Connecticut |
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| Entered the Union: Jan. 9, 1788 (5) | Capital: Hartford |
| Origin of Name: From an Indian word (Quinnehtukqut) meaning "beside the long tidal river" | |
| State Nicknames: Constitution State • Nutmeg State | |
| State Motto: Qui transtulit sustinet (He who transplanted still sustains) | |
| State Tree: White (Charter) Oak | State Bird: American Robin |
| State Flower: Mountain Laurel | State Animal: Sperm Whale |
| State Shellfish: Eastern Oyster | State Insect: Praying Mantis |
| State Heroine: Prudence Crandall | State Hero: Nathan Hale |
| State Ship: USS Nautilus | State Mineral: Garnet |
| State Forests: 32 • State Parks: 110 | State Song : “Yankee Doodle" |
| Famous for: Long Island Sound shoreline, Yale University | |
| Famous Connecticuters: Ethan Allan, Nathan Hale (American Revolution), Benedict Arnold (Revolution General & Traitor), P.T. Barnum (circus), Oliver Ellsworth (Chief Justice), Charles Goodyear (originator of vulcanized rubber), Dorothy Hamill (ice skater), Katharine Hepburn (actress), John Mayer (pop artist), Harriet Beecher Stowe (author), Mark Twain (author), Morris Waite (Supreme Court), Noah Webster (lexicographer) | |
| Animals and Birds: Click on photos of the animals and birds on this page to find out more about them and to hear the sounds they make. | |
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| Native Americans of Connecticut belonged to many of the Algonquian Indian family, the Pequot tribe being the strongest. | ||||||||||||
| Dutchman Adriaen Block was the first to explore the Connecticut Valley in 1614. In 1633, English colonists came from Massachusetts to settle Windsor, the first permanent settlement in Connecticut. Together with settlements in Wethersfield and Hartford they united to form the Connecticut Colony in 1636. | ||||||||||||
| The Pequot War began in 1636. In 1637, the colonists defeated the Pequots with help from Uncas, a Pequot leader that sided with the colonists. | ||||||||||||
| Sir Edward Andros, governor of other New England colonies tried many times to gain control of Connecticut. In 1687, he entered Hartford and demanded the charter. The people refused, hiding the charter in an oak tree, later known as the “Charter Oak.” | ||||||||||||
| Connecticut played a prominent role in the Revolutionary War, serving as the Continental Army's major supplier. Sometimes called the “Arsenal of the Nation,” the state became one of the most industrialized in the nation. | ||||||||||||
| Connecticuticans are sometimes referred to as Yankees or Nutmeggers. The nutmeg connection may come from sailors returning from voyages with nutmeg (which in the 18th and 19th centuries was a very valuable spice in New England). | ||||||||||||
| Connecticut was first producer of nuclear-powered submarines. | ||||||||||||
| Tapping Reeve Law School, the first law school in the United States was established in 1784. | ||||||||||||
| The New Haven District Telephone Company published the first telephone book ever issued on February 1878, in New Haven. | ||||||||||||
| Cattle branding began in Connecticut when farmers were required by law to mark all of their pigs. | ||||||||||||
| In 1898 the first car insurance in America is issued at Hartford. The first automobile law was passed in 1901. The speed limit was set at 12 miles per hour. In 1937, Connecticut became the first state to issue permanent license plates for cars. | ||||||||||||
| Connecticut is home to the oldest US newspaper still being published: the Hartford Courant, established in 1764. It is also home to the first hamburger (1895) and the first practical helicopter (1939). | ||||||||||||
| Connecticut's Yale University ranks as one of the world's greatest and richest universities, and has one of the most selective undergraduate programs of any university in the United States. | ||||||||||||
| Connecticut's Ethnic Roots: Italian 18.6%, Irish 16.6%, English 10.3%, German 9.9%, French 9.9%. | ||||||||||||
| Religion in Connecticut: 75% Christian (43% Protestant, 32% Catholic), 12% No Religion, 4% Other Religions, 1% Jewish, 1% Muslim | ||||||||||||
| Inventor Eli Whitney began manufacturing his cotton gins, which revolutionized the economy of the South, at New Haven in 1793. | ||||||||||||
| In the mid-1990s Connecticut led the nation in per capita wealth. | ||||||||||||
At a Glance
Connecticut Quick Facts
| Entered the Union | Jan. 9, 1788 (5) |
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| Capital | Hartford |
| Nickname | Constitution State • Nutmeg State |
| State Bird | American Robin |
| State Flower | Mountain Laurel |
| State Tree | White (Charter) Oak |
New for 2026
More Connecticut Facts & Photos
The whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, launched in 1841 and docked today at Mystic Seaport, is the last wooden whaleship in the world. She made 37 voyages over an 80-year hunting career.
Lake Compounce in Bristol opened in 1846 and is the oldest continuously operating amusement park in North America.
William Gillette, the actor who played Sherlock Holmes on stage more than 1,300 times, built himself a 24-room fieldstone castle above the Connecticut River between 1914 and 1919. The state bought it in 1943, and it is now Gillette Castle State Park.
In 1966 a bulldozer operator grading a construction site in Rocky Hill flipped over a sandstone slab covered in three-toed dinosaur footprints, each about 200 million years old. The spot became Dinosaur State Park, one of the largest dinosaur track sites in North America.
Weir Farm in Ridgefield and Wilton, home of the Impressionist painter J. Alden Weir, is the only national park site in the country devoted to American painting.
Voices of America
In Their Own Words
“The Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”
(1828 - preface to his American Dictionary of the English Language)
"I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country."
"In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike."
Last updated: July 2026