
September 18: Mark Twain Robbed in Redding
In the later years of his life, famous American author and satirist Samuel Langhorne Clemens — better known as Mark Twain — savored the tranquil days spent at his Italianate mans…
Today in Connecticut HistoryJuly 22: Mohegan Minister Occom Preaches Up An Ivy League College
Samson Occom, one of the Mohegan tribe’s most famous members and a direct descendant of the great 17th-century tribal leader Uncas, was born in 1723 in southeastern Connecticut. As a t…
Today in Connecticut HistoryJuly 8: The Enfield Church Service That Terrified Its Way Into History
In the early 1740s, New England was in the midst of a sweeping religious revival now known as the Great Awakening. Charismatic evangelical ministers traveled from town to town on a mission t…
Today in Connecticut HistoryJune 25: Marilyn Monroe Takes Connecticut By Storm
Today in 1956, the small, rural, western Connecticut town of Roxbury was swarmed by reporters who had learned that the internationally famous starlet Marilyn Monroe was there visiting her fi…
Today in Connecticut HistoryJune 24: Scandal-Plagued Celebrity Minister Henry Ward Beecher
Henry Ward Beecher, one of the most famous and influential — but also controversial — preachers and orators of 19th-century America, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, today in…
Today in Connecticut HistoryJune 17: The First Black Playwright To “Take a Giant Step” to Broadway
Award-winning playwright and filmmaker Louis Peterson spent his career creating dramatic stories that explored conflict and relationships especially as they turned around issues of race. He …
Today in Connecticut HistoryJune 10: The First Union Officer to Die Fighting in the American Civil War
Today in 1861, 32-year-old Major Theodore Woolsey Winthrop, a descendant of one of the most important figures in the founding of Connecticut, died in action at the Battle of Bethel in easter…
Today in Connecticut HistoryMay 20: A “Man’s Education” Taught at a Female Seminary
Today in 1823, the first classes were held at the Hartford Female Seminary, a revolutionary new school for girls founded by author and education pioneer Catharine Beecher. Born into the weal…
Today in Connecticut HistoryMay 14: A Very Busy — and Unusually Talented — Minister
What didn’t he do? Today in 1752, Timothy Dwight IV, minister, scholar, theologian, war chaplain, songwriter, political leader, travel writer, college president, and one of a group of …
Today in Connecticut HistoryMay 8: The Man Who Made “Happily Ever After” Get Real
Today in 2012, longtime Connecticut resident Maurice Sendak died in Danbury from complications following a stroke. Sendak was a prolific children’s book creator who wrote and illustrat…
Today in Connecticut History