Connecticut Trivia & Tidbits - Page 17

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

Mark Twain, while living in Hartford, was offered an opportunity to invest in one of the nation’s first telephone companies. He declined, saying he could see little use for such an invention.

first appeared: 1/14/2001

In Norwalk in 1915, John Gruelle, a newspaper comic artist and children’s book illustrator, created the Raggedy Ann doll to cheer his sick daughter. The doll’s “ancestors” are enjoyed by millions of children today.

first appeared: 1/7/2001

The Griswold Inn in Essex (pop. 2,500) served its first customer in 1776 and has been in business ever since.

first appeared: 12/31/2000

Connecticut is home to the national champion sugar maple tree, according to American Forests. The tree in Norwich (pop. 35,800) is 23 feet in circumference and and 91 feet high.

first appeared: 12/24/2000

Connecticut and its neighbor never ratified the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which instituted Prohibition. The 1919 amendment was repealed in 1933.

first appeared: 12/17/2000

One of the first automobile laws in the nation was passed by the state of Connecticut in 1901. It set the statewide speed limit at 12 mph.

first appeared: 12/10/2000

The first lollipop was produced in New Haven in 1908. Creator George Smith named the treat after a popular racehorse.

first appeared: 12/3/2000

America’s first telephone book contained only 50 names. It was published in New Haven (pop. 124,655) in February 1878.

first appeared: 11/26/2000

Connecticut is home to the first hamburger (1895), the Polaroid camera (1934), the helicopter (1939), and color television (1948).

first appeared: 11/19/2000

Eli Whitney, whose cotton gin revolutionized cotton cultivation in the South and led to a textile boom in the North and in England, lived in Hamden (pop. 53,200). A local firearms manufacturer, he invented the cotton gin in 1794 to separate cotton fiber from seeds.

first appeared: 11/12/2000

Sylvester Graham, born in West Suffield (pop. 1,350), invented the graham cracker in 1829. A Presbyterian minister, Graham touted the benefits of unsifted, coarsely ground wheat (graham) flour. He advocated a health regimen of hard mattresses, cold showers, and a diet of homemade bread, rough cereals, fruits, and vegetables.

first appeared: 11/5/2000

William Gray of Hartford was granted a patent for the first pay telephone in 1889. It was installed in a local bank, naturally.

first appeared: 10/22/2000

Lexicographer Noah Webster of West Hartford compiled the first American dictionary, The American Spelling Book, in 1783. His next effort, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, was published in 1806.

first appeared: 10/8/2000

The Hartford Courant is the country’s oldest newspaper still being published. A printer, Thomas Green, started the publication as a weekly in 1764.

first appeared: 9/24/2000

In May 1809, Mary Kies of South Killingly became the first woman inventor to receive a U.S. patent in her name. It was for a method of weaving straw with silk.

first appeared: 9/10/2000

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