New
Haven's history goes back to that of the Quinnipiacks who had built
their villages around what is now New Haven harbor and who in 1638
sold much of the land to Puritan settlers, in part because of skirmishes
they were having with neighboring Pequots and Mohawks. The town was
built as the first planned community in North America with nine
squares surrounding a central common area or green, which remains
today. In 1701 the town, previously an independent colony, joined
with the Connecticut Colony to form an entity roughly equal to what
is the state of Connecticut today. New Haven and Hartford became "co-capitals"
of this state, with the government traveling between the two up until
1873 when Hartford was made the sole capital. Yale University was
originally founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School of Connecticut
in the town of Old Saybrook but within 20 years had moved to New Haven
and been renamed Yale after a donor of books and (a small amount of
money), Elihu Yale. The trial of the Amistad
slave rebels, now known as a Steven Spielberg motion picture,
was held in New Haven in 1839. Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin
in New Haven and established an arms company that ultimately became
the Winchester company. Samuel Colt also invented the automatic revolver
at the Whitney Arms Factory. Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized
rubber and George C. Coy invented the first telephone switchboard
in New Haven; for many of us it is perhaps more notable that New Havener
A.C. Gilbert introduced Erector Sets and Flexible Flyers. The corkscrew
and the lollipop were also indisputably invented in New Haven. Notable
items in New Haven lore include the invention of frisbee playing by
Yale students tossing around Frisbee company pie plates, the invention
of the hamburger at Louis' Lunch, and the invention of pizza by Frank
Pepe. The medical school was begun in 1810. Among Yale graduates and
faculty, there have been 9 recipients of the Nobel Prize in Medicine
and an additional 6 in other scientific disciplines.
Top
of page