4th May: Rhode Island

On this date in 1776, Rhode Island declared its freedom from England, two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

Roof of Courtyard Building, Providence, RI

1. Rhode Island's official state name is Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the longest state name in the United States. It has the shortest state motto ("Hope") and is the smallest state with an area of 1,214 square miles. Over 400 Rhode Islands can fit inside of Alaska, and almost 4,000 can fit in America.
2. It isn't an island - most of Rhode Island is on the mainland, although its territory does include some islands, the largest being Aquidneck Island. Aquidneck Island was originally called Rhode Island but changed its name so it wouldn't get confused with the state as a whole. There are two theories as to how the state got its name. One is that Aquidneck Island reminded Dutch explorer Adrian Block of Rhodes in Greece; or that it was so named because of the Red clay on the shore.
3. The founder of Rhode Island was a man named Roger Williams, who was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his radical views on freedom of religion and freedom of speech. He bought some land from the Narragansett Native Americans and founded a settlement in what is now the capital, Providence. There, he established the first practical working model of Democracy and the first Baptist church in America. Legend has it that Roger Williams was eaten by a tree. He died in 1683 and was buried on his property. When someone tried to find his grave in 1860, all he could find was the roots of an apple tree in what he thought was the grave.
4. Rhode Island was the first colony to declare independence, but the last of the thirteen original colonies to become a state. It was also the first state to pass anti-slavery laws.
5. There's a long list of things Rhode Island was the first US state to do. It was the first state to send someone to prison for speeding. This happened in 1904 and the perpetrator was doing 15mph. It is home to the first Carousel, the first penny arcade, held the first polo match, lawn tennis championship and open golf tournament; the first jazz festival and the first circus were here, too. It also kicked off the industrial revolution in America when Samuel Slater established the first Cotton mill here in 1790. Pelham Street in Newport was the first street in the country to use gas-illuminated streetlights, and the state has the oldest tavern, library, schoolhouse, synagogue and Masonic Temple in the USA, not to mention the oldest war monument. The Nine Men's Misery monument in Cumberland was erected in memory of the colonists killed in Pierce's Fight during King Phillips War in 1676. There is even a building dating back to 1120, the Viking Tower in Truro Park, the oldest standing building in America.
6. On the subject of Cumberland, there is a type of rock found there which is not found anywhere else on the planet. Cumberlandite is high in Iron and titanium and very magnetic. Unsurprisingly, it's the state rock. Other state symbols include: Flower: Violet (officially adopted in 1968, making RI the last state to adopt an official flower); drink: Coffee Milk; bird: Rhode Island Red Chicken; fish: striped bass; fruit : Rhode Island greening Apple, marine mammal: Harbor Seal; tree: Red maple; insect American Burying Beetle (not “Nibbles Woodaway”, the 58 foot long Termite which sits on the roof of New England Pest Control in Providence and is 928 times the size of a real termite).
7. If you want to abide by the law in Rhode Island, do not pour pickle juice on streetcar tracks, smoke a pipe after sunset, wear transparent clothes, or bite off another person's leg. Shopkeepers in Providence are not allowed to sell you Toothpaste and a Toothbrush at the same time on a Sunday.
8. Notable people from Rhode Island include Nelson Eddy, Seth McFarlane (creator of Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show and Ted), Debra Messing (Will and Grace), George M. Cohan (wrote Yankee Doodle Dandy) and Gilbert Stuart who was the artist who drew the George Washington portrait featured on the dollar bill.
9. In 1964, RI was the site of the only nuclear explosion outside of a controlled environment to take place in the US. A worker at United Nuclear Corporation Recovery Systems mistakenly put too much uranium solution in a tank. The mistake cost him his life, but nobody else was killed.
10. Rhode Island has more shipwrecks per square mile than any other state, and a ghost ship, on Block Island. The passengers and crew of a ship which sank there in 1738 are said to haunt the island because the residents didn't help them as the ship floundered - and they are out for revenge.

See details of all my books

Browse other topics I've covered in this blog - HERE.

Like my Facebook page for news of Topical Ten posts posts on my writing blog, a weekly writing quote and news of upcoming publications