70 Fun Facts About New England

How many states make up New England?

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; New York is not one of them, whatever New Yorkers say.

Which English explorer coined the name 'New England' in 1616?

The name was made official in 1620 with the royal charter for the Plymouth Council for New England.

Greater Boston holds roughly what share of New England's entire population?

Worcester, Massachusetts is the region's second-largest city.

The Connecticut River, New England's longest, empties into which body of water?

It rises in northeastern New Hampshire and roughly bisects the region from north to south.

Which is the largest body of fresh water in New England?

It forms part of the Vermont-New York border; Moosehead and Winnipesaukee come next.

Mount Washington in New Hampshire recorded a world-record wind speed in April of which year?

The 231 mph gust stood as the world record until 1996 and is still the highest measured outside a tornado or tropical cyclone.

The Mount Washington Cog line, opened in 1869, was the first successful one of what in the United States?

It uses the Marsh rack system and still carries tourists to the summit.

The Old Man of the Mountain, New Hampshire's granite-profile emblem, collapsed in which year?

It had been the state emblem since 1945 and appears on New Hampshire's quarter.

The Vermont Republic, founded in 1777, joined the Union in 1791 as which number state?

Its constitution and laws simply carried over into statehood.

Vermont's Montpelier holds what distinction among US state capitals?

Its biggest city, Burlington, is likewise the smallest 'largest city' of any state.

Vermont produces roughly what share of the United States' maple syrup?

Quebec alone makes about 72% of the world's supply.

Which state is the only one to border exactly one other US state?

Its only neighbour is New Hampshire; the rest of its border is Canada and the sea.

Maine left Massachusetts in 1820 under the Missouri Compromise to become which number state?

Its admission balanced the entry of slave-holding Missouri the following year.

Maine's capital was moved from Portland to which more central city in 1832?

Portland remains the largest city.

New Hampshire's state motto is what?

Its nickname is the Granite State, and it has no income or sales tax.

New Hampshire has the shortest what of any coastal US state?

It measures roughly 18 miles, sometimes reckoned as only 13.

Since 1952, New Hampshire has held the earliest what of every US presidential election year?

It gave the state outsized influence in national politics.

New Hampshire became which number state to ratify the US Constitution in June 1788, putting it into effect?

Nine ratifications were needed, so New Hampshire's vote made the Constitution law.

What did Roger Williams found in 1638, the earliest of its kind in the colonies?

He had been banished from Massachusetts Bay and offered his colony as a refuge for 'liberty of conscience'.

Rhode Island was the first colony to renounce allegiance to the British Crown, on which date?

It was also the last of the original thirteen to ratify the Constitution, holding out until May 1790.

In 2020, Rhode Island voters dropped which words from the state's official name?

The full name had been the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations since colonial times.

What has been Rhode Island's official state drink since 1993?

It traces back to Providence's Italian immigrants sweetening coffee with milk.

Connecticut's nickname, the Constitution State, refers to which 1639 document?

Some historians call it the first written constitution in Western history.

Which Connecticut city is the historic centre of the American insurance industry?

Aetna, The Hartford and Travelers all grew up there; it is also the state capital.

Which Connecticut town is home to Electric Boat, builder of the US Navy's submarines?

The Navy also chose Groton for its East Coast submarine base in 1916.

Which two Olympic sports were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke?

Both have their Halls of Fame in the city where they were born.

Harvard, the first college in what became the United States, was founded in which year?

It was set up in Cambridge to train preachers; four of the eight Ivy League schools are in New England.

How many of the eight Ivy League universities are in New England?

Harvard, Yale, Brown and Dartmouth; MIT and most of the 'Little Ivies' are here too.

How many people were hanged in the Salem witch trials of 1692-93?

Fourteen women and five men; Giles Corey was pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea.

Roughly how many chests of tea did the Sons of Liberty throw into Boston Harbor on 16 December 1773?

They boarded the Dartmouth disguised as American Indians.

On what date were the Battles of Lexington and Concord fought?

Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott had ridden out to warn the militias the night before.

Paul Revere's midnight ride was turned into a famous 1861 poem by which New England writer?

Revere himself was a Boston silversmith and engraver.

Which two New England states abolished slavery outright, in 1777 and 1783?

The region became the base for abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison.

What is New England clam chowder made with that Manhattan chowder replaces with tomatoes?

Rhode Island has a third style: clear broth, with neither milk nor tomatoes.

The lobster roll is commonly credited to a restaurant called Perry's in which Connecticut town?

The Connecticut style is hot with butter; Maine stands often serve it cold with mayonnaise.

Boston cream pie is said to have been created for the 1856 opening of which Boston hotel?

It was called a pie because cakes and pies were baked in the same pans at the time.

Ben & Jerry's opened its first ice cream parlour in 1978 in a renovated what in Burlington, Vermont?

The founders had learned the trade from a $5 correspondence course from Penn State.

Dunkin' Donuts was founded in 1950 in which Massachusetts city?

Founder Bill Rosenberg's chain rebranded simply as Dunkin' in 2019.

Maine named which sweet its official state treat in 2011?

Blueberry pie is separately the state dessert; a world-record whoopie pie was made in South Portland that same year.

Moxie, Maine's official soft drink, gets its bitter flavour from what?

It began around 1876 as a patent medicine called Moxie Nerve Food, made in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Necco Wafers, first made near Boston in 1847, hold what distinction?

Production stopped when Necco went bankrupt in 2018 and resumed under Spangler in 2020.

The Boston Marathon, first run in 1897, is traditionally held on the third Monday of which month?

It is the world's oldest annual marathon and starts in Hopkinton.

Who ran the 1966 Boston Marathon unregistered after being told women couldn't run 26 miles?

She finished ahead of two-thirds of the field; women were officially admitted in 1972.

How many NBA titles, a record, had the Celtics won by the end of the 2023-24 season?

Their 18th title came in June 2024. Eight of them came in a row from 1959 to 1966 under Red Auerbach and Bill Russell.

The Boston Bruins won the first NHL game ever played in the United States in which year?

They beat the Montreal Maroons 2-1 at Boston Arena and are the oldest US team in the league.

The Patriots played their home games at which baseball ground from 1963 to 1968?

They moved to Foxborough in 1971 and to Gillette Stadium in 2002.

How many Super Bowls did the Patriots win in the Brady-Belichick era from 2001 to 2019?

Nine appearances, six wins, tying the Steelers for the most in NFL history.

Which horror author, born in Portland in 1947, sets most of his novels in Maine?

His debut Carrie in 1974 established him in horror.

Robert Frost, poet laureate of Vermont, was born in which unexpected city?

He is the only poet to win four Pulitzer Prizes and wrote 'Mending Wall' at his farm in Derry, New Hampshire.

How long did Thoreau live in his cabin at Walden Pond near Concord?

The land belonged to his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson.

How many of Emily Dickinson's nearly 1,800 poems were published in her lifetime?

She spent almost her whole life in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Which New Bedford-connected 1851 novel opens with the line 'Call me Ishmael'?

Melville drew on his own years as a common sailor on whalers.

Samuel Slater built the first US textile mill in which Rhode Island town?

He had memorised British machinery designs as an apprentice, earning the nickname 'Slater the Traitor' back home.

Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, completed in 1791, was the first lighthouse built by whom?

George Washington ordered its construction and set aside $1,500 for it.

Acadia in Maine, created in 1916, was the first US national park located where?

It began as Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916 and includes Cadillac Mountain, the tallest peak on the US Atlantic coast.

Since 1914, most of Cape Cod has been cut off from the mainland by what?

The Sagamore and Bourne bridges carry road traffic across it.

Nantucket's nickname 'The Little Grey Lady of the Sea' refers to how the island looks when what?

English settlers bought most of the island in 1659 for thirty pounds and two beaver hats.

Newport, Rhode Island hosted every challenge for which sailing trophy between 1930 and 1983?

Its Touro Synagogue is the oldest surviving synagogue in the United States.

Which Gilded Age family built The Breakers, the grandest of Newport's summer 'cottages', in 1895?

The Kennedys later attended social events there while summering in Newport.

The Head of the Charles, held each October in Boston, is the world's largest three-day event in which sport?

Around 11,000 athletes row in more than 2,500 boats.

Many New England towns are still governed by which form of direct democracy?

Each state is subdivided into small municipalities called towns rather than counties running local affairs.

What nickname for New England was used especially by Southerners and the British?

The region's identity has always mixed Puritanism with liberalism, farms with factories.

Which colonies formed the New England Confederation, the 'United Colonies of New England', in 1643?

Rhode Island was left out; the compact mattered most during King Philip's War in the 1670s.

Which 1814 New England Federalist gathering aired grievances about the War of 1812?

It ended the Federalist Party's credibility once the war ended in American celebration.

Which is New England's most populous state and which its least?

Massachusetts has about seven million people, Vermont a little over 640,000.

Which of these New England exports is grown mainly on Cape Cod and Massachusetts' South Shore?

Maine grows the blueberries and potatoes; Vermont taps the maples.

Which king imposed the unpopular Dominion of New England on the colonies in 1686?

He was worried about the colonies' self-governing charters and flouting of the Navigation Acts; Bostonians toppled his governor Edmund Andros in 1689.

America's first cotton mill was founded in 1787 in which Massachusetts North Shore seaport?

The Beverly Cotton Manufactory was also the largest cotton mill of its day and paved the way for Slater Mill in Pawtucket.

Which style of India pale ale was developed in Vermont in the 2010s?

Hazy and juicy, the NEIPA joined Moxie, first sold in Lowell in 1876, among the region's signature drinks.

The bloodiest early conflict between colonists and Native tribes, in 1637, was fought against which people?

The Pequot War culminated in the Mystic massacre; six years later four colonies formed the New England Confederation.