New Jersey Trivia & Tidbits
Looking for New Jersey trivia? Try our list New Jersey little know facts, tidbits and trivia.
—Lou Creekmur, born in Hopelawn, a part of Woodbridge Township, was an eight-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman, who helped the Detroit Lions win three National Football League titles in the 1950s. An outstanding blocker on both passing and rushing plays, Creekmur was a frequent All-NFL selection.
first appeared: 5/4/2008
—Cape May (pop. 4,034) was explored by Dutch sea captain Cornelius Mey in the 1620s and given his name. The spelling later was changed by English settlers.
first appeared: 3/9/2008
—Ballerina Patricia McBride, who was born in 1942 in Teaneck (pop. 39,260), became the youngest principal dancer in the New York City Ballet in 1961.
first appeared: 2/24/2008
—The J. Thompson Baker house in Wildwood (pop. 5,436) was the home of the first mayor after the town was incorporated. He served from 1912 to 1914. Among those who slept in his eight-bedroom house was President Woodrow Wilson.
first appeared: 2/10/2008
—The state quarter, the third coin in the 50 State Quarters Program, depicts Gen. George Washington and his troops crossing the Delaware River. The design is based on the 1851 painting by Emmanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, which hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
first appeared: 1/27/2008
—Tennis player John Van Ryn, a graduate of Princeton University in Princeton (pop. 16,027), is considered one of the best doubles players in U.S. history, winning 14 of 16 Davis Cup matches with his partner Wilmer Allison between 1929 and 1936. The duo also won six Grand Slam championships.
first appeared: 1/13/2008
—Larry Doby joined the Cleveland Indians in 1947, becoming the American League’s first black baseball player. He was a seven-time All-Star and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. He died in Montclair (pop. 38,977) in 2003.
first appeared: 12/30/2007
—Larry Doby, who grew up in Paterson, played with the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first black baseball player in the American League in 1947.
first appeared: 12/2/2007
—Baseball outfielder Monte Irvin, who was raised in Orange (pop. 32,868), was a Negro Leagues All-Star four times while playing for the Newark Eagles. He is credited with spurring the New York Giants to a miraculous comeback against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1951 pennant race when he batted .312 with 24 homers and a league-best 121 RBIs.
first appeared: 11/18/2007
—The General, the famous steam locomotive captured by Union scout James J. Andrews and his raiders during the Civil War, was manufactured in Paterson in 1855.
first appeared: 11/4/2007
—Asbury Park (pop. 16,930) gained recognition with the release of rocker Bruce Springsteen’s 1973 album Greetings from Asbury Park. The resort city’s popular boardwalk attractions were depicted in the title letters on the record jacket.
first appeared: 10/21/2007
—The state constitution allowed women and blacks the right to vote from 1776 until 1807 when a law was passed restricting voting to white males.
first appeared: 10/7/2007
—Astor Villa in Hoboken (pop. 38,577) was the home of wealthy fur trader John Jacob Astor (1763-1848). The house became a magnet for authors, including Washington Irving, and other celebrities.
first appeared: 9/30/2007
—Robert Barclay, a Scottish apologist for the Society of Friends (Quakers), authored a number of works, including An Apology for the True Christian Divinity. He was appointed governor of the province of East Jersey, an area of present-day New Jersey, in 1682 for his life.
first appeared: 9/9/2007
—In July 1916, German saboteurs demolished U.S. munitions stores on Black Tom Island, part of Jersey City. Following World War I, charges of German sabotage were brought before the Mixed Claims Commission. After years of deliberations, the commission ordered Germany to pay $50 million in damages in 1939.
first appeared: 8/26/2007
—In the wake of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, a major riot broke out in Trenton, where more than 200 businesses were ransacked and burned and 300 people were arrested.
first appeared: 8/12/2007
—The Morris Canal, first operated in 1831 to connect Phillipsburg (pop. 15,166) to Newark, facilitated the movement of coal for the growing iron industry in the northern part of the state. The canal’s inclined planes, used to overcome large elevation changes, was considered a technical marvel at the time.
first appeared: 7/29/2007
—Much of Newark’s growth in the early 1800s can be credited to Seth Boyden, a Massachusetts-born inventor who devised a process for manufacturing patent leather and invented malleable cast iron, fueling the city’s prosperous manufacturing sector.
first appeared: 7/15/2007
—Alfred Stieglitz, who was born in Hoboken in 1864, was an advocate of photography as an art form. Among his best-known photographs are portraits of his wife, artist Georgia O’Keeffe, and his cloud series.
first appeared: 7/1/2007
—Rick Barry, born in 1944 in Elizabeth, was named the National Basketball Association’s Rookie of the Year for 1966 when he played for the San Francisco Warriors. Barry is the only player ever to lead the NBA, National Collegiate Athletic Association and American Basketball Association in scoring.
first appeared: 6/17/2007
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