State Facts

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. 
 

In 1898 the first car insurance in America is issued at Hartford. 
 

Cattle branding began in Connecticut when farmers were required by law to mark all of their pigs. 
 

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), Polaroid camera (1934), helicopter (1939), and color television (1948). 
 

The first cookbook written by an American was published in Hartford in 1796.  The book was American Cookery by Amelia Simmons.
 

Inventor Eli Whitney began manufacturing his cotton gins, which revolutionized the economy of the South, at New Haven in 1793.
 

Connecticut was a major producer of military machinery during the Cold War and was the first producer of nuclear-powered submarines.
 

In the mid-1990s Connecticut led the nation in per capita wealth.