NH Firsts

New Hampshire is a State of Firsts:

In 1690, the British Government contracted local ship builders in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to construct the HMS Falkland, a 637-ton, 54-gun frigate, which was added to the Royal Navy, March 2, 1695. It was the First Warship Built in North America.

On January 5, 1776 New Hampshire became the First of the 13 Original Colonies to declare their Independence from the United Kingdom (6 months before the US Declaration of Independence.) (New Hampshire became the 8th US State on June 21, 1788.)

On January 5, 1775 New Hampshire also had the First State Constitution in the United States –and it still remains in force today.

In 1787, Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire invented the first Alarm Clock.

In 1789 Samuel Shelburne of Portsmouth, New Hampshire was the first Attorney General of the United States.

In 1793 Samuel Morey of Orford, New Hampshire invented the Internal Combustion Engine, which ultimately allowed him to build the first Steam Ship.

Purchased from William and Sarah Dennett on June 12, 1800, Fernald's Island in the Piscatagua River, New Hampshire, became the First Government-Sanctioned Navy Shipyard in the United States.

In 1816 The New Hampshire State House – with its Gold Dome -  was built in Concord, New Hampshire. The 400 current Members of the NH House of Representatives still meet in the Original Chambers making it the Oldest Continuously Used State House in the US.

In 1822 the First Free Public Library in the United States (The Dublin Juvenile Library) was established in Dublin, New Hampshire.

In 1823 the Belknap Mill in Laconia, New Hampshire contains a working set of drive wheels and belts that illustrate the mechanics of the Industrial Age. The Mill is the Oldest Unaltered Textile Mill in the US.

In 1827, Lewis Downing and J. Stephens Abbot built the First American Stage Coach (Concord Coach) in Concord, New Hampshire, celebrated world-wide for its leather belt suspension described by Mark Twain as "an imposing cradle on wheels." Concord Coach still operates today between New Hampshire in Massachusetts.

In 1828 Sarah Josepha Hale of Newport, New Hampshire started the First National Magazine for Women (Ladies Magazine.)

In 1828, Women Mill Workers at the Cocheco Mills, Dover, New Hampshire, went out on strike to protest new mill regulations, in what became known as the "Factory Girls" Strike. It was the First Female Strike in the US.

Built in 1829, the 278-foot-long Haverhill-Bath Covered Bridge in Woodsville, New Hampshire is thought to be the Oldest Covered Bridge still standing in the United States.

In 1830 Sarah Josepha Hale of Newport, New Hampshire created the Nursery Rhyme “Mary Had A Little Lamb.”

In 1833 the First Library in the United States supported by Public Taxation (The Peterborough Town Library in Peterborough, New Hampshire) was created.

In 1845 the shop of Machinist John H.Gage, housed in Nashua Manufacturing Company,  in Nashua, New Hampshire was considered the First US Shop devoted to the manufacture of Machinists' Tools.

On October 12, 1853, Amos Tuck called a meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, of four Political Parties opposed to the Democratic Party’s Views of Keeping Slavery and proposed the name Republican thus creating the Republican Party.

In 1861 the First Union Enlisted Casualty of the US Civil War died. Luther C. Ladd (1843–1861.) He was from my Town of Alexandria, New Hampshire and was shot and killed by Confederate Mobs during the Baltimore Riots in Maryland. He was 17 years old.

In 1863, President Lincoln established the First National Thanksgiving Day, inspired by letters from Sarah Josepha Hale of Newport, New Hampshire.

Built in 1866, the Cornish-Windsor Bridge, a double-span, 460-foot Covered Bridge connecting Cornish, New Hampshire, and Windsor, Vermont, is the Longest Covered Bridge in the United States.

In 1868 The Mount Washington Cog Railway, that goes up Mount Washington, was the World's First Mountain-Climbing Cog Railway (rack-and-pinion railway.) It is still in operation today.

On June 27, 1874 the First Direct Ocean Telecommunication Cable between Europe and America was completed. It stretched 3,100 Nautical Miles from Balinskelligs Bay, Ireland to Straw’s Point at Rye Beach, New Hampshire.

In 1876 The Oldest Continuous Conservation & Mountaineering Club in North America - the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to conserve and hike the White Mountains of New Hampshire was created by Edward C. Pickering.

In 1882 the Nation’s first Ski Club, Nansen Ski Club in Berlin, New Hampshire was formed.

From 1886 to 1897, 300 Men quarried and split 350,000 cubic feet of New Hampshire Granite to build the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C., the largest building in the world at the time.

In 1887 Globe Firefighting Suits, located in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, and owned by the Freese Family since 1887, is an innovative leader in the Field of Protective Garments. It is Oldest Continual Manufacturer of Firefighting Suits in the World.

In 1888 the Largest Private Wild Game Preserve in North America was established by Austin Corbin, II, of Newport, New Hampshire, who bought 25,000 acres near Croydon Mountain to establish a Wild Game Preserve in hopes of saving remnants of the vanishing American Buffalo.

In 1890 The Largest Ice House in the World was built by Fresh Pond Ice Company in Brookline, New Hampshire and consisted of 9 Icehouses under one roof that had the combined capacity of storing 60,000 tons of ice.

On February 6, 1901, a group of nine Conservationists, including Governor Frank West Rollins, founded the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the First Forest Conservation Advocacy Group in the United States.

In 1908, Monsignor Pierre Hevey, Pastor of St. Mary's Church in Manchester, New Hampshire, organized the First American Credit Union to help Franco-American Mill Workers save and borrow money.

In 1917 The L-8, the First Submarine built in a US Navy Yard, was completed  by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire at a cost well below the contract price, which prompted a long tradition of Portsmouth-built Submarines.

Since 1920 New Hampshire has had the First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary Election. Until the 1992 Elections, no Candidate had ever won the US Presidency without first winning in New Hampshire. (Since 2023 the Democratic National Committee is trying to change that 103 year Tradition by moving the First Democratic Presidential Primary to South Carolina and have vowed to punish any New Hampshire Democrat that goes against that even though the New Hampshire State Constitution states we have to always be the First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary.)

In 1931 the First Snow Train in the US was created. The Snow Train - a Boston & Maine Railroad Train -  sponsored by the Appalachian Mountain Club, left Boston on January 11, 1931, with 197 passengers, headed for Warner, New Hampshire.

In 1932 Otto Schniebs of Hanover, New Hampshire and John McCrillis, of Newport, New Hampshire made the first American Ski Film, which premiered December 1932, at the National Ski Association Meeting, in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1934 the First Craft Fair in the US (started by the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen and held in Crawford Notch, New Hampshire) was held. Today, the Fair, held in August at Mount Sunapee State Park in Newbury, New Hampshire attracts hundreds of Craftsmen and thousands of Visitors each year.

In 1938 the First Aerial Tramway in North America - The Cannon Mountain Tramway - in Franconia, New Hampshire, is a Double Reversible Tram System that makes a 2,022-foot vertical ascent in under 8 minutes.

In 1938 the First Skimobile Club In the US was formed by  George Morton of Bartlett, New Hampshire, and his Son Parker who designed and built the "skimobile," inspired by the San Francisco Cable Cars. On December 27, 1938, the Mount Cranmore Skimobile pulled its first cars halfway up the mountain.

In March 1946, Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey assigned Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe to the Nashua Dodgers, a new farm team, making Nashua, New Hampshire, the first modern City to host an Integrated Professional Baseball Team.

In 1948 Earl Tuppper of Berlin, New Hampshire, created Tupperware.

In 1961 the First American in Space, Alan Shepard, who was born in Derry, New Hampshire went into Space.

In 1963 New Hampshire became the first US State to have a State Lottery.

In 1964 John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz invented BASIC (The Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. Today it is known as the Most Popular Computer Language.

In 1966 the First Interactive Video Game in the US was created by Ralph H. Baer of Sanders Associates, Inc., Nashua, New Hampshire, recruited engineers William Harrison and William Rusch to develop the first interactive video game and patented the invention in 1969.

In 1986 the First Private Citizen in the history of Space Flight was Christa McAuliffe, a Concord School Teacher. After her death in the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster, a Planetarium was built in her honor in Concord, New Hampshire.

In 1992 Dean Kamen of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) founded the First National Robotics Competition in Manchester, New Hampshire.

In 1998 Spaulding & Frost Cooperage of Fremont, New Hampshire, made the World's Largest Wooden Barrel, now located at the Red Hook Ale Brewery in Portsmouth. The barrel is 16 feet high by 10 feet wide and weighs 2,450 pounds with the capacity of 7,200 gallons.