Portal:Rhode Island

The Rhode Island Portal

Rhode Island (/ˌroʊd -/ ^ⓘ ROHD) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound; and shares a small maritime border with New York, east of Long Island. Rhode Island is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly more than 1.1 million residents as of 2024^[update]. The state's population, however, has continually recorded growth in every decennial census since 1790, and it is the second-most densely populated state after New Jersey. The state takes its name from the eponymous island, though most of its land area is on the mainland. Providence is its capital and most populous city.

Native Americans lived around Narragansett Bay before English settlers began arriving in the early 17th century. Rhode Island was unique among the Thirteen British Colonies in having been founded by a refugee, Roger Williams, who fled religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish a haven for religious liberty. He founded Providence in 1636 on land purchased from local tribes, creating the first settlement in North America with an explicitly secular government. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations subsequently became a destination for religious and political dissenters and social outcasts, earning it the moniker "Rogue's Island".

Rhode Island was the first colony to call for a Continental Congress, in 1774, and the first to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, on May 4, 1776. After the American Revolution, during which it was heavily occupied and contested, Rhode Island became the fourth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, on February 9, 1778. Because its citizens favored a weaker central government, it boycotted the 1787 convention that had drafted the United States Constitution, which it initially refused to ratify; it finally ratified it on May 29, 1790, the last of the original 13 states to do so.

The state was officially named the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations since the colonial era but came to be commonly known as "Rhode Island". On November 3, 2020, the state's voters approved an amendment to the state constitution formally dropping "and Providence Plantations" from its full name. Its official nickname, found on its welcome sign, is the "Ocean State", a reference to its 400 mi (640 km) of coastline and the large bays and inlets that make up about 14% of its area. (Full article...)

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Route 4, also known as the Colonel Rodman Highway, is a 10.37-mile-long (16.69 km) numbered state highway located in Washington County and southern Kent County, Rhode Island, United States. The route is a major north–south freeway in the southern Providence metropolitan area, directly linking Providence with eastern Washington County, the beaches of Narragansett and South Kingstown, and the city of Newport. Route 4 begins as a two-lane divided highway at an intersection with U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in the town of North Kingstown, becoming a limited-access freeway after 1.89 miles (3.04 km). The route has four numbered interchanges before terminating in the city of Warwick, where the northbound lanes merge into Interstate 95 (I-95).

The origins of Route 4 date back to 1952, when construction began on a short, unnumbered arterial from US 1 to the modern location of exit 3 at Routes 2 and 102 in Wickford. In 1965, the Rhode Island Department of Public Works began work on a 5.4-mile (8.7 km) freeway from modern exit 5 north to the merge with I-95. The freeway, designated as Route 4, was completed in 1972. At that time, the Route 4 designation was also applied to the Wickford arterial. In 1988, the missing link in Route 4 between exits 3 and 5 was completed and opened. The Rhode Island Department of Transportation had long-term plans to upgrade the southernmost portion of Route 4 to freeway status by constructing overpasses at Oak Hill Road and West Allenton Road and a grade separation with US 1. Although the project was originally scheduled to be completed by 2007, the $55 million project has been postponed indefinitely. (Full article...)

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Roger Williams (1872)

Roger Williams (c. 1603 – March 1683) was an English-born New England minister, theologian, author, and founder of the Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and later the State of Rhode Island. He was a staunch advocate for religious liberty, separation of church and state, and fair dealings with the Native Americans.

Initially a Puritan minister, his beliefs evolved and he questioned the authority of the Puritan church in enforcing religious conformity. He was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and he established Providence Plantations in 1636 as a refuge offering what he termed "liberty of conscience" making Rhode Island the first government in the Western world to guarantee religious freedom in its founding charter. His ideas on religious tolerance and civil government directly influenced the principles later enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. He briefly became a Baptist, and in 1638 he founded the First Baptist Church in America in Providence. He then moved beyond organized religion, becoming a "seeker" who did not identify with any specific church. Williams studied the language of the New England Native Americans and published the first book-length study of it in English. (Full article...)

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... that a Rhode Island TV station started out by re-running an inventory of 50 hours of cartoons and 14 old movies?
... that a Rhode Island TV station broadcast for 14 months and then was off the air for 26 years before returning?

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Political corruption is to Rhode Islanders as smog is to people who live in Los Angeles: nobody complains of its absence, but when it rolls around everyone feels right at home.

— Philip Gourevitch

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Credit: Kyle Anderson

Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about 30 miles (48 km) south of Providence. It is known as a New England summer resort and famous for the Newport Mansions; it is also the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport, which houses the United States Naval War College, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and a major United States Navy training center.

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The following are images from various Rhode Island-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Ninigret Pond National Wildlife Refuge (from Rhode Island)
Image 2Ninigret Pond National Wildlife Refuge (from Rhode Island)
Image 3Touro Synagogue in Newport is the oldest existing synagogue building in the United States. (from Rhode Island)
Image 4Map of Rhode Island, showing major cities and roads (from Rhode Island)
Image 5Downtown Providence in 2008 (from Rhode Island)
Image 6County results of the 2024 Presidential election. Kamala Harris (D) won every county, though she won Kent County by a narrow margin of 1.9% (from Rhode Island)
Image 7A southbound Northeast Regional train at Kingston Station (from Rhode Island)
Image 8In 1936, on the 300th anniversary of the settlement of Rhode Island in 1636, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative stamp, depicting Roger Williams (from Rhode Island)
Image 9The Pawtucket Red Sox played at McCoy Stadium (from Rhode Island)
Image 10Ethnic origins in Rhode Island (from Rhode Island)
Image 11Downtown Providence in 2008 (from Rhode Island)
Image 12The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority operates a statewide system of bus transport. (from Rhode Island)
Image 13The Towers are a Narragansett landmark. (from Rhode Island)
Image 14The East Bay Bike Path in Riverside
Image 15University Hall at Brown University is one of the oldest academic buildings in the United States. (from Rhode Island)
Image 16Touro Synagogue in Newport is the oldest existing synagogue building in the United States. (from Rhode Island)
Image 17Trustom Pond, a lagoon in South Kingstown (from Rhode Island)
Image 18Rocky shoreline in Newport (from Rhode Island)
Image 19The Block Island Wind Farm is the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States. (from Rhode Island)
Image 20In 1680, Newport was the third largest Anglo-American city. It remained a prosperous population center until the 1770s. (from Rhode Island)
Image 21In 1636, Roger Williams and his followers founded the settlement of Providence Plantations. (from Rhode Island)
Image 22Köppen climate types of Rhode Island, using 1991–2020 climate normals (from Rhode Island)
Image 23The Pawtucket Red Sox played at McCoy Stadium (from Rhode Island)
Image 24University of Rhode Island's Meade Stadium in Kingston (from Rhode Island)
Image 25County results of the 2024 Presidential election. Kamala Harris (D) won every county, though she won Kent County by a narrow margin of 1.9% (from Rhode Island)
Image 26The East Bay Bike Path in Riverside
Image 271884 Baseball Champion Providence Grays (from Rhode Island)
Image 28In 1936, on the 300th anniversary of the settlement of Rhode Island in 1636, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative stamp, depicting Roger Williams (from Rhode Island)
Image 29Slater Mill in Pawtucket is cited as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.
Image 30Providence Revolutionaries burned HMS Gaspee in Warwick in protest of British customs laws. (from Rhode Island)
Image 31The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority operates a statewide system of bus transport. (from Rhode Island)
Image 32The United States Naval Academy was moved to Fort Adams in Newport during the Civil War. (from Rhode Island)
Image 33The Rhode Island State House in Providence boasts the world's fourth largest self-supported marble dome. (from Rhode Island)
Image 34Ethnic origins in Rhode Island (from Rhode Island)
Image 35The Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge (foreground) and Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge (background)
Image 36University of Rhode Island's Meade Stadium in Kingston (from Rhode Island)
Image 37University Hall at Brown University is one of the oldest academic buildings in the United States. (from Rhode Island)
Image 38Interior of The Breakers, a Newport symbol of the Gilded Age (from Rhode Island)
Image 39Interior of The Breakers, a Newport symbol of the Gilded Age (from Rhode Island)
Image 40A southbound Northeast Regional train at Kingston Station (from Rhode Island)
Image 41Köppen climate types of Rhode Island, using 1991–2020 climate normals (from Rhode Island)
Image 42Topographic map of Rhode Island (from Rhode Island)
Image 43Map of Rhode Island, showing major cities and roads (from Rhode Island)
Image 44The United States Naval Academy was moved to Fort Adams in Newport during the Civil War. (from Rhode Island)
Image 45The International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport (from Rhode Island)
Image 46The Towers are a Narragansett landmark. (from Rhode Island)
Image 47Many Rhode Islanders visit Washington County for its beaches (from Rhode Island)
Image 48The International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport (from Rhode Island)
Image 49In 1636, Roger Williams and his followers founded the settlement of Providence Plantations. (from Rhode Island)
Image 50Rocky shoreline in Newport (from Rhode Island)
Image 51The Rhode Island State House in Providence boasts the world's fourth largest self-supported marble dome. (from Rhode Island)
Image 52Many Rhode Islanders visit Washington County for its beaches (from Rhode Island)
Image 53The Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge (foreground) and Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge (background)
Image 54Rhode Island population density map (from Rhode Island)
Image 55A nine-pence banknote issued by Rhode Island in 1786 (from Rhode Island)
Image 56Providence Revolutionaries burned HMS Gaspee in Warwick in protest of British customs laws. (from Rhode Island)
Image 57Rhode Island population density map (from Rhode Island)
Image 58Topographic map of Rhode Island (from Rhode Island)
Image 591884 Baseball Champion Providence Grays (from Rhode Island)
Image 60Trustom Pond, a lagoon in South Kingstown (from Rhode Island)
Image 61The Block Island Wind Farm is the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States. (from Rhode Island)
Image 62In 1680, Newport was the third largest Anglo-American city. It remained a prosperous population center until the 1770s. (from Rhode Island)
Image 63A nine-pence banknote issued by Rhode Island in 1786 (from Rhode Island)
Image 64Slater Mill in Pawtucket is cited as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.

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Easton Beach in Newport, Rhode Island

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged or categorized (e.g. Category:WikiProject Rhode Island articles) correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.