Connecticut History Timeline

• 1637-05-26 Mystic Massacre: in 1st battle of Pequot War in Connecticut about 500 Pequot Native Americans are killed by Colonial forces
• 1639-01-14 1st Connecticut constitution (Fundamental Orders) adopted in Hartford, published by Rodger Ludlow
• 1639-01-24 Connecticut colony organizes under Fundamental Orders

• 1643-05-19 Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Harbor form the United Colonies of New England
• 1644-02-05 1st US livestock branding law passed, by Connecticut
• 1647-05-26 Alse Young becomes the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies, when she is hanged in Hartford, Connecticut
• 1656-10-02 English North American colony of Connecticut passes law against Quakers
• 1662-04-23 Connecticut chartered as an English colony
• 1662-05-03 Royal charter granted to Connecticut
• 1675-11-02 King Philip's War: Plymouth Colony Governor Josiah Winslow leads Plymouth, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut militias attacks against the Narragansetts, fearing they would join King Philip's cause
• 1682-06-10 Tornado in Connecticut uproots a 3 ft diameter oak tree
• 1696-12-07 Connecticut Route 108, one of the oldest highways in the U.S. is completed to Trumbull.
• 1777-01-15 People of New Connecticut (Vermont) declare independence from England

• 1803-05-22 1st US public library opens in Connecticut
• 1817-04-15 1st American school for the deaf opens (Hartford, Connecticut)
• 1817-04-15 The American Asylum [now American School for the Deaf (ASD)], 1st permanent US school for deaf founded by Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, Dr. Mason Cogswell, and teacher Laurent Clercn (West Hartford, Connecticut,)
• 1833-06-27 Prudence Crandall, a white woman, arrested for conducting an academy for black females at Canterbury, Connecticut
• 1844-12-11 1st dental use of nitrous oxide in Hartford, Connecticut
• 1853-05-06 1st major US rail disaster kills 46 at Norwalk, Connecticut
• 1862-02-14 Galena, 1st US iron-clad warship for service at sea, launched, Connecticut
• 1873-12-06 1st international football game in US: Yale 2, Eton (England) 1 in New Haven, Connecticut
• 1874-09-01 28th US Postmaster General: Marshall Jewell of Connecticut takes office
• 1878-01-28 George Coy, Herrick Frost, and Walter Lewis open first commercial telephone exchange, in New Haven, Connecticut [1]
• 1878-02-21 Telegraph manager George Coy of New Haven, Connecticut issues world's 1st telephone directory issued; single page contains info for 50 subscribers
• 1880-06-01 The first pay telephone service in the United States is installed in New Haven, Connecticut
• 1882-02-06 The society of the Knights of Columbus forms in New Haven, Connecticut
• 1895-01-25 New Haven Symphony Orchestra of Connecticut performs its first concert
• 1900-07-28 Hamburger created by Louis Lassing in Connecticut
• 1912-02-14 1st US submarines with diesel engines commissioned, Groton, Connecticut
• 1913-11-17 1st US dental hygienists course forms, Bridgeport, Connecticut

• 1926-07-22 105°F (41°C), Waterbury, Connecticut (state record)

• 1931-06-19 1st photoelectric cell installed commercially West Haven, Connecticut
• 1939-04-19 Connecticut finally approves Bill of Rights (148 years late)

• 1942-06-14 1st bazooka rocket gun produced (Bridgeport, Connecticut)
• 1943-02-16 -32°F (-36°C), Falls Village, Connecticut (state record)
• 1944-07-06 World's largest circus tent catches fire at Ringling Brother's - Barnum & Bailey 2nd performance, 168 die (Hartford, Connecticut)
• 1946-02-16 1st commercially designed helicopter tested, Bridgeport, Connecticut
• 1949-12-29 1st UHF television station operating regular basis Bridgeport, Connecticut
• 1954-01-21 USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, launched on the Thames River in Connecticut
• 1955-08-17 Hurricane Diane, following hurricane Connie floods Connecticut River killing 190 & doing $1.8 billion damage
• 1955-08-19 32.4 cm precipitation at Burlington, Connecticut (state record)
• 1957-05-16 US launches its 3rd atomic submarine, USS Skate, at Groton, Connecticut
• 1965-06-07 The Supreme Court of the United States decides on Griswold v. Connecticut, effectively legalizing the use of contraception by married couples
• 1965-08-28 1st Subway sandwich shop opens in Bridgeport, Connecticut
• 1965-12-04 2 passenger planes collide above Danbury, Connecticut, 4 die

• 1967-12-17 WEDW TV channel 49 in Bridgeport, Connecticut (PBS) begins broadcasting
• 1969-06-05 Race riot in Hartford, Connecticut
• 1970-07-30 30,000 arrive to attend Powder Ridge Rock Festival, Middlefield, Connecticut, despite it having been cancelled due to local residents opposition
• 1978-01-18 Roof of 3-yr-old Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut collapses (no injuries)
• 1979-10-09 Howard Stern begins broadcasting on WCCC in Hartford, Connecticut
• 1983-06-28 Bridge section along I-95 in Greenwich, Connecticut collapses, killing 3
• 1987-04-23 28 construction workers killed in an apt collapse in Bridgeport, Connecticut
• 1992-06-17 Connecticut Governor Lowell Weicker and WFAN DJ Don Imus change places for 1 day
• 1998-03-06 Matt Beck, an angry lottery accountant kills 4 at Connecticut state lottery
• 2002-05-18 Micky Ward beats Arturo Gatti by majority decision in a junior welterweight boxing bout in Uncasville, Connecticut; 'The Ring' Fight of the Year; first fight in their legendary trilogy
• 2003-03-01 Legendary Mount St. Mary's basketball head coach Jim Phelan wins final game of 49 year career as Mountaineers win 60-56 over Central Connecticut State; Phelan: 830 wins in NCAA record 1,354 games
• 2012-12-14 28 people, including 20 children, are shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut

• 2019-09-26 US Income inequality widest for over 50 years, worst in California, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana and New York, according to new census figures

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 408

• 1586-07-05 Thomas Hooker, American colonial clergyman (known as "the father of Connecticut"), born in Marefield, Leicestershire, England (d. 1647)
• 1597-04-09 John Davenport, Puritan clergyman and cofounder of the New Haven Colony, born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England (d. 1670)
• 1606-02-12 John Winthrop, the Younger, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1676)

• 1710-10-12 Jonathan Trumbull, American politician and statesman, born in Lebanon, Connecticut (d. 1785)
• 1711-04-22 Eleazar Wheelock, American founder of Dartmouth College, born in Windham, Connecticut (d. 1779)
• 1718-04-20 David Brainerd, American missionary to the Native Americans, born in Haddam, Connecticut (d. 1747)
• 1721-09-14 Eliphalet Dyer, American statesman and judge, born in Windham, Connecticut (d. 1807)
• 1724-04-12 Lyman Hall, American physician and signer (Declaration of Independence), born in Wallingford, Connecticut (d. 1790)
• 1726-11-20 Oliver Wolcott, American judge, signed US Declaration of Independence, born in Windsor, Connecticut (d. 1797) [NS=Dec 1]
• 1731-04-23 William Williams, American merchant (signed US Declaration of Independence), born in Lebanon, Connecticut (d. 1811)
• 1731-07-03 Samuel Huntington, American politician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, born in Windham, Connecticut (d. 1796)

• 1743-05-17 Seth Warner, American revolutionary leader, born in Roxbury, Connecticut (d. 1784)
• 1745-04-29 Oliver Ellsworth, 3rd Chief Justice Supreme Court (1796-1800), born in Windsor, Connecticut, British America (d. 1807)

• 1756-06-06 John Trumbull, American painter (Declaration of Independence), born in Lebanon, Connecticut (d. 1843)

• 1759-10-20 Chauncey Goodrich, U.S. Senator from Connecticut (d. 1815)
• 1760-03-27 Ishmail Spicer, American publisher, music teacher, and composer, born in Bozrah, Connecticut (d. 1832)

• 1769-10-13 Horace H. Hayden, 1st American licensed dentist and cofounds 1st dental college, born in Windsor, Connecticut (d. 1844)
• 1775-10-12 Lyman Beecher, US Presbyterian clergyman, temperance movement leader, born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1863)
• 1784-10-15 Thomas Hastings, American composer, born in Washington, Connecticut (d. 1872)
• 1785-08-19 Seth Thomas, American manufacturer and pioneer in the mass production of clocks, born in Wolcott, Connecticut (d. 1859)

• 1786-09-10 William Mason, American politician, born in Lebanon, Connecticut (d. 1860)
• 1787-02-23 Emma Willard, American women's rights activist and educator who founded the 1st school for women's higher education in the US, born in Berlin, Connecticut (d. 1870)
• 1788-04-17 Joseph Gilbert Totten, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1864)
• 1789-10-03 Francis Gregory, American Rear Admiral (Union Navy), born in Norwalk, Connecticut (d. 1866)
• 1793-10-28 Eliphalet Remington, American firearms manufacturer (Remington Arms Co., L.L.C.), born in Suffield, Connecticut (d. 1861)
• 1793-11-10 Jared Kirtland, American physician, naturalist and reformed penitentiaries, born in Wallingford, Connecticut (d. 1877)
• 1794-07-05 Sylvester Graham, Minister and noted vegetarian (developed Graham cracker), born in Suffield, Connecticut (d. 1851)
• 1794-10-10 William Whiting Boardman, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut), born in New Milford, Connecticut (d. 1871)
• 1794-12-10 James Wolfe Ripley, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Windham County, Connecticut (d. 1870)
• 1794-12-14 Erastus Corning, American businessman and politician (Mayor of Albany, New York), born in Norwich, Connecticut (d. 1872)
• 1799-01-07 Daniel Tyler, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Brooklyn, Connecticut (d. 1882)

• 1800-09-11 Daniel S. Dickinson, New York senator, born in Goshen, Connecticut (d. 1866)

• 1802-07-01 Gideon Welles, 24th U.S. Secretary of the Navy under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, born in Glastonbury, Connecticut (d. 1878)
• 1803-06-29 John Newton Brown, American publisher and Baptist teacher, born in New London, Connecticut (d. 1868)
• 1803-12-22 Joseph King Fenno Mansfield, American Major General (Union Army), born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1862)
• 1805-02-13 David Dudley Field II, American lawyer, law codifier, born in Haddam, Connecticut (d. 1894)
• 1806-09-12 Andrew Hull Foote, American Rear Admiral (Union Navy), born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1863)
• 1807-02-10 Abner Clark Harding, American politician and Civil War Brigadier General (Union Army), born in East Hampton, Connecticut (d. 1874)
• 1809-02-20 Henry Walton Wessells, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Lietchfield, Connecticut (d. 1889)

• 1810-09-20 Alpheus Starkey Williams, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Deep River, Connecticut (d. 1878)

• 1811-07-11 Joseph Lanman, American naval officer (Union Navy), born in Norwich, Connecticut (d. 1874)

• 1812-03-16 Henry Dwight Terry, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 1869)
• 1813-04-17 Henry Washington Benham, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Cheshire, Connecticut (d. 1884)
• 1813-06-24 Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman and orator (Independent), born in Litchfield, Connecticut (d. 1887)
• 1813-07-07 William Scott Ketchum, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Norwalk, Connecticut (d. 1871)
• 1813-09-13 John Sedgwick, American Major General (Union Army), who is best remembered for his famous last words "they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance" before being shot in battle, born in Cornwall, Connecticut (d. 1864)
• 1813-10-12 Lyman Trumbull, U.S. Senator from Illinois (1855-73), born in Colchester, Connecticut (d. 1896)

• 1818-07-14 Nathaniel Lyon, American Brigadier General (Union Army), 1st Union General to die in battle, born in Ashford, Connecticut (d. 1861)
• 1820-03-06 Horatio Gouverneur Wright, American Major General (Union Army), born in Clinton, Connecticut (d. 1899)
• 1820-07-22 Louis Powell Harvey, American politician, Governor of Wisconsin, born in East Haddam, Connecticut (d. 1862)
• 1821-08-14 Clement H. Stevens, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Norwich, Connecticut (d. 1864)

• 1822-12-08 Luther Prentice Bradley, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1910)
• 1823-08-15 Orris Sanford Ferry, American lawyer, politician and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Bethel, Connecticut (d. 1875)
• 1823-08-31 Galusha Aaron Grow, American politician, born in Ashford, Connecticut (d. 1907)
• 1824-03-02 Henry Beebee Carrington, American lawyer, professor, prolific author, and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Wallingford, Connecticut (d. 1912)
• 1825-04-25 Charles Dowd, American principal who was the 1st to propose standardized time zones (for America's railways), born in Madison, Connecticut (d. 1904)
• 1825-08-25 Henry Warner Birge, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 1888)
• 1825-12-31 Francis Trowbridge Sherman, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Newtown, Connecticut (d. 1905)
• 1826-05-04 Frederick Edwin Church, American romantic landscape painter (Hudson River Sch), born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 1900)
• 1827-03-19 Alexander Shaler, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Haddam, Connecticut (d. 1911)
• 1827-11-10 Alfred Howe Terry, American Major General (Union Army), born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 1890)
• 1829-10-15 Asaph Hall, American astronomer who discovered satellites of Mars (Phobos & Deimos), born in Goshen, Connecticut (d. 1907)
• 1831-06-29 William Thomas Clark, American politician and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Norwalk, Connecticut (d. 1905)
• 1832-06-24 Edward Harland, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Norwich, Connecticut (d. 1915)
• 1832-10-01 Henry Clay Work, American composer, born in Middletown, Connecticut (d. 1884)

• 1839-03-10 Dudley Buck, American organist, composer, and music writer, born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 1909)
• 1848-12-17 Frederick Grant Gleason, American composer, born in Middletown, Connecticut (d. 1903)
• 1850-04-08 William H. Welch, American pathologist who founded Johns Hopkins Hospital, born in Norfolk, Connecticut (d. 1934)
• 1851-11-06 Charles Dow, American journalist and economist (co-founded Dow Jones and 1st editor of Wall St Journal), born in Sterling, Connecticut (d. 1902)
• 1852-09-15 Edward Bouchet, American physicist, 1st African American to receive US Ph.D, born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1918)
• 1853-07-23 William Gillette, American stage and silent film actor (Sherlock Holmes), and playwright (Secret Service), born in Hartford, Connecticut, (d. 1937)
• 1857-07-01 Roger Connor, American Baseball Hall of Fame 1st baseman (career HR record 138 stood for 23 years; NL batting champion 1885; NL RBI leader 1889; NY Giants), born in Waterbury, Connecticut (d. 1931)
• 1857-07-25 Frank Sprague, American inventor who installed the first U.S. electric trolley system in Richmond, Virgina, born in Milford, Connecticut (d. 1934)
• 1857-08-22 Ned Hanlon, American Baseball HOF center fielder (NL pennant 1887 Detroit Wolverines) and manager (5 × NL pennant Baltimore Orioles, Brooklyn Superbas), born in Montville, Connecticut (d. 1937)
• 1858-02-14 C. B. Hawley, American organist and composer, born in Brookfield, Connecticut (d. 1915)
• 1858-06-08 Harry Rowe Shelley, American composer (known for his hymn music), born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1947)
• 1859-04-03 Reginald De Koven, American operetta and popular song composer (Oh Promise Me), born in Middletown, Connecticut (d. 1920)
• 1859-04-07 Walter Camp, father of American football (Yale), born in New Britain, Connecticut (d. 1925)
• 1860-03-27 Frank Frost Abbott, American classical scholar, born in Redding, Connecticut (d. 1924)
• 1860-07-03 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American feminist, writer and lecturer for social reform, born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 1935)

• 1869-01-04 Tommy Corcoran, American baseball shortstop (MLB shortstop game assist record 14), born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1960)
• 1873-03-04 John H. Trumbull, 54th Governor of the U.S. state of Connecticut (d. 1961)

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