New Hampshire

HISTORY

Europeans first settled New Hampshire in the 1620s, and the province consisted for many years of a small number of communities along the seacoast Its name was first given in 1629 to the territory between the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers on the eastern coast of North America.

The territory was named after the English county of Hampshire by Captain John Mason.

New Hampshire was one of the thirteen colonies that rebelled against British rule during the American Revolution.

The only battle fought in New Hampshire was the raid on Fort William and Mary, December 14, 1774, in Portsmouth Harbor, which netted the rebellion sizable quantities of small arms, gunpowder and cannon.

Fort William and Mary by Wolfgang William Romer (1705) 

Of the 13 original colonies, New Hampshire was the first to declare its independence. On January 5, 1776 at Exeter, the Provincial Congress of New Hampshire ratified the first independent constitution in the Americas, free of British rule.

New Hampshire's state seal depicts the frigate USS Raleigh and is surrounded by a laurel wreath with nine stars. The Raleigh was one of the first 13 warships sponsored by the Continental Congress for a new American navy, built in 1776, at Portsmouth.

New Hampshire became the ninth state on June 21, 1788, when it accepted the United States Constitution.

New Hampshire's State House was built in 1818 and first occupied in 1819. It is the oldest state capitol in which a legislature still meets in its original chambers.

New Hampshire State Capitol. Wikipedia Commons

The Treaty of Portsmouth formally ended the 1904–05 Russo-Japanese War. The Armistice was signed at The Hotel Wentworth in New Castle, New Hampshire on September 5, 1905. The peace agreement marked the first and only time a foreign war has concluded on U.S. soil.

The Hotel Wentworth in 1906

New Hampshire adopted the first legal lottery in the 20th century United States in 1964.

FOOD

Some of the first potatoes grown in America were planted by Scottish-Irish settlers in what is today Derry, New Hampshire in 1719. Today, the white potato is recognized as the official state vegetable.

Blackcurrants were once grown in abundance in the USA, but in the early 1900's the fruit was banned federally due to the belief that they helped facilitate white pine blister rust, which was once thought of as a threat the US lumber industry. In 1966 the ban was transferred to State status and most states have now lifted the ban. However, the ban is still in effect in New Hampshire.

New Hampshire has the distinction of having the most pizzerias per capita of any state in the nation. (3. 9 per 10,000 people)

FUN NEW HAMPSHIRE FACTS

89 percent of New Hampshire is covered in forest, making it the most tree-covered state in the lower 48 states.

Mount Washington, New Hampshire, is the U.S. city with the most snow days each year, with an annual average of 118.5 days.

The strongest surface wind gust in the world ever measured was 231 mph on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. The winds were three times as fast as those in most hurricanes.

Mount Washington, seen from the west side. By wwoods - Wikipedia Commons

Of all the coastal states, New Hampshire has the briefest shoreline, stretching no more than 18 miles.

The state has no general sales tax, nor is personal income (other than interest and dividends) taxed at either the state or local level.

In New Hampshire it is illegal to inhale bus fumes with the intent of inducing euphoria.

If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $0.10 from the town.

The Chinook is New Hampshire's official state dog.

Source Mental Floss