Connecticut
State in New England, USA; nicknamed Constitution State/ Nutmeg State
Area:
13,000 sq km/5,018 sq mi
Capital:
Hartford
Towns and Cities:
Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury
Physical:
Highlands in the NW; Connecticut River and valley; Housatonic Valley;
Litchfield Hills
Features:
Mystic Seaport, the largest maritime museum in the USA, a replica of
a 19th-century shipbuilding town; Litchfield village; Stonington; Mark
Twain House, Hartford; Old Lyme, with Florence Griswold House Museum
(1817), once the home of the Old Lyme Art Colony; Monte Cristo Cottage,
New London, summer home of Eugene O'Neill; Prudence Crandall School,
Canterbury, New England's first school for black girls, founded 1833,
now a museum; Baldwin Museum of Connecticut History, Hartford, with
a collection of Colt revolvers; US Naval Submarine base at Groton, with
the Nautilus memorial (the Nautilus, the world's first nuclear- powered
submarine, was launched here 1954, and is now permanently berthed and
open to visitors); Barnum Museum, Bridgeport, with a model of P T Barnum's
three-ring circus; Noah Webster house and museum, Hartford, the birthplace
of the author of the American Dictionary ; Yale University (1701); Trinity
College, Hartford (1823); Wesleyan University (1831); US Coastguard
Academy, New London; American Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford
Products:
Dairy, poultry, and market- garden products; tobacco, watches, clocks,
silverware, helicopters, jet engines, nuclear submarines, hardware and
locks, electrical and electronic equipment, guns and ammunition, optical
instruments. Hartford is the centre of the nation's insurance industry
Population:
(1996 est) 3,274,000
Famous People:
Phineas T Barnum, George Bush, Katharine Hepburn, Charles Ives, Eugene
O'Neill, Wallace Stevens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Eli Whitney,
Benedict Arnold, Jonathan Edwards, Nathan Hale, Edward H Land
History:
Dutch navigator Adriaen Block was the first European to record the
area 1614, and in 1633 Dutch colonists built a trading post near
modern Hartford but it soon was settled by Puritan colonists from
Massachusetts 1635. It was one of the original 13 colonies and
became a state 1788. It prospered in the 19th century from shipbuilding,
whaling, and growing industry. In the 20th century it became an
important supplier of military equipment. Connecticut is second
to Alaska among states in personal income per capita. Many of
New York City's most affluent residential suburbs are in SW Connecticut.
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