203 & 860

Hartford

There is a surprising variation in climate within the state, in spite of its small size.  It’s not unusual for temperatures in the northwest hills to be sometimes 10°F lower than those in the central valley.  Average temperatures throughout the year are (in °F): 35-50 in winter, 45-75 in spring, 65-85 in summer and 45-75 in the fall.

• Since 1875 Connecticut’s capital city has been Hartford, before then it was shared with New Haven.
• Connecticut was the first to adopt a constitution, establishing a representative government in 1639.
• The first telephone exchange in history was in Bridgeport, established in 1877.
• The Frisbee is claimed to have been invented in Connecticut in 1920 when a group of Yale students discovered empty pie plates from Frisbie Pies could be thrown successfully across the New Haven Green.
• Igor Sikorsky designed the first successful helicopter in the Western Hemisphere in Connecticut in 1939.
• English Puritans from Massachusetts made the first permanent settlement in Connecticut in 1633.
• The Connecticut State House was the first in America, built in 1788.
• In 1729 Yale University was the first in the U.S. to grant a medical diploma.
• Connecticut’s Noah Webster wrote the first dictionary in 1806.
• Samuel Colt invented the first repeating handgun (revolver) in Connecticut in 1836.
• Charles Goodyear, in 1839, discovered that a mixture of sulphur and rubber dropped onto a hot wood stove charred but did not melt.  This discovery lead to the development of “vulcanized” rubber, used today in products like rubber boots, shoes and tires.

1633 – First settlement
1639 – Original state constitution adopted
1788 – Fifth state to adopt the U.S. Constitution
1965 – Adopted current state constitution

Tourism is a prominent industry in Connecticut, as are industrial development and manufacturing.  Connecticut is also known as the “Insurance State” for its dominance in the insurance field, it is home to over 100 insurance companies.

Quinnehtukqut – “Long River” or “Beside the Long Tidal River”

216 miles

The state of Connecticut levies a 6% sales tax on most goods and services, including dining at restaurants.  Lodging tax in Connecticut is 12%.

Connecticut is made up of 169 towns and 21 cities.

5,543 square miles

Connecticut is the birthplace to many well-recognized names in the worlds of sports, science, politics, the arts and general celebrity. Among these are…
• Katharine Hepburn, actress, Hartford
• Noah Webster, author of first American dictionary,  West Hartford
• Ralph Nader, lawyer and consumer advocate, Winsted
• Ernest Borgnine, actor, Hamden
• P.T. Barnum, Barnum & Bailey’s Circus, Bethel
• Ethan Allen, American soldier, Litchfield
• Benedict Arnold, American soldier, Norwich
• George W. Bush, U.S. President, New Haven
• Karen & Richard Carpenter, brother & sister singing duo, New Haven
• Glenn Close, actress, Greenwich
• Charles Goodyear, inventor, New Haven
• Dorothy Hamill, figure skater, Riverside
• Annie Liebovitz, photographer, Westbury
• Dylan McDermott, actor, Waterbury
• Meg Ryan, actress, Fairfield
• Charles Tiffany, jeweler (Tiffany & Co.), Killingly

3,502,309 (2007 census – CT Dept of Public Health)

107 State Parks, 32 State Forests