Connecticut Trivia & Tidbits - Page 13

Looking for Connecticut trivia? Try our list Connecticut little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The Lock Museum of America in Terryville (pop. 5,360) boasts the largest collection—more than 23,000 items—of locks and keys in the country.

first appeared: 7/28/2002

In its 34-year history, Hartford’s National Theatre of the Deaf—which performs by signing—has produced 64 national and 31 international tours and has performed in all 50 states and on every continent.

first appeared: 7/21/2002

A black walnut tree in Scotland (pop. 1,556) is the oldest tree in the state for which a planting date is known. That date, 1797, was recorded in the Waldo family Bible.

first appeared: 7/14/2002

The Audubon Birdcraft Museum in Fairfield, founded in 1914 as a songbird sanctuary by Mabel Osgood Wright, is the oldest bird sanctuary in the country. Wright founded the Connecticut Audubon Society in 1898.

first appeared: 7/7/2002

Hartford had its beginning as a center of the insurance industry in 1794, with the issue of a policy by the Hartford Fire Insurance Co.

first appeared: 6/30/2002

Prudence Crandall, who established a school for African-American women in 1833, became, by an act of the state General Assembly in 1995, Connecticut’s state heroine.

first appeared: 6/23/2002

Comstock, Ferre & Co., which was founded in Wethersfield (pop. 26,271) in 1820, is the oldest continuously operating seed company in the country.

first appeared: 6/16/2002

The longest held record for a fish taken in Connecticut waters is for a 29-pound, 13-ounce lake trout caught in 1918 in Lake Wononscopomuc.

first appeared: 6/9/2002

Artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976), a resident of Roxbury for more than 30 years, was creator of the mobile, which he called “painting in motion.”

first appeared: 6/2/2002

Col. Jacob Schick (1878-1937) patented the first electric shaver in 1928 in Stamford. It was a two-handed affair whose motor turned a flexible cable attached to the razor and wasn’t a successful seller. Later models made Schick famous.

first appeared: 5/26/2002

The USS Nautilus, launched in Groton in 1954 as the first nuclear submarine, is now a National Historic Landmark and Connecticut’s state ship, and is open to public visits.

first appeared: 5/19/2002

James Wright, working in General Electric’s New Haven labs in 1943 to produce an inexpensive substitute for synthetic rubber, accidentally created one of the world’s favorite toys—Silly Putty.

first appeared: 5/12/2002

Following the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, born in Litchfield (pop. 1,328), became the most famous, well-paid, and widely read American writer of her time.

first appeared: 5/5/2002

The state’s oldest gravestone is in Windsor (pop. 28,237), marking the death of the Rev. Ephraim Huit in 1644. Huit came to the town, Connecticut’s earliest permanent settlement, in 1639.

first appeared: 4/28/2002

Willimantic (pop. 15,823) celebrates July Fourth with a Boom Box Parade. Inaugurated in 1986 when no marching bands could be found, the parade is known for its wacky costumes and floats.

first appeared: 4/21/2002

In the 19th century, Bristol was a center for clock manufacturing. The town’s seal looks like a clock, with hands pointing to the letters of Bristol, Conn., instead of numbers.

first appeared: 4/14/2002

The remains of 18th-century artist John Trumbull are interred at Yale University—under the school’s Art Gallery. The gallery’s collection, the oldest college art collection in the country, was established in 1832 when Trumbell gave 100 of his works to Yale.

first appeared: 4/7/2002

The record American eel caught in the state weighed 10 pounds, 3 ounces and was caught on the Shetucket River in Norwich in 1993. The eels typically swim to the Caribbean to spawn, and their offspring return to the same river from which their parents came.

first appeared: 3/31/2002

The first submarines manufactured in Groton in 1924 were built for the Peruvian government.

first appeared: 3/24/2002

Although the summit of Mount Frissell (2,453 feet) is in Massachusetts, its southern slope sits astride the state line and provides Connecticut with its highest elevation, 2,380 feet.

first appeared: 3/17/2002

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