The US state of New Hampshire was founded in 1776. Here are ten things you might not know about New Hampshire:
The state was given its name by Captain John Mason, who named it after the county of Hampshire in England. It has several nicknames: The Granite State; Mother of Rivers; White Mountain State and Switzerland of America.
New Hampshire was the first state to declare independence from England, six months before the Declaration of Independence was signed.
The highest point is Mount Washington at 6,288 feet (1,918 m). It was at the observatory here that the fastest ever wind speed in the Northern Hemisphere was recorded, 231 miles per hour on April 12, 1934.
New Hampshire has the shortest coastline of any state which isn’t landlocked. Its coastline is just 13 miles long.
The capital is Concord, and the motto is Live Free or Die, which is taken from a statement written by the Revolutionary General John Stark, hero of the Battle of Bennington.
State symbols include: State bird, the purple finch (which isn’t actually purple but a pinkish colour); State Flower, The purple lilac (which presumably is purple); State Tree, The white Birch; State insect’ the ladybird (or ladybug as they call it over the pond); State Amphibian, The red-spotted Newt; State Animal, The white tailed Deer; State Gem, Smokey Quartz; State Mineral- Beryl; State Rock, Granite; and State Sport, Skiing.
In a presidential election year, New Hampshire is the first state to hold a Presidential Primary election. Until the 1992 elections, no candidate ever won the Presidency without first winning in New Hampshire.
The first women’s strike in the US occurred in New Hampshire in 1828 when about 400 mill girls walked out of the Dover Cotton Factory. Sadly, it wasn’t successful. The company merely advertised for new workers to replace them, and so they had to give in.
New Hampshire adopted the first legal lottery in the twentieth century United States in 1963.
Famous people from New Hampshire include: The first American in space, Alan Shepherd, and the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe; writers Dan Brown, Willa Cather and Jodi Picoult; actor Adam Sandler; Mary Baker Eddy who founded The Church of Christ, Scientist; Sarah Josepha Hale who wrote the poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb”; and one former president, Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States.
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