70 Fun Facts About New England

How many states make up New England?

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; New York is not one of them, whatever New Yorkers say.

Which English explorer coined the name 'New England' in 1616?

Captain John Smith used the name in his 1616 book A Description of New England; the 1620 royal charter for the Council for New England made it official.

Greater Boston's combined statistical area holds roughly what share of New England's population?

More than half: the Boston combined statistical area, which reaches into southern New Hampshire and Rhode Island, held roughly 8.5 million of New England's 15 million residents at the 2020 census.

The Connecticut River, New England's longest, empties into which body of water?

Long Island Sound: the 406-mile river rises near the Quebec border in northern New Hampshire and meets the sound between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Which is the largest body of fresh water in New England?

Champlain: about 490 square miles of water straddling the New York line, it dwarfs Moosehead and Winnipesaukee, the next two largest.

Mount Washington in New Hampshire recorded a world-record wind speed in April of which year?

1934: on the 12th of that month the summit observatory clocked a 231 mph gust, the fastest surface wind ever measured until a 1996 cyclone gust on Australia's Barrow Island.

Sylvester Marsh's Mount Washington line, opened in 1869, was the first mountain-climbing railway of which type?

Rack railway: Marsh's line reached the summit in 1869 on his own Marsh rack system, making it the world's first mountain-climbing cog railway.

The Old Man of the Mountain, New Hampshire's granite-profile emblem, collapsed in which year?

2003: the profile fell from Cannon Mountain on May 3 that year; it had been the state emblem since 1945 and appears on New Hampshire's 2000 state quarter.

The Vermont Republic, founded in 1777, joined the Union in 1791 as which number state?

14th: Vermont was admitted on March 4, 1791, the first state after the original thirteen, and its republic-era constitution and laws carried over into statehood.

Vermont's Montpelier holds what distinction among US state capitals?

Least populous: Montpelier has roughly 8,000 residents, fewer than any other state capital, and its state's biggest city, Burlington, is likewise the smallest 'largest city' of any state.

Vermont produces roughly what share of the United States' maple syrup?

50%: Vermont makes about half the US crop, far ahead of second-place New York, though Quebec alone makes about 72% of the world's supply.

Which state is the only one to border exactly one other US state?

Maine: its only neighbour is New Hampshire; the rest of its border is Canada (Quebec and New Brunswick) and the Atlantic.

Maine left Massachusetts in 1820 under the Missouri Compromise to become which number state?

23rd: the new state entered on March 15, 1820, balancing the admission of slave-holding Missouri as the 24th state the following year.

Maine's capital was moved from Portland to which more central city in 1832?

Augusta: chosen in 1827 for its central spot on the Kennebec River, it became the working capital when the Bulfinch-designed State House opened in 1832; Portland is the state's largest city.

New Hampshire's state motto is what?

Live Free or Die: the words come from an 1809 toast by Revolutionary general John Stark and were adopted as the state motto in 1945.

New Hampshire has the shortest what of any coastal US state?

Ocean coastline: New Hampshire has only about eighteen miles of it (thirteen by some reckonings), centred on Portsmouth and Hampton Beach, the shortest of any coastal state.

Since 1952, New Hampshire has held the earliest what of every US presidential election year?

Primary: New Hampshire law requires its presidential primary to fall at least a week before any similar contest, giving the state outsized influence in national politics.

New Hampshire was which number state to ratify the US Constitution, in June 1788?

Ninth: Article VII required nine ratifications, so New Hampshire's vote on June 21, 1788 put the Constitution into effect.

What did Roger Williams found in 1638, the earliest of its kind in the colonies?

A Baptist church: the congregation Williams gathered in 1638, known as the First Baptist Church in America, followed his banishment by the Massachusetts Puritans; his colony became a refuge for 'liberty of conscience'.

Rhode Island was the first colony to renounce allegiance to the British Crown, on which date?

May 4, 1776: Rhode Island's General Assembly renounced George III two months before the Declaration of Independence; the state was also the last of the original thirteen to ratify the Constitution, in May 1790.

In 2020, Rhode Island voters dropped which words from the state's official name?

The full name had been the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations since colonial times.

What has been Rhode Island's official state drink since 1993?

Coffee milk: milk mixed with sweet coffee syrup, a drink that spread through the state's Italian immigrant neighbourhoods in the early 1900s and became the official state drink in 1993.

Connecticut's nickname, the Constitution State, refers to which 1639 document?

The Fundamental Orders: adopted in January 1639 by the three river towns of the Connecticut Colony, they are often called the first written constitution in Western history, hence the nickname.

Which Connecticut city is the historic centre of the American insurance industry?

Aetna, The Hartford and Travelers all grew up there; it is also the state capital.

Which Connecticut town is home to Electric Boat, builder of the US Navy's submarines?

The Navy also chose Groton for its East Coast submarine base in 1916.

Which two Olympic sports were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke?

Basketball and volleyball: James Naismith devised basketball in Springfield in 1891 and William Morgan volleyball in Holyoke in 1895; each sport's Hall of Fame sits in its birthplace.

Harvard, the first college in what became the United States, was founded in which year?

1636: the Massachusetts General Court voted that year to found the college at Cambridge, chiefly to train ministers; it took John Harvard's name after his 1638 bequest.

How many of the eight Ivy League universities are in New England?

Four: Harvard, Yale, Brown and Dartmouth; the other four (Columbia, Cornell, Penn and Princeton) lie in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

How many people were hanged in the Salem witch trials of 1692-93?

Nineteen: fourteen women and five men were hanged at Proctor's Ledge between June and September 1692, and Giles Corey was pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea.

Roughly how many chests of tea did the Sons of Liberty throw into Boston Harbor on 16 December 1773?

342: the chests, holding about 92,000 pounds of East India Company tea, came off three ships, the Dartmouth, Eleanor and Beaver, boarded by men loosely disguised as Mohawks.

On what date were the Battles of Lexington and Concord fought?

April 19, 1775: the first shots came at dawn on Lexington Green, hours after Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott had ridden out to warn the militias.

Paul Revere's midnight ride was turned into a famous 1861 poem by which New England writer?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: 'Paul Revere's Ride' appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in January 1861, on the eve of the Civil War; Revere himself was a Boston silversmith and engraver.

Which two New England states abolished slavery outright, in 1777 and 1783?

Vermont and Massachusetts: Vermont's 1777 constitution banned adult slavery, and Massachusetts courts ended it in the 1783 Quock Walker cases; Rhode Island and Connecticut chose gradual emancipation in 1784.

What is New England clam chowder made with that Manhattan chowder replaces with tomatoes?

Milk or cream: the New England version is a white, dairy-based chowder, while Rhode Island has a third style made with clear broth and neither milk nor tomatoes.

The lobster roll is commonly credited to a restaurant called Perry's in which Connecticut town?

Milford: Harry Perry's roadside restaurant there began serving hot buttered lobster on a bun around 1929; the cold, mayonnaise-dressed version is the northern New England style.

Boston cream pie is said to have been created for the 1856 opening of which Boston hotel?

The Parker House: the hotel's kitchen is credited with the chocolate-glazed, custard-filled sponge at its 1856 opening; cakes and pies then shared the same tins, hence 'pie'. It is the Massachusetts state dessert.

Ben & Jerry's opened its first ice cream parlour in 1978 in a renovated what in Burlington, Vermont?

Gas station: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened in a renovated one on May 5, 1978, having learned the trade from a $5 Penn State correspondence course.

Dunkin' Donuts was founded in 1950 in which Massachusetts city?

Quincy: William Rosenberg opened the first shop there on Southern Artery in 1950, renaming his earlier Open Kettle; the chain rebranded simply as Dunkin' in 2019.

Maine named which sweet its official state treat in 2011?

Whoopie pie: the 2011 law made it the state treat and blueberry pie the state dessert; a world-record whoopie pie weighing over half a ton was made in South Portland that same year.

Moxie, Maine's official soft drink, gets its bitter flavour from what?

Gentian root: the extract gives Moxie its bitter bite; Augustin Thompson launched it in Lowell, Massachusetts, around 1876 as a patent medicine called Moxie Nerve Food.

Which candy company restarted Necco Wafers production in 2020 after Necco's bankruptcy?

Spangler: the Bryan, Ohio maker of Dum Dums bought the Necco Wafers and Sweethearts brands after Necco's 2018 bankruptcy and brought the wafers back in 2020.

The Boston Marathon, first run in 1897, is traditionally held on the third Monday of which month?

April: since 1969 the race has been run on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of the month; it is the world's oldest annual marathon and starts in Hopkinton.

Who ran the 1966 Boston Marathon unregistered after being told women couldn't run 26 miles?

Bobbi Gibb: she hid in the bushes at the Hopkinton start, finished in about 3 hours 21 minutes ahead of two-thirds of the field, and women were officially admitted in 1972.

How many NBA titles, a record, had the Celtics won by the end of the 2023-24 season?

Their 18th title came in June 2024. Eight of them came in a row from 1959 to 1966 under Red Auerbach and Bill Russell.

The Boston Bruins won the first NHL game ever played in the United States in which year?

1924: on December 1 that year the Bruins beat the Montreal Maroons 2-1 at Boston Arena; founded that same year, they are the league's oldest US-based team.

The Patriots played their home games at which baseball ground from 1963 to 1968?

Fenway Park: the Boston Patriots shared the Red Sox's home from 1963 to 1968, then played a season each at Boston College and Harvard before moving to Foxborough in 1971 and Gillette Stadium in 2002.

Which Patriots kicker's 48-yard field goal as time expired won Super Bowl XXXVI?

Adam Vinatieri: his 48-yard field goal as time expired beat the St. Louis Rams 20-17 in February 2002, giving the Patriots their first Super Bowl title.

Which horror author, born in Portland in 1947, sets most of his novels in Maine?

Stephen King: born in Portland on September 21, 1947, he set Carrie (1974), Salem's Lot and It in invented towns of his home state.

Robert Frost, poet laureate of Vermont, was born in which unexpected city?

San Francisco: Frost was born there on March 26, 1874, and only moved to New England at eleven after his father's death; he won more Pulitzer Prizes for poetry than any other poet.

How long did Thoreau live in his cabin at Walden Pond near Concord?

Two years, two months, two days: Thoreau moved in on July 4, 1845 and left on September 6, 1847; the land belonged to his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson.

How many of Emily Dickinson's nearly 1,800 poems were published in her lifetime?

Only 10: those few appeared anonymously and often heavily edited; the bulk surfaced after her death in 1886, when her sister Lavinia found the manuscripts in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Which New Bedford-connected 1851 novel opens with the line 'Call me Ishmael'?

Melville drew on his own years as a common sailor on whalers.

Samuel Slater built America's first water-powered cotton mill, in 1793, in which Rhode Island town?

Pawtucket: Slater Mill opened on the Blackstone River there in 1793, the first successful water-powered cotton mill in America; Slater had memorised British machinery designs as an apprentice, earning the nickname 'Slater the Traitor' back home.

Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, completed in 1791, was the first lighthouse built by whom?

The US government: under the 1789 act that federalised lighthouses, George Washington ordered the tower finished and Congress set aside $1,500; it was lit in January 1791.

Acadia National Park was the first in which part of the country?

East of the Mississippi: the Mount Desert Island reserve became Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916 and Lafayette National Park in 1919, renamed Acadia in 1929; Cadillac Mountain is the tallest peak on the US Atlantic coast.

Since 1914, most of Cape Cod has been cut off from the mainland by what?

A canal: the Cape Cod Canal, opened in 1914 and widened by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1930s, is crossed by the Sagamore and Bourne road bridges and a vertical-lift railway bridge.

Nantucket's nickname 'The Little Grey Lady of the Sea' refers to how the island looks when what?

Fog-bound: the grey-shingled town wrapped in sea fog earned the nickname; English settlers bought most of the island in 1659 for thirty pounds and two beaver hats.

Newport, Rhode Island hosted every challenge for which sailing trophy between 1930 and 1983?

The America's Cup: the New York Yacht Club moved its defences from New York Harbor to Newport in 1930 and held the trophy there until Australia II won it in 1983.

Which Gilded Age family built The Breakers, the grandest of Newport's summer 'cottages', in 1895?

The Vanderbilts: Cornelius Vanderbilt II had the 70-room Italian Renaissance-style palace finished in 1895 to Richard Morris Hunt's design, after the family's earlier wooden house on the site burned in 1892.

The Head of the Charles, held each October in Boston, is the world's largest three-day event in which sport?

Rowing: first held in 1965, the regatta draws around 11,000 rowers in more than 2,500 boats over a three-mile course up the Charles River.

Many New England towns are governed by which form of direct democracy?

Town meetings: residents gather, often once a year, to vote the town budget and bylaws directly, a practice dating to the 1630s; counties matter little in the region's local government.

Which state's nickname, the Nutmeg State, recalls peddlers said to have sold wooden nutmegs?

Connecticut: the Nutmeg State label comes from tales of sharp Yankee peddlers passing off carved wooden nutmegs as the real spice; its official nickname is the Constitution State.

Which colonies formed the New England Confederation, the 'United Colonies of New England', in 1643?

Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven and Connecticut: the Puritan colonies allied for defence against the Dutch and Native nations, excluding Rhode Island; the compact mattered most during King Philip's War in the 1670s.

Which 1814 New England Federalist gathering aired grievances about the War of 1812?

The Hartford Convention: delegates mainly from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island met in secret from December 1814 to January 1815; news of peace and the Battle of New Orleans arrived as they delivered their demands, discrediting the Federalists.

Which is New England's most populous state and which its least?

Massachusetts has about seven million people, Vermont a little over 640,000.

Which of these New England exports is grown mainly on Cape Cod and Massachusetts' South Shore?

Cranberries: the bogs of Cape Cod and Plymouth County make Massachusetts the second-largest US producer after Wisconsin, and the Ocean Spray growers' cooperative is based in the state.

Which king imposed the unpopular Dominion of New England on the colonies in 1686?

James II: he merged the colonies into the Dominion in 1686 to rein in their self-governing charters and their flouting of the Navigation Acts; Bostonians jailed his governor Edmund Andros in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution.

America's first cotton mill was founded in 1787 in which Massachusetts North Shore seaport?

Beverly: the Beverly Cotton Manufactory, opened in 1787 with horse-driven machinery, was the largest cotton mill of its day and preceded Samuel Slater's 1793 water-powered Rhode Island mill.

Which Vermont brewery's Heady Topper is credited with launching the hazy New England IPA style?

The Alchemist: John Kimmich's Waterbury brewpub first poured the hazy, unfiltered double IPA Heady Topper in 2004, and the canned version from 2011 set off the New England IPA craze.

Colonists and their Native allies destroyed a fortified village of which people at Mystic in 1637?

The Pequots: the Pequot War ended their power after the May 1637 Mystic massacre, in which English and allied Narragansett and Mohegan forces burned a fortified village; the 1643 confederation followed soon after.