Portal:New England

P:NEWENG

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Introduction

Clockwise from top: skyline of Boston's financial district at night; a building of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut; a view from Nubble Light on Cape Neddick in Maine; view from Mount Mansfield in Vermont; and a fisherman on Cape Cod in Massachusetts

New England is a geographical region comprising six states of the northeastern United States: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north, respectively. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Boston is New England's largest city as well as the capital of Massachusetts. The largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston with nearly a third of the entire region's population, which also includes Worcester, Massachusetts (the second-largest city in New England), Manchester, New Hampshire (the largest city in New Hampshire), and Providence, Rhode Island (the capital and largest city of Rhode Island).

In 1620, Puritan Separatist Pilgrims from England established Plymouth Colony, the second successful English settlement in America, following the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia founded in 1607. Ten years later, more Puritans established Massachusetts Bay Colony north of Plymouth Colony. Over the next 126 years, people in the region fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the English colonists and their Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquin allies in America. In 1692, the town of Salem, Massachusetts and surrounding areas experienced the Salem witch trials, one of the most infamous cases of mass hysteria in history.

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The Green is a grass-covered field and common space at the center of Dartmouth College, an Ivy League university located in Hanover, New Hampshire. It was among the first parcels of land obtained by the college upon its founding in 1769, and is the only creation of the 18th century remaining at the center of the campus. After being cleared of pine trees, it initially served as a pasture and later as an athletic field for college sporting events. Today, it is a central location for rallies, celebrations, and demonstrations, and serves as a general, all-purpose recreation area. The college describes the Green as "historic" and as the "emotional center" of the institution.

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Selected biography

Thomas Jerome Hudner, Jr. is a retired officer of the United States Navy and a former naval aviator. He rose to the rank of captain, and received the Medal of Honor for his actions in trying to save the life of his wingman, Ensign Jesse L. Brown, during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War.

Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, Hudner attended Phillips Academy and the United States Naval Academy. Initially uninterested in aviation, he eventually took up flying and joined Fighter Squadron 32, flying the F4U Corsair at the outbreak of the Korean War. Arriving near Korea in October 1950, he flew support missions from the USS Leyte.

On 4 December 1950, Hudner and Brown were among a group of pilots on patrol near the Chosin Reservoir when Brown's Corsair was struck by ground fire from Chinese troops and crashed. In an attempt to save Brown from his burning aircraft, Hudner intentionally crash-landed his own aircraft on a snowy mountain in freezing temperatures to help Brown. In spite of these efforts, Brown died of his injuries and Hudner was forced to evacuate, having also been injured in the landing.

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Selected State

Vermont
Incorporated 1791
Co-ordinates 44°N 72.7°W

Vermont is the 6th least extensive and the 2nd least populous of the 50 United States. It is the only New England state not bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Lake Champlain forms half of Vermont's western border, which it shares with the state of New York.

Originally inhabited by two major Native American tribes, much of the territory that is now Vermont was claimed by France during its early colonial period. France ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain after being defeated in 1763 in the French and Indian War. For many years, the nearby colonies, especially New Hampshire and New York, disputed control of the area. Settlers who held land titles granted by these colonies were opposed by the Green Mountain Boys militia, which eventually prevailed in creating an independent state, the Vermont Republic. Founded in 1777 during the Revolutionary War, the republic lasted for fourteen years. Vermont is one of seventeen U.S. states (along with Texas, Hawaii, the brief Republic of West Florida, and each of the original Thirteen Colonies) to have had a sovereign government in the past. In 1791, Vermont joined the United States as the 14th state, the first outside the original 13 Colonies. It abolished slavery while still independent, and upon joining the Union became the first state to have done so.

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Selected images

New England's Siege of Louisbourg (1745) by Peter Monamy
Fall foliage in the town of Stowe, Vermont
Cushing house, Hingham, Massachusetts
Title page of John Smith's A Description of New England (1616; 1865 reprint)
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston and spent most of his literary career in Concord, Massachusetts.
Flag of the New England Governor's Conference (NEGC)
2. Worcester, Massachusetts
Bread and Roses Strike. Massachusetts National Guard troops surround strikers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1912.
1. Boston, Massachusetts
A portion of the north-central Pioneer Valley in Sunderland, Massachusetts
Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire
Opera houses and theaters are popular in New England towns, such as the Vergennes Opera House in Vergennes, Vermont.
An illustration from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick
6. New Haven, Connecticut
A political and geographical map of New England shows the coastal plains in the southeast, and hills, mountains and valleys in the west and the north.
World's largest Irish flag in Boston. People who claim Irish descent constitute the largest ethnic group in New England.
Largest self-reported ancestry groups in New England. Americans of Irish descent form a plurality in most of Massachusetts, while Americans of English descent form a plurality in much of the central parts of Vermont and New Hampshire as well as nearly all of Maine.
A classic New England Congregational church in Peacham, Vermont
7. Stamford, Connecticut
Vermont maple syrup
5. Bridgeport, Connecticut
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston and spent most of his literary career in Concord, Massachusetts.
Autumn in New England, watercolor, Maurice Prendergast. C. 1910–1913
Alumni Hall at Saint Anselm College has served as a backdrop for the media reports during the New Hampshire primary.
4. Springfield, Massachusetts
The New England Ensign, one of several flags historically associated with New England. This flag was reportedly used by colonial merchant ships sailing out of New England ports, 1686 – c. 1737.
Clockwise from top: skyline of Boston's financial district at night; a building of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut; a view from Nubble Light on Cape Neddick in Maine; view from Mount Mansfield in Vermont; and a fisherman on Cape Cod in Massachusetts
Brother Jonathan, the historical national personification of New England
10. Lowell, Massachusetts
Köppen climate types in New England
Boston Marathon
The Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket, Rhode Island
New England clam bake
New England is home to four of the eight Ivy League universities. Pictured here is Dartmouth Hall on the campus of Dartmouth College.
Old Port (Wharf Street) in Portland, Maine
9. Manchester, New Hampshire
The White Mountains of New Hampshire are part of the Appalachian Mountains.
Boston College: the architecture style is Collegiate Gothic, a subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, a 19th-century movement
Classic New England Congregationalist church in Peacham, Vermont
8. Hartford, Connecticut
Opera houses and theaters, like the Vergennes Opera House in Vergennes, Vermont, are popular in New England towns.
Boston Latin School is the oldest public school in the U.S., established in 1635.
The MBTA Commuter Rail serves much of Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island radiating from Downtown Boston, with plans for expansion into New Hampshire.
Alexander King House in Suffield, Connecticut
3. Providence, Rhode Island
An English map of New England c. 1670 depicts the area around modern Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Location of New England (red) in the United States
A New England town meeting in Huntington, Vermont

Did you know...

... that Alvin Adams founded Adams and Company, forerunner to Adams Express Company, to haul express freight shipments by rail in 1840?
... that professional baseball player Terry Doyle works as a substitute teacher during the offseason?
... that Linda Bean, heiress to part of the L.L. Bean company, twice ran for the United States Congress?
... that Uncle Tom once led a professional baseball league in stolen bases?
... that American folklorist Helen Hartness Flanders recorded, transcribed and catalogued traditional ballads from New England at a time when people were ceasing to sing them?