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?

Wikipedia

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.

Source: 18 Things New Hampshire Did Before Any Other State

Filed Under: New Hampshire

Categories: Articles