Rhode Island Trivia & Tidbits - Page 7

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

Wealthy Providence merchant John Brown is credited with opening trade between the city and China. Today, the luxurious Georgian mansion he built in 1786 is a historic house museum.

first appeared: 1/16/2005

Brown Univers-ity's John Hay Library in Providence is named for an assistant private secretary to President Abraham Lincoln, ambassador to Great Britain and secretary of state from 1898 to 1905. Hay helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish-American War and is known for his description of the conflict as "a splendid little war."

first appeared: 1/2/2005

The 1914 bronze statue of Ninigret in the seaside village of Watch Hill, near Westerly (pop. 22,966), honors this 17th-century chief of the Niantic Indians. The model for the statue was a member of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

first appeared: 12/19/2004

In 1524, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano sailed into Narragansett Bay and anchored at present-day Newport (pop. 26,475). He said that the land reminded him of the Isle of Rhodes in the Mediterranean, hence the state’s name.

first appeared: 12/5/2004

America's first oval-track auto race was held in 1896 at Narragansett Park in Cranston, then part of Providence. All events were won by a Riker electric car.

first appeared: 11/21/2004

A.T. Cross invented the first stylographic pen, a precursor to the modern ballpoint pen, in Providence in 1879.

first appeared: 11/7/2004

The greenhouses of the Butterfly Zoo at the Newport Butterfly Farm in Middletown (pop. 17,334) offer visitors the chance to wander among thousands of butterflies—but only on sunny days. When it rains, the insects disappear into the lush vegetation.

first appeared: 10/24/2004

The Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, founded in 1964, was the first American theater group to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland in 1968.

first appeared: 10/10/2004

Roger Williams Park Zoo was founded in 1872 on 102 acres of land donated to the city of Providence by Betsey Williams, the great-great-granddaughter of the city’s founder, Roger Williams.

first appeared: 10/3/2004

A statue of a giant flying bee holding tools in one hand and a machine gun in the other can be found at the Seabee Museum and Memorial Park in Davisville. The bee insignia began with the World War II naval construction battalion, known as the “Seabees.”

first appeared: 9/19/2004

Rhode Island was the last of the 13 colonies to sign the Constitution. The Ocean State held out until May 29, 1790, awaiting a Bill of Rights.

first appeared: 9/12/2004

The Old Narragansett Church in Wickford, a village in North Kingstown (pop. 26,326) and one of the state’s four original Colonial parishes, was built in 1707.

first appeared: 9/5/2004

Since 1980, Providence College has sent 22 student athletes to summer and winter Olympics games, some of whom competed in multiple years. The Friars also sent two coaches, three assistant coaches and a general manager.

first appeared: 8/29/2004

Every state except Rhode Island sent delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, at which George Washington was named convention president.

first appeared: 8/22/2004

The highest temperature recorded in the state is 104 degrees, which occurred in Providence in 1975.

first appeared: 8/15/2004

With more than 2,000 ships sunk offshore, the Ocean State is believed to have more shipwrecks per square mile than any other state in the nation.

first appeared: 8/8/2004

Paulina Wright Davis, whose husband was a U.S. congressman from Providence, founded Una, one of the first women’s rights periodicals, in 1853.

first appeared: 8/1/2004

Elephant Day is recognized each May 25 in Chepachet, a village of Glocester (pop. 9,948), to honor Little Bett, an Indian elephant—only the second pachyderm to tour North America—who was slain there by men with muskets in 1826.

first appeared: 7/25/2004

Unable to convince the state Legislature to consider loosening voting restrictions, followers of populist lawyer Thomas Dorr called their own convention in 1842 and elected Dorr governor. Lawmakers countered by electing Samuel King governor, eventually prevailing and trying the revolutionaries for treason.

first appeared: 7/18/2004

Gorham Manufacturing Co. in Providence created the 300-pound bronze statue of Testudo, the diamondback terrapin mascot of the University of Maryland.

first appeared: 7/11/2004

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