New Jersey Trivia & Tidbits - Page 12

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

America’s standard time zones originated Nov. 18, 1883, when the American Association of Railroads agreed to a system advanced by South Orange (pop. 16,964) resident William F. Allen, managing editor of the Official Guide of the Railways.

first appeared: 1/5/2003

The Borough of Ship Bottom (pop. 1,384) is named for a shipwreck in 1817, when a woman was rescued from the hull of an overturned ship. The rescue—and the nearby town—became known as Ship Bottom.

first appeared: 12/29/2002

Saltwater taffy—made by adding salt to a taffy mix—originated at the Jersey shore in the 1870s. Many consider it, together with roasted peanuts, gourmet boardwalk food.

first appeared: 12/22/2002

During World War II, New Jersey produced 25 percent of all U.S. Navy destroyers, together with battleships, heavy cruisers, and many aircraft engines.

first appeared: 12/15/2002

One of the largest battleships ever built, the U.S.S. New Jersey served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Now decommissioned, the ship may be visited at Camden’s waterfront.

first appeared: 12/8/2002

Fruit merchant Joseph Campbell began making preserves in Camden in 1869—but it was the invention of Campbell’s condensed soup in 1897 that changed the company’s direction forever.

first appeared: 12/1/2002

In an early experiment with sending mail via rocket, a handful of letters was launched from the shores of Greenwood Lake in 1936. The mail traveled 150 yards into New York State.

first appeared: 11/24/2002

Thomas Edison had a laboratory in Roselle (pop. 21,274), which in 1883 became the world’s first town to have its streets lighted by incandescent lamps, Edison’s new invention.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

The 6 iron used by astronaut Alan Shepard to hit a golf ball on the moon is on display at the Golf House Museum in Far Hills (pop. 859).

first appeared: 11/10/2002

Summit (pop. 21,131) is the hometown of actress Meryl Streep, who has starred in such movies as Out of Africa and Sophie’s Choice.

first appeared: 11/3/2002

Clara Louise Maass (1876-1901), trained as a nurse in Newark, died of yellow fever while studying its causes in Cuba. In 1952, Cuba issued a postage stamp in her name, and the hospital where she was trained—Newark German Hospital—was re-named in her honor.

first appeared: 10/27/2002

The rare tree frog Hyla andersonii—green with plum or lavender stripes along its side—can range as far south as the Florida Panhandle, but most of them are concentrated in the Pine Barrens.

first appeared: 10/20/2002

Princeton University was founded as The College of New Jersey in 1746, a name it kept until 1896 when it was re-named for the town where it’s located.

first appeared: 10/13/2002

Thomas Edison built his Menlo Park laboratory in 1876 for $2,500. During the five years he used it, he produced some of his most famous inventions and created a research team model that became the cornerstone of modern industrial research.

first appeared: 10/6/2002

The eminent New Jersey jurist William J. Brennan Jr. served one of the longest terms on the U.S. Supreme Court, from 1956 to 1990.

first appeared: 9/29/2002

During World War I, Hoboken was a major point of embarkation for soldiers going to Europe, and 1,700,000 troops passed through the port on their way to war.

first appeared: 9/22/2002

Hudson County, measuring just 46.6 square miles, is the state’s smallest county, yet contains more than 500,000 people.

first appeared: 9/15/2002

The western terminus for the first transatlantic fiber optic cable (stretching all the way to England), completed in 2000, is in Tuckerton.

first appeared: 9/8/2002

Each Memorial Day, Somerville (pop. 12,000) hosts a bicycle race. Held for the last 60 years, race organizers call it the oldest continuously run major bicycle race in the county.

first appeared: 9/1/2002

Atlantic City’s Steel Pier, built in 1898, attracted big name performers through the 1950s—including Guy Lombardo, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Mae West, Charlie Chaplin, The Three Stooges, Bob Hope, Amos ’n Andy, and Frank Sinatra.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

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