year term as the city's mayor in 1875, pushing gas street lighting and a better water supply, and is buried in its Mountain Grove Cemetery.

Mark Twain's next-door neighbor at Hartford's Nook Farm was which fellow author?

Harriet Beecher Stowe lived next door to Twain at Nook Farm from 1873 until her death in 1896; both houses are preserved as museums, and Twain wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn there.

Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum, founded in 1842, is the oldest continually operating what in the United States?

The Wadsworth Atheneum, opened in 1844 after its 1842 founding, is the oldest continually operating public art museum in the United States; its castle-like original building is by Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis.

Founded in 1764, which Connecticut paper is the oldest continuously published US newspaper?

The Hartford Courant began as the weekly Connecticut Courant on October 29, 1764, twelve years before the Declaration of Independence, and has published without a break since.

When the Hartford Whalers left Connecticut in 1997, which NHL team did they become?

The Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes, playing in Greensboro for two seasons before settling in Raleigh; owner Peter Karmanos moved them after arena talks with the state collapsed.

WWE's global headquarters is in which Connecticut city?

The company moved its offices there in 1983, when it was still called Titan Sports.

How much did Fred DeLuca borrow from Peter Buck in 1965 to open the first Subway shop?

Fred DeLuca, then 17, borrowed $1,000 from family friend Peter Buck in 1965 to open the first shop, which sold foot-long sandwiches and grew into the Subway chain.

Around 1850 Samuel Colt's Hartford factory mass-produced which product using interchangeable parts?

Samuel Colt's Hartford armory turned out revolvers on machine-made interchangeable parts, and that 'American system' spread to the city's other makers, from Sharps rifles to Columbia bicycles.

Home to Royal and Underwood, Hartford was known in the early 1900s as the world capital of what?

Danbury, meanwhile, was the hat city, with 30 hat factories by 1887.

The Turtle, built by David Bushnell in 1775, made history's first attack by what kind of vessel?

Bushnell's Turtle was a one-man submarine; Sergeant Ezra Lee piloted it against HMS Eagle in New York Harbor in September 1776, the first submarine attack in history, though it failed.

Old New-Gate Prison in East Granby, Connecticut's first official prison in 1776, was originally what?

Old New-Gate began as a copper mine, worked from the early 1700s, before Connecticut turned its tunnels into a prison in 1773 and made it the state prison in 1776; Loyalists and British prisoners were held there.

William Gillette, builder of Gillette Castle, was famous for playing whom on stage?

William Gillette played Sherlock Holmes more than 1,300 times from 1899 and popularized the deerstalker and curved pipe; he called his East Haddam castle Seventh Sister, and the state acquired it in 1943.

Mystic Seaport Museum, established in 1929, is the largest museum of what kind in the United States?

Mystic Seaport is the largest maritime museum in the United States; founded in 1929 as the Marine Historical Association, its 19-acre site holds a re-created seafaring village and the 1841 ship Charles W. Morgan.

Which creature was designated Connecticut's state animal in 1975?

The sperm whale became Connecticut's state animal in 1975, honoring the state's 19th-century whaling fleets and the species' endangered status at the time.

Which insect is Connecticut's official state insect?

The European mantis, Mantis religiosa, became Connecticut's state insect on October 1, 1977, chosen as a beneficial predator that eats garden pests.

What is Connecticut's state bird?

The American robin became Connecticut's state bird in 1943; Michigan and Wisconsin chose the same bird, Michigan as early as 1931.

Which flower is Connecticut's state flower?

The mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia, became Connecticut's state flower in 1907; its pink-and-white blossoms cover the hillsides in June.

Which shellfish did Connecticut adopt as a state symbol in 1989?

The Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, became Connecticut's state shellfish in 1989, honoring an industry that has worked the beds of Long Island Sound since colonial times.

Which dinosaur did Connecticut name its state dinosaur in 2017?

Connecticut named Dilophosaurus its state dinosaur in 2017 because the Eubrontes footprints at Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, the state fossil since 1991, were probably left by a similar theropod.

Which World War II fighter, built by Chance Vought in Connecticut, is the official state aircraft?

The F4U Corsair, the gull-winged Navy and Marine fighter Chance Vought built in Connecticut during World War II, was designated the state aircraft in 2005.

Who is Connecticut's official state composer?

Charles Ives, born in Danbury in 1874, ran an insurance agency by day, composed on the side, and won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for his Third Symphony; Connecticut made him state composer in 1991.

How does Connecticut's Latin state motto translate into English?

Qui transtulit sustinet, 'He who transplanted still sustains', refers to the colonists carried to a new land; the three grapevines on the state seal stand for the transplanted settlers.

Which federal service institution trains its officers on the Thames River in southeastern Connecticut?

The US Coast Guard Academy has occupied its Thames River campus since 1932; the service's training ship, the barque Eagle, is moored there.

Yale's trustees voted in 1716 to move the school to New Haven from which town?

Yale's forerunner had met at Saybrook since 1707; in October 1716 the trustees accepted New Haven's offer of land and money and moved the school there, and it took the Yale name in 1718.

The first English settlers in Connecticut arrived in 1633 and founded which town?

Windsor was founded in 1633 when traders from Plymouth Colony under William Holmes built a trading post at the mouth of the Farmington River; Wethersfield followed in 1634 and Hartford in 1636.

Which lexicographer, born in West Hartford, compiled his great American dictionary in New Haven?

Noah Webster, born in West Hartford in 1758, published his American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828, with some 70,000 entries, from his home in New Haven.

Eli Whitney, who ran an arms factory near New Haven, is best known for inventing what in 1793?

Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793, a machine that pulled seeds from short-staple cotton; patent lawsuits ate most of his profits, and he later championed interchangeable parts.

New Haven-born Charles Goodyear received an 1844 patent for which process?

Charles Goodyear patented vulcanizing rubber in June 1844, heating rubber with sulfur to make it stable; the Goodyear tire company, founded in 1898 long after his death, merely borrowed his name.

Which Connecticut delegate signed the Declaration of Independence?

Sherman is the only person to sign all four founding documents: the Articles of Association, the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.

The 1944 Hartford circus fire, during a Ringling Bros. matinee, killed at least how many people?

The fire of July 6, 1944, killed at least 167 people, many of them children, and injured more than 700 under a big top that had been waterproofed with paraffin and gasoline.

Connecticut is the third-smallest state by area, behind Rhode Island and which other?

Delaware is the second-smallest state after Rhode Island, so Connecticut, at about 5,500 square miles, ranks third-smallest by area while sitting fourth in population density.

Connecticut's largest airport, Bradley International, is in which town north of Hartford?

Bradley International sits in Windsor Locks, about 15 miles north of Hartford, on a field the Army opened in 1941 and named for Lieutenant Eugene Bradley, killed there in a training crash.

Which Connecticut town hosted the nation's first law school, which closed in 1833?

Tapping Reeve's Litchfield Law School, the first in the country, trained more than 1,000 students, including Aaron Burr and John C. Calhoun, before it closed in 1833.

What was the strip of land Connecticut kept across northern Ohio after 1786 called?

Connecticut kept the Western Reserve, about 3 million acres along Lake Erie, when it ceded its other western claims in 1786, and sold most of it to the Connecticut Land Company in 1795.

CTfastrak, opened in March 2015, is a bus rapid transit line linking Hartford with which city?

CTfastrak runs 9.4 miles on a dedicated busway between downtown Hartford and New Britain, following a former rail corridor, and opened on March 28, 2015.

How many councils of governments replaced Connecticut's counties for Census statistics in 2022?

Nine planning regions, each run by a council of governments, became Connecticut's county-equivalents for Census statistics in 2022; the state has had no county governments since 1960.