Delaware Trivia & Tidbits - Page 12

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

Wilmington-born Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893), editor of the Provincial Freeman, was the first female African-American newspaper editor in North America. She earned a law degree at Howard University in 1883.

first appeared: 12/22/2002

Delaware ranks second (Idaho is first) in the number of patents issued to companies or individuals per 1,000 workers. Four other Northeastern states are in the top 10—New Jersey (3rd), Connecticut (6th), New York (7th), and Maryland (10th).

first appeared: 12/15/2002

ILC Dover Inc. on Moonwalker Road in Frederica (pop. 648) has made spacesuits for NASA since the start of the Apollo project in the 1960s.

first appeared: 12/8/2002

More than 20,000 artifacts—including a section of wooden hull from the British Brig DeBraak, which sank off the Delaware coast in 1798—are contained in the Zwaanendael Museum in Lewes (pop. 2,932).

first appeared: 12/1/2002

When Anthony Christy, keeper of the Christiana Lighthouse near Wilmington, died on duty in 1862 at age 105, he was the oldest lighthouse keeper on record.

first appeared: 11/24/2002

John Dickinson, whose 1767 Letters of a Farmer in Pennsylvania had a strong influence on events leading to the Revolutionary War, grew up on a farm near Dover.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

When a hurricane struck in 1878, water in the Delaware Bay rose 5 feet in a single hour, flooding much of Pea Patch Island near Wilmington.

first appeared: 11/10/2002

Milford (pop. 6,732) got its name after the Rev. Sydenham Thorne built a dam for his sawmill and gristmill on the Mispillion River. Thus the town’s name: after the mill at the river ford.

first appeared: 11/3/2002

Two states elected their first women governors in the 2000 elections, Delaware (Ruth Ann Minner) and Montana (Judy Martz).

first appeared: 10/27/2002

Built in 1732, the courthouse in New Castle (pop. 4,862) served as the meeting place for Delaware’s Colonial Assembly from 1732 to 1777, when New Castle was the capital of Delaware.

first appeared: 10/20/2002

A shilling printed in Delaware during the Colonial period bore the ominous warning on the back of the coin, “To counterfeit is death.”

first appeared: 10/13/2002

Bombay Hook and Prime Hook National Wildlife refuges were established as part of an East Coast chain of refuges to serve wintering and migrating ducks and geese.

first appeared: 10/6/2002

Thomas Macdonough, a resident of Middletown (pop. 6,161), commanded a fleet of gunboats on Vermont’s Lake Champlain during the War of 1812. On Sept. 11, 1814, his little fleet defeated a British naval force on the lake.

first appeared: 9/29/2002

The Wilmington-based replica of the Swedish sailing ship Kalmar Nyckel, which was important in colonizing the area, has more than six miles of rope in its rigging.

first appeared: 9/22/2002

Georgetown (pop. 4,643) became the seat of Sussex County in 1791 when, after many complained the county seat at Lewes was not centrally located, a courthouse and jail were built at “James Pettyjohn’s old field,” and a town grew up around them.

first appeared: 9/15/2002

Delaware was the first state to universally use electronic voting machines. Their installation throughout the state was completed in time for the November 1996 elections.

first appeared: 9/8/2002

During the 40-year history of the United States Life-Saving Service (1875-1915), 4,500 lives were saved on the Eastern Shore of Delaware, Maryland, and the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

first appeared: 9/1/2002

A concrete observation tower just north of Fenwick Island State Park was part of a coastal system built during World War II to watch for German submarines operating off the coast.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

The Delaware River was originally the South River, the name given to it by explorer Henry Hudson when he found it in 1609 aboard his ship the Halve Maen or Half Moon.

first appeared: 8/18/2002

Chuck Connors, star of The Rifleman television series (1958-1963), once played professional basketball for the Wilmington Blue Bombers.

first appeared: 8/11/2002

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