Rhode Island Trivia & Tidbits - Page 4

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

—Providence-born Jennifer Murray, the first woman to fly a helicopter around the world, was inducted into the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame in 2005. Murray didn’t take up flying until 1994, when she was 54 years old.

first appeared: 4/22/2007

—Jazz musician Bobby Hackett, born in Providence in 1915, played with the Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller orchestras and later accompanied Tony Bennett.

first appeared: 4/8/2007

—The great-grandfather of U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia was Nelson W. Aldrich, born in Foster (pop. 4,274). A financier and an influential U.S. senator from 1881 to 1911, Aldrich served as chairman of several powerful congressional committees.

first appeared: 3/25/2007

—Newport (pop. 26,475) resident Hugh Willoughby, an avid inventor and aviator, held 14 patents by 1900 for air ships and aviation devices. He was among Orville Wright’s support team in 1908 for the first public airplane flights in Virginia.

first appeared: 3/11/2007

—The Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame in North Kingstown (pop. 26,326) was founded in December 2003. Organized by the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, the Hall of Fame annually honors individuals who have contributed to the state’s rich aviation history.

first appeared: 2/27/2007

—Born in Cranston in 1962, boxer Vinny Pazienza, known in the ring as “The Pazmanian Devil,” won the International Boxing Federation lightweight title in 1987 and the World Boxing Association light middleweight crown in 1991.

first appeared: 2/11/2007

—Providence College hoops star Marvin “Bad News” Barnes went on to play in the American Basketball Association in 1974 and earned Rookie of the Year honors with the Spirits of St. Louis franchise, averaging 24 points and 15.6 rebounds per game. In 1975, he set an ABA All-Time Record for most two-point field goals in one game (27).

first appeared: 1/28/2007

Hugh Duffy, born in Cranston in 1866, earned his place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945 as one of the best players of the 1890s. He batted .438 while leading the National League with 50 doubles and 18 home runs in 1894.

first appeared: 1/14/2007

—Mount St. Charles Academy in Woonsocket (pop. 43,224) won a record 26 consecutive state ice hockey titles from 1978 to 2003, considered the longest streak in U.S. high school sports history. The 2006 movie Ice Kings chronicles that remarkable success.

first appeared: 12/17/2006

—Cranston native Tom Mellor, an All-East defenseman for the Boston College Eagles, was a member of the U.S. hockey team that earned a silver medal at the 1972 Olympic Games.

first appeared: 12/3/2006

—Providence native Lou Gorman was general manager of the Boston Red Sox from 1984 to 1993. He is credited with building the 1986 team that won the American League pennant and came within one out of capturing the World Series.

first appeared: 11/19/2006

—Among early films to be shot in Rhode Island was Ben Bolt, released in 1913. In the black-and-white silent movie, Ben wins the hand of a wealthy merchant’s daughter by finding the father’s lost trading ship.

first appeared: 11/5/2006

—Providence was the hometown of hockey player Gerald Kilmartin, a member of the 1952 U.S. Olympic hockey team that brought home a silver medal from Oslo, Norway.

first appeared: 10/22/2006

—During the 2005-2006 hunting season, 1,630 hunters carrying archery, muzzle-loader and shotgun permits harvested 2,325 deer on the mainland. Wildlife officials estimate the state’s deer herd at 14,000 animals.

first appeared: 10/8/2006

Autocrat, based in Lincoln (pop. 20,898), is one of New England’s largest coffee roasters and a leading producer of coffee syrup, the ingredient that provides the distinctive flavor of coffee milk. The company’s name was taken from a series of magazine articles, written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, titled The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.

first appeared: 9/24/2006

Frowny and smiley faces can be found on Rhode Island's individual income tax return form. The faces appear on the "This is the amount you owe” and "This is the amount you overpaid” lines, respectively.

first appeared: 9/10/2006

Clergyman Roger Williams, forced to leave Massachusetts because of his religious beliefs, founded the settlement of Providence in 1636 on land purchased from the Narragansett Indians. He set up a policy of religious and political freedom for the settlers.

first appeared: 8/27/2006

The state may have been named after the Greek island of Rhodes by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, or some say it was named Roode Eylandt ("red island" in Dutch) by 17th-century explorer Adriaen Block.

first appeared: 8/13/2006

In 1993, the Rhode Island Legislature proclaimed coffee milk the state's official drink. It is made by adding coffee-flavored syrup to milk.

first appeared: 7/30/2006

Golfer Glenna Collett Vare of Narragansett (pop. 16,361), often called the female Bobby Jones, won six U.S. Women's Amateur titles from 1922 to 1935. A trophy for lowest stroke average on the LPGA tour is named for her.

first appeared: 7/16/2006

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