80 Fun Facts About Connecticut

Hartford is the capital, but which city is Connecticut's most populous?

Hartford is only the state's fourth-largest city; Bridgeport, on Long Island Sound, has led the population table for decades.

The 'Constitution State' nickname refers to the Fundamental Orders, adopted by Connecticut in what year?

Some historians call the Fundamental Orders the first written constitution in Western history, which is why the phrase ended up on the state's license plates.

Which spice gives Connecticut its unofficial nickname?

One tongue-in-cheek origin story says Yankee peddlers sold carved wooden knobs as the real spice to unsuspecting customers.

Which song is Connecticut's official state song?

It was adopted in 1978, and the tune's Revolutionary-era history fits a state that sent thousands of troops to the Continental Army.

The state's name comes from a Mohegan-Pequot word translated as what?

The word refers to the river that roughly bisects the state and empties into Long Island Sound between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme.

Connecticut's high point sits on the slope of which peak, whose summit lies across the state line?

The US Geological Survey settled the matter in the 1940s: the 2,380-foot high point is a slope, not a summit, which annoys peak-baggers to this day.

Which body of water, created behind a hydroelectric dam in the 1920s, is the largest in Connecticut?

Nearly 1,400 men worked on the project, and pumping from the Housatonic River began filling the valley in February 1928.

Which of these states does not share a border with Connecticut?

The fourth side of the state is water: Long Island Sound, which separates it from New York's Long Island.

Connecticut has no true oceanfront because Long Island Sound is what kind of water body?

Being sheltered behind Long Island means the shoreline is relatively protected from big storm waves.

Bear Mountain, the highest summit entirely within Connecticut, stands in which northwestern town?

The peak is part of the southern Taconic range and rises 2,316 feet.

How many counties does Connecticut have?

They are little more than lines on a map: almost all county government functions were abolished in 1960.

When Connecticut ratified the US Constitution in January 1788, which number state did it become?

Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Georgia had already signed on when Connecticut's convention voted on January 9.

Which Dutch navigator was the first European to explore Connecticut, in 1614?

Block Island, off Rhode Island, is named after him too; the Dutch later built a fort called the House of Hope at what is now Hartford.

Thomas Hooker led his followers from which colony to found the Connecticut Colony?

His 1638 sermon on the consent of the governed helped inspire the Fundamental Orders adopted the following year.

By legend, colonists hid Connecticut's 1662 charter in the Charter Oak in 1687 to keep it from which official?

The story goes that the candles were doused during the meeting and Captain Joseph Wadsworth slipped out with the document.

The Charter Oak was commemorated on Connecticut's coin in the 50 State Quarters program in what year?

The tree itself was blown down in a storm in 1856 after standing for roughly 700 years.

What species of tree was the Charter Oak, Connecticut's official state tree since 1947?

It was designated in 1947, nearly a century after the original tree fell.

The world's first telephone directory, issued in New Haven in February 1878, listed how many subscribers?

It was a single piece of cardboard, not a book.

Louis' Lunch in New Haven claims to have served the first hamburger; how are its burgers still served?

They are cooked on the original vertical cast-iron gas broilers from 1898, and asking for ketchup is a mistake.

Louis' Lunch, the New Haven restaurant that claims to have invented the hamburger, opened in what year?

Founder Louis Lassen was a Danish immigrant; the business is still run by his family.

Which New Haven pizzeria is credited with inventing the white clam pie?

New Haven-style 'apizza' dates to 1925 and is charred rather than burnt, as locals insist.

In 2021 Connecticut named which dish its official state food?

New Haven's coal-fired apizza made the case; the steamed cheeseburger of Meriden was left waiting.

In 2024 Connecticut adopted which sweet as its official state candy?

George Smith of New Haven is credited with putting hard candy on a stick in 1908 and trademarking the name.

PEZ candy's US factory and visitor center are in which Connecticut town?

The Austrian company built the plant in 1973 and opened a 4,000-square-foot visitor center there in 2011.

Wiffle ball was invented in 1953 in which Connecticut town?

David N. Mullany designed the perforated ball so his 12-year-old son could throw curves without hurting his arm.

The Frisbee is named after a Connecticut company whose tins students tossed. What did it make?

Workers at the Frisbie Pie Company tossed the tins on their breaks, and the habit spread to nearby campuses.

ESPN broadcasts from studios in which Connecticut town?

Getty Oil put up the money for the land in 1979, and the network's first program was SportsCenter.

In what year did ESPN launch from Connecticut with the first telecast of SportsCenter?

That first show reached 1.4 million cable subscribers.

Lake Compounce, opened in 1846, is the oldest continuously operating what in the United States?

Its wooden coaster Boulder Dash won the Golden Ticket Award for best wooden coaster five years running.

Foxwoods, once the largest casino in the Western Hemisphere, sits on the reservation of which tribe?

Rival Mohegan Sun opened four years later in 1996; the two casinos are among the state's largest employers.

Who became head coach of the UConn women's basketball team in 1985?

His 1,277 wins by early 2026 were the most by any NCAA basketball coach at any level.

How many consecutive games did the UConn women win in the record streak that ended in the 2017 Final Four?

An overtime buzzer-beater by Mississippi State ended it; UConn also owns the longest regular-season streak, 126 games.

Yale was founded in 1701 under what original name?

It opened in the home of its first rector, Abraham Pierson, and took the Yale name after a gift from Elihu Yale.

What is the name of the live bulldog that serves as Yale's mascot?

The first Dan served from 1889 to 1897 and retired to England; the title passes to a new dog on each retirement.

In what year did Yale become the first American university to award a PhD?

The degree required a bachelor's, a prescribed course of study and an original dissertation, the model still used today.

Nathan Hale, Connecticut's official state hero, was born in 1755 in which town?

He entered Yale at fourteen and was the only volunteer when Washington called for a spy in 1776.

In which town did Prudence Crandall run her 1830s school for African American girls?

The legislature passed a law specifically to shut her down; it named her state heroine in 1995.

After the 1839 slave revolt aboard La Amistad, the ship was towed into which Connecticut port?

The Mende captives were jailed in New Haven, and the US Supreme Court eventually restored their freedom.

USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered vessel, was built in which Connecticut town?

She is now a museum ship there and draws about 250,000 visitors a year.

In August 1958, USS Nautilus became the first watercraft to reach what?

Operation Sunshine kept her under Arctic ice for 96 hours in what her citation called the first voyage across the top of the world.

Sikorsky Aircraft, whose founder flew the first practical helicopter, runs the state's largest plant in which town?

Igor Sikorsky's untethered flight took place on May 13, 1940; the company was sold to Lockheed Martin in 2015.

Ella Grasso, elected in 1974, was the first woman elected governor of any US state without what?

She was born in Windsor Locks to Italian immigrants and had already been the first woman to lead the state House floor.

Joe Lieberman in 2000 was the first person of which faith on a major-party presidential ticket?

Al Gore chose him as running mate; the ticket won the popular vote but lost the election.

Which Hartford-born actress holds the record of four Academy Awards for Best Actress?

Her father was a urologist at Hartford Hospital and her mother a suffrage campaigner.

Which circus showman, born in Bethel, was elected mayor of Connecticut's largest city in 1875?

As mayor he pushed gas street lighting and a better water supply, and he designed his own burial plot in the city's Mountain Grove Cemetery.

Mark Twain's next-door neighbor at Hartford's Nook Farm was which fellow author?

Twain moved there in 1874 and wrote his most famous books in the house, now a museum beside hers.

Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum, founded in 1842, is the oldest continually operating what in the United States?

Its oldest building is a castle-like structure by architects Alexander Jackson Davis and Ithiel Town.

Founded in 1764, which Connecticut paper is the oldest continuously published US newspaper?

It predates the Declaration of Independence by twelve years.

When the Hartford Whalers left the NHL city in 1997, which team did they become?

They left despite rising season-ticket sales and a state offer of a new arena.

WWE's global headquarters is in which Connecticut city?

The company moved its offices there in 1983, when it was still called Titan Sports.

How much did Fred DeLuca borrow from Peter Buck in 1965 to open the first Subway shop?

It opened as Pete's Super Submarines; the chain is still headquartered in Shelton.

Around 1850 Samuel Colt's Hartford factory mass-produced which product using interchangeable parts?

The precision methods spread to Hartford's other factories, from Sharps rifles to Columbia bicycles.

Home to Royal and Underwood, Hartford was known in the early 1900s as the world capital of what?

Danbury, meanwhile, was the hat city, with 30 hat factories by 1887.

The Turtle, built by David Bushnell in 1775, made history's first attack by what kind of vessel?

The 1776 attack on a British warship in New York Harbor failed, but the idea stuck around.

Old New-Gate Prison in East Granby, Connecticut's first official prison in 1776, was originally what?

It held prisoners of war during the Revolution, and visitors can still tour the mine tunnels.

William Gillette, builder of Gillette Castle, was famous for playing whom on stage?

The state bought the property in 1943 for $29,000; the actor had called it Seventh Sister.

Mystic Seaport Museum, established in 1929, is the largest museum of what kind in the United States?

It began life as the Marine Historical Association and now draws about 250,000 visitors a year.

Which creature was designated Connecticut's state animal in 1975?

It honors New London's 19th-century whaling fleet, one of New England's three biggest.

Which insect is Connecticut's official state insect?

The praying mantis got the job in 1977, presumably for eating garden pests.

What is Connecticut's state bird?

It was adopted in 1943; Wisconsin and Michigan claim the same bird.

Which flower is Connecticut's state flower?

Adopted in 1907, it blooms pink and white across the state's hillsides in June.

Which shellfish did Connecticut adopt as a state symbol in 1989?

Oystering has been a Long Island Sound industry since colonial times.

Which dinosaur did Connecticut name its state dinosaur in 2017?

The state fossil, Eubrontes giganteus, is a footprint type thought to have been left by a similar animal in the Connecticut Valley.

Which World War II fighter, built by Chance Vought in Connecticut, is the official state aircraft?

Chance Vought built the gull-winged plane in the same town where Sikorsky now builds helicopters.

Who is Connecticut's official state composer?

The Danbury-born insurance executive wrote music on the side and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1947.

Connecticut's motto 'Qui transtulit sustinet' translates as what?

The 'transplanted' are the colonists, represented by the three grapevines on the state flag.

Which federal service institution trains its officers on the Thames River in southeastern Connecticut?

It reflects a maritime tradition going back to the state's first lighthouse, built at the mouth of the Thames in 1760.

Yale's trustees voted in 1716 to move the school to New Haven from which town?

New Haven had outbid several other communities for the right to host it.

The first English settlers in Connecticut arrived in 1633 and founded which town?

Wethersfield followed the next year and Hartford in 1636.

Which lexicographer, born in West Hartford, compiled his great American dictionary in New Haven?

He was one of the state's leading Federalist-era intellectuals alongside Yale's Timothy Dwight.

Eli Whitney, who ran an arms factory near New Haven, is best known for inventing what in 1793?

He lost most of his profits in patent lawsuits and is also remembered for championing interchangeable parts.

New Haven-born Charles Goodyear received an 1844 patent for which process?

The tire company that bears his name was founded decades after his death and had no connection to him.

Which Connecticut delegate signed the Declaration of Independence?

Sherman is the only person to sign all four founding documents: the Articles of Association, the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.

The 1944 Hartford circus fire, during a Ringling Bros. matinee, killed at least how many people?

More than 700 were injured at an afternoon show attended by up to 8,000 people.

Connecticut is the third-smallest state by area, behind Rhode Island and which other?

Despite its size it ranks fourth in population density, with more than 3.6 million residents as of 2024.

Connecticut's largest airport, Bradley International, is in which town north of Hartford?

Many residents of the state's centre and south still make heavy use of JFK and Newark instead.

The nation's first law school operated from 1773 to 1833 in which Connecticut town?

Yale, Wesleyan, Trinity and Quinnipiac are among the state's better-known universities today.

What was the strip of land Connecticut kept across northern Ohio after 1786 called?

Settlers from Connecticut brought their hometown names with them, which is why Ohio has its own Norwalk and New London.

CTfastrak, opened in March 2015, is a bus rapid transit line linking Hartford with which city?

The state has pushed rail and ride-sharing to ease chronic congestion on I-95 and the Merritt Parkway.

How many councils of governments replaced Connecticut's counties for Census statistics in 2022?

The change was fully implemented by 2024; the state itself has had no county governments since 1960.