18 Things New Hampshire Did Before Any Other State
Did you know good ol' New Hampshire was the first to have a public library, modern lottery and ushered in the video game craze?
New Hampshire is first in the nation for our primary, but we also came first on a bunch of other things. Here are some of the things The Granite State did before anyone else according to Wikipedia:
- 1
New Hampshire ratified the first independent constitution in the Americas, free of British rule.
- 2
Fernald's Island in the Piscataqua River was the first government-sanctioned US Navy shipyard.
- 3
Dublin's Juvenile Library was the first free public library.
- 4
The first women's strike in the nation took place at Dover's Cocheco Mills
- 5
The Peterborough Town Library was the first public library, supported with public funds, in the world.
- 6
Center Harbor was the site of the first intercollegiate athletic event.
- 7
The first trans-Atlantic telecommunications cable between Europe and America stretched from Balinskelligs Bay, Ireland, to Rye, New Hampshire.
- 8
A group of nine conservationists founded the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the first forest-conservation advocacy group in the US.
- 9
Monsignor Pierre Hevey organized the nation's first credit union, "La Caisse Populaire, Ste-Marie" (The People's Bank) in Manchester, to help mill workers save and borrow money, which is now St. Mary's Bank.
- 10
The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen held the first crafts fair in the nation.
- 11
The Bretton Woods Agreement, the first fully negotiated system intended to govern monetary relations among independent nation-states, was signed at the Mount Washington Hotel.
- 12
Alan Shepard of Derry rode a Mercury spacecraft and became the first American in space.
- 13
New Hampshire's legislature approved the nation's first modern state lottery, which began play in 1964.
- 14
Ralph Baer of Sanders Associates, Inc., Nashua, recruited engineers to develop the first home video game.
- 15
Christa McAuliffe of Concord became the first private citizen selected to venture into space. She perished with her six space shuttle Challenger crewmates on January 28, 1986.
- 16
New Hampshire became the first state in the country to install a green LED traffic light. New Hampshire was selected because it was the first state to install the red and yellow variety statewide.
- 17
New Hampshire became the first state to recognize same-sex unions without a court order or the threat of one.
- 18
Samuel Shelburne of Portsmouth was the first Attorney General of the United States.