New Jersey 350th – New Jersey Fun Facts

In celebration of New Jersey’s 350th I thought I would post some facts about the great state.  I will most likely be adding to this list, considering there is MUCH MUCH more that New Jersey has played a central role in.

“THIS INDENTURE made the four and twentieth day of June, in the sixteenth year of the reign of our sovereign Lord, Charles the Second…. Domini, 1664. Between His Royal Highness, James Duke of York…, of the one part: John Lord Berkeley, Baron of Stratton, and one of His Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council, and Sir, George Carteret of Saltrum…by these presents doth grant, bargain, sell, release and confirm unto the said John Lord Berkley and Sir George Carteret, their heirs and assigns for ever, all that tract of land adjacent to New England, and lying and being to the westward of Long Island, and Manhitas Island and bounded on the east part by the main sea, and part by Hudson’s river, and hath upon the west Delaware bay or river, and extendeth southward to the main ocean as far as Cape May at the mouth of the Delaware bay; and to the northward as far as the northermost branch of the said bay or river of Delaware, which is forty-one degrees and forty minutes of latitude, and crosseth over thence in a strait line to Hudson’s river in forty-one degrees of latitude; which said tract of land is hereafter to be called by the name or names of New Caeserea or New Jersey:”
Grant of 1664 TO Lord Berkeley and Sir Carteret

New Jersey Fun Facts

1. New Jersey was formally founded on June 24th 1664 when James Duke of York granted Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret all land west of Manhattan and Long Island and east of the Delaware River and given the name New Jersey or Nova Caesarea
2. Size: 8,722.58 Square Miles
3. 5th smallest state
4. Population: 8,791,894
5. 11th largest by population
6. Bergen, now part of Jersey City, became the first permanent town in New Jersey in 1660
7. 21 counties
8. 565 municipalities
9. Highest Point: 1,803 ft
10. Largest City: Newark, Essex County; 26.107 square miles; Population 277,140
11. Smallest Town : Tavistock, Camden County; 0.257 Square Miles; Population: 5
12. New Jersey declared independence on July 2, 1776 with the NJ 1776 Constitution which was signed at the Indian King Tavern in Haddonfield
13. Motto: Liberty and Prosperity
14. Nickname: Garden State

History

1. New Jersey was split into two different provinces – East Jersey and West Jersey between 1674 and 1702 with two capitals Burlington and Perth Amboy
2. The Old Barracks in Trenton, the only surviving barracks from the French and Indian War, is built in 1758
3. William Franklin, Ben Franklin’s son, is the last royal governor of New Jersey and is arrested on June 19, 1776 after being in house arrest for several months
4. New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the US Constitution on December 18, 1787
5. New Jersey was the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights in 1790
6. Both Princeton (1783) and Trenton (1784) were one time capitals of the US
7. Battle of Trenton was Washington’s first victory in the American Revolution
8. Battle of Princeton (January 3, 1777) was Washington’s first victory of British Regulars
9. Battle of Monmouth was the longest battle during the American Revolution
10. Washington wrote his Fairwell Address to the troops while staying at Rockingham when Congress had moved the capital to Nassau Hall in Princeton.
11. Women and Blacks were first given the right to vote in 1776 with NJ’s 1776 Constitution and formally recognized on February 22, 1797 with the voting law. It was later restricted to just Free White Males in 1807.
12. The first nearly complete dinosaur fossil is discovered in Haddonfield known as Hadrosaourus Foulkii
13. The fastest, biggest and most decorated US battleship, the USS New Jersey, is put ino service in 1943 and today is a floating museum on the Camden Waterftont
14. The Ocean liner SS Mororo catches fire on the morning of Sepetmerb 8, 1934 killing 137 people and beaching itself by Convention Hall in Asbury Park
15. Hindenburg disaster takes place May 6, 1937 at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst killing 35 people.

New Jersey Firsts

1. Roselle, Union County was the first city to have electric street lighting
2. he postcard was first printed and sold in Atlantic City, NJ by Carl M Voelker in 1895 who owned a printing business
3. The first boardwalk was built in Atlantic City in 1870 in order to reduce the amount of sand tracked into hotels and railcars
4. The first amusement pier is built over the ocean in Atlantic City in 1882
5. Princeton astronomer, Alicia Soderberg, becomes first person to view a supernova, as star in the act of exploding.

Agriculture and Food

1. Number of NJ farms : 10,300
2. Acres of Farming: 730,000
3. Generated Sales: $1.12 billion
4. 3rd largest producer of Cranberries totaling $29.9 million
5. 3rd largest producer of Bell Peppers totaling $30.4 million
6. 3rd largest producer of Spinach totaling $12.7 million
7. 4th largest producer of Peaches totaling $39.6 million
8. 5th largest producer of Blueberries totaling $80.8 million
9. 5th largest producer of Cucumbers totaling $15.7 million
10. 6th largest producer of Squash totaling $17.8 million
11. 7th largest producer of Tomatoes totaling $30.8 million
12. 8th largest producer of Apples totaling $28.5 million
13. 9th largest producer of Sweet Corn totaling $23.1 million
14. 10th largest producer of Snap Beans totaling $3.7 million
15. The blueberry was first cultivated by Elizabeth White who “invented” the modern day fruit.
16. Canned condensed soup was invented in Camden NJ by Dr John T Dorrance in 1897 for the Campbell Soup Company
17. The first brewery in the US was founded in Hoboken

New Jersey Inventions

1. Teflon was invented on April 6m, 1938 in Deepwater Salem County by Dr Roy Plunkett
2. Phonograph in 1877 by Edison
3. Motion Pictures by Edison
4. Electric Lightbulb in 1879 by Edison
5. Transisttor in 1947 by Bell Labs in Murray Hill
6. Color Television
7. Mason Jar was invented by John Landis Mason of Vineland in 1858
8. Touch Tone Telephone in 1964 by Bell Labs
9.  Sound Motion Pictures in 1926 by Bell Labs
10. Artificial Larynx in 1929 by Bell Labs
11. Stereophonic Sound in 1933 by Bell Labs
12. Direct Long Distance Dialing in 1951 by Bell Labs
13.  Solar Battery in 1954 by Bell Labs
14. The Laser in 1958 by Bell Labs
15. The first orbiting international communications satellite (TELSTAR) in 1962 by Bell Labs
16. UNIX in 1969 by Bell Labs
17. C++ Computer Language in 1983 by Bell Labs
18. The first transatlantic fiber-optic cable in 1988 by Bell Labs
19. High Definition digital television (HDTV) in 1989 by Bell Labs
20. The first successful submarine was built in 1898 by John Phillip Holland in Paterson
21. Bar Code in 1952 by N. Joseph Woodland of Atlantic City
22. Drive-in movies are invented in Camden and the first drive-in theater opens in 1933
23. In 1963 Toms Sims of Haddonfield creates the “ski board”, an early version of the snowboard
24. New Jersey scientists win the Nobel Prize in 1963 for finding the echo of the 13.7 billion year old “big Bang”
25. In 2001 New Jersey becomes home to more scientists and engineers per square miles than anywhere else in the world

Sports

1. The first play by play broadcast of a professional baseball game took place on October 5, 1921 by WJZ of Newark
2. Golf tee was invented by William Howell of Maplewood, Essex County in 1921
3. irst football game was played by Rutgers University and Princeton University in New Brunswick on November 6, 1869
4. The first organized baseball game was played in Hoboken on June 19, 1846
5. New Jersey Devils were founded in 1982 and have won three Stanley Cup Championships in 1995, 2000 and 2003

Healthcare

1. The band-aid was invented by Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick in 1921
2. Michael Pappas of Caldwell and Fredrick Buechel of South Orange designed the system known as the New Jersey Knee in 1974 which was the first knee replacement to feature multiple parts.

Transportation

1. The first cloverleaf was built in Woodbridge where Rt 35 and Rt 1 converge
2. The first traffic circle in the US was built in Pennsauken in 1925
3. The term airport was first used to describe Bader Field in Atlantic City in 1919.
4. In 1863 Ashbel Welch developed the “All Clear Ahead” signal system for railroads. Two decades later the first fully automatic “all clear ahead” signal was used in Phillipsburg.
5. Asbel Welch designed the first interlocking switch system which was first used by the Pennsylvania Railroad in East Newark in 1875.
6. The first balloon flight in the US took place on January 9, 1793 by Jean-Pierre Blanchard and landed in Deptford, Gloucester County.
7. Standard time was invented by William F Allen, South Orange, Essex County and was implemented on November 18, 1883 in order to help coordinate railroad schedules