Timeline Rhode Island
Facts: http://www.50states.com/rdisland.htm
Government: https://www.ri.gov/index.php
Rhode Island is 1,231 sq. mls. Its official name is State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
(WSJ, 6/2/99, p.CA4)(SSFC, 12/17/06, p.G5)
1603 Roger Williams (d.1683) was born in London. After a brief period as a Baptist, the founder of the Rhode Island Colony and colonial religious leader, became a Seeker—one who adhered to the basic tenets of Christianity but refused to recognize any creed. Williams was the first champion of complete religious toleration in America.
(HNQ, 5/1/99)(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.D10)
1631 Feb 5, The founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, and his wife arrived in Boston from England.
1635 Oct 9, Religious dissident Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Mass. Bay Company). Enforcement was delayed until the following January due to illness. He became a founder of Rhode Island.
(AP, 10/9/01)(AH, 4/07, p.26)
1636 Jun, Roger Williams and his followers founded Providence, Rhode Island, on land purchased from the Narragansett Indians. The settlement was governed by policies of democracy and religious tolerance.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providence,_Rhode_Island)
1637 Nov 7-1637 Nov 8, Anne Hutchinson (b.1591) and her followers were tried as heretics and banished from the Mass Bay colony to Rhode Island.
(http://law.jrank.org/pages/2329/Anne-Hutchinson-Trials-1637-1638.html)(WSJ, 11/25/08, p.A13)
1637 Roger Williams (1603-1683), minister, founded Providence, Rhode Island, after spending the winter with Indians. He created a haven for dissenters.
1639 May 8, William Coddington founded Newport, RI.
1639 Roger Williams of Providence, Rhode Island, embraced the Baptist faith long enough to help found the first Baptist church in America. After 4 months he abandoned the Baptist congregation and left organized religion behind.
1643 Roger Williams of Providence, Rhode Island, published "A Key into the Language of America," a dictionary of the Narragansett Indian language and a commentary on the culture and customs of the southern New England Indians. The work was printed in England by Gregory Dexter.
1644 Mar 14, Roger Williams of Providence, Rhode Island, was issued a charter in the name of the king, which connected the towns of Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport under the title of "the Incorporation of Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay in New England." A March 24 date is also common for this and reflects later use of the new style calendar.
(www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Our_Country_Vol_1/rhodeisl_fe.html)
1644 Roger Williams published "The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution," a sweeping condemnation of Massachusetts's intolerance and a manifesto defending the rights of each individual to decide, according to his own conscience, how best to worship god without interference from any civil authority.
1652 May 18, A law was passed in Rhode Island banning slavery in the colonies but it caused little stir and was not enforced. More than 1,000 slave voyages were mounted from Rhode Island, mostly in the 18th century, carrying more than 100,000 Africans into slavery.
(HN, 5/18/99)(Reuters, 3/29/07)
1654 Roger Williams (1603-1683) was elected as the 9th president of President of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
(ON, 2/12, p.8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Williams_%28theologian%29)
1662 Jan 27, 1st American lime kiln began operation in Providence RI.
1663 Jul 15, King Charles II of England granted John Clarke a charter for the colony of Rhode Island guaranteeing freedom of worship. He granted the charter giving the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations an elected governor and legislature. Roger Williams (1603-1683) authored the Rhode Island and Providence Plantation Charter, which stated that religion and conscience should never be restrained by civil supremacy.
(http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ri04.asp)(AH, 4/07, p.21)
1675 Feb 10, Narragansett and Nipmuck Indians raided Lancaster, Mass. Over 35 villagers were killed and 24 were taken captive including Mary Rowlandson and her 3 children. Rowlandson was freed after 11 weeks and an account of her captivity was published posthumously in 1682. Wakefield, Rhode Island, USA, The Great Swamp Memorial marks the site where 4,000 Indians died in defense of a secret fort.
(Postcard, Wakefield Chamber of Commerce)(AH, 6/02, p.48)
1675 Dec 19, Some 1,000 colonial troops attacked the Narragansett winter village in Rhode Island. The Great Swamp Fight ended with some 80 English killed and 600 Indians dead, mostly women and children. Wakefield, Rhode Island, USA, The Great Swamp Memorial marks the site where 4,000 Indians died in defense of a secret fort.
1676 Mar 29, Wampanoag allies including Narragansetts destroyed Providence, Rhode Island. The house of Roger Williams was destroyed as he negotiated with Indian leaders on the outskirts of town.
(AH, 6/02, p.48)(AH, 4/07, p.29)
1676 Aug 12, Indian chief King Philip, also known as Metacom, was killed by a Pocasset Indian named Alderman in the swamps of Rhode Island. This ended the King Philip's War. Benjamin Church, a Plymouth volunteer, ordered that Philip be beheaded and quartered. [see Aug 28]
1676 Aug 28, Indian chief King Philip, also known as Metacom, was killed by English soldiers, ending the war between Indians and colonists. [see Aug 12]
1676 Roger Williams published "George Fox Digg'd Out of His Burrowes." It was an account of his debates with the Quakers in Newport and Providence.
1683 Apr 1, Roger Williams (b.1603) died in poverty in Rhode Island. Williams died at Providence between, his wife Mary having predeceased him in 1676. Williams was the first champion of complete religious toleration in America. In 2005 Edwin S. Gaustad authored the biography "Roger Williams."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Williams_%28theologian%29)(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.D10)
1754 Jun 19, The Albany Congress opened. New York colonial Gov. George Clinton called for the meeting to discuss better relations with Indian tribes and common defensive measures against the French. The attendees included Indians and representatives from Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Benjamin Franklin attended and presented his Plan of Union, which was adopted by the conference. The meeting ended on July 11.
(AH, 2/06, p.45)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany_Congress)
1761 Jun 10, Puritan version of "Othello" opened in Newport, Rhode Island.
1762 Aug 22, Ann Franklin became the first female editor of an American newspaper, the Newport, Rhode Island "Mercury."
1763 Dec 2, Touro Shul, the oldest existing US synagogue, was dedicated in Newport, RI.
1764 Brown University was founded.
1765 More than 100 Africans perished on the slave ship Sally in the voyage from Africa. Some hanged themselves or starved to death. Some rebelled and were shot dead or drowned. In 2007 the ship's log book, detailing the deaths of slaves that occurred almost daily aboard the ship, was encased in glass in an exhibit at Brown University.
1772 Jun 9, The 1st naval attack of Revolutionary War took place when residents of Providence, RI., stormed the HMS Gaspee, burned it to the waterline and shot the captain. A Rhode Island ship captain lured the British schooner HMS Gaspee, sent to Narragansett Bay to enforce trade laws, into shallow waters a few miles south of Providence, where it ran aground. Colonists in Providence heard the news and rowed out to it. Later, no one would tell King George III who set fire to the ship.
(WSJ, 6/24/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/7/18)
1774 Jun 13, Rhode Island became the 1st colony to prohibit importation of slaves.
1776 Jan 16, Continental Congress approved the enlistment of free blacks. This led to the all-black First Rhode Island Regiment, composed of 33 freedmen and 92 slaves, who were promised freedom if they served to the end of the war. The regiment distinguished itself at the Battle of Newport.
(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.19)(MC, 1/16/02)
1776 May 4, Rhode Island declared its freedom from England, two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
(AP, 5/4/97) (HN, 5/4/98)
1778 Feb 28, Rhode Island General Assembly authorized the enlistment of slaves.
1778 British troops ordered ships in Newport Harbor to be sunk as French naval forces approached.
1785 Jul 4, The first Fourth of July parade was held in Bristol. It served as a prayerful walk to celebrate independence from England.
1785 Aug 20, Oliver Hazard Perry, US Naval hero ("We have met the enemy"), was born in Rhode Island.
1787 May 25, The Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia after enough delegates showed up for a quorum. The Founding Fathers turned to the Rushworth's Collections of England for revolutionary precedents. George Washington presided. [see May 25, 1777] Rhode Island refused to send delegates.
(AP, 5/25/97)(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A22)(HN, 5/25/99)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.44)
1790 May 29, Rhode Island became the last of the 13 original colonies to ratify the United States Constitution. They held out for an amendment securing religious freedom. The state was largely founded by Baptists fleeing persecution in Massachusetts.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(AP, 5/29/97)(HN, 5/29/98)
1790 Dec 20, In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, 23-year-old British subject Samuel Slater began production of the first American spinning mill. The British jealously guarded their technological superiority in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, making it illegal for machinery, plans and even the men who built and repaired them to leave the country. After serving a 7-year mill apprenticeship in England, Slater recognized the potential offered in America. He memorized the plans for intricate machine specifications, disguised himself as a farm worker and in 1789 sailed to a new life across the Atlantic. Slater entered into a partnership with Rhode Island merchant Moses Brown and built a small spinning mill--the equivalent of 72 spinning wheels. At first, Slater's Mill employed only a handful of children between the ages of 7 and 12, but by 1800, he had more than 100 employees. By the time of Slater's death in 1835, he owned or had an interest in 13 textile mills and left an estate of almost $700,000. From this small beginning, America's own Industrial Revolution grew. [see Dec 21]
(AP, 12/20/97)(HNPD, 12/20/98)(WSJ, 9/23/04, p.D10)
1790 Dec 21, Samuel Slater opened the first cotton mill in the United States in Rhode Island. [see Dec 20]
1798 Dec 14, David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patented a nut and bolt machine.
1800 Jan, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, his two sons and their families, arrived in Newport from France.
1811 Jan 9, The USS Revenge, a ship commanded by US Navy hero Oliver Hazard Perry ran aground on a reef off of Watch Hill, Rhode Island. Divers discovered the wreck in August 2005, but only made the news public in 2011.
(AP, 1/8/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Revenge_%281806%29)
1831 Gorham Silver Co. was founded in Providence, RI. Their coin silver products indicated metal that was 900 parts silver out of a total of 1000 metal parts.
1835 Dec 3, 1st US mutual fire insurance company issued 1st policy in RI.
1850 Oct 19, Annie Smith Peck (d.1935), one of the world's renowned mountain climbers, was born in Providence, Rhode Island.
(www.ric.edu/rpotter/smithpeck.html)
1851 Fruit of the Loom was founded in Rhode Island as the B.B and R Knight Corporation and changed its name in 1856. Robert Knight, a textile mill owner, visited his friend, Rufus Skeel. Mr. Skeel owned a small shop in Providence, Rhode Island that sold cloth from Mr. Knight's mill. Mr. Skeel's daughter painted images of apples and applied them to the bolts of cloth. The ones with the apple emblems proved most popular. Mr. Knight thought the labels would be the perfect symbol for his trade name, Fruit of the Loom.
(www.fruitoftheloom.eu/Consumer2009/en/about_our_history.php)
1854 Chickens, later called Rhode Island Reds, were first bred in R.I.
1862 May 9, US Naval Academy was relocated from Annapolis MD to Newport, RI.
1866 Aug 11, The world's 1st roller rink opened at Newport, RI.
1870 A Rhode Island company began making the Howell torpedo, the first to follow a track without leaving a wake. It made 50 by 1889 when a rival company copied and surpassed the design.
1871 Robert Knight, Rhode Island textile mill owner, secured patent number 418 for the brand Fruit of the Loom.
(SSFC, 11/29/09, p.N6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_of_the_Loom)
1872 Jun 4, Harvey Flint (d.1882) patented his Quaker Bitters, a general cure-all with 21.4% alcohol. He had recently left a family furniture business in Providence, Rhode Island, and began making Quaker Bitters under the name Flint & Co.
(SFC, 8/8/07, p.G2)(www.bottlebooks.com/temperance/temperance.htm)
1878 Linguist Maximilian (Maximilien) Delphinius Berlitz (1852-1921) opened his first Berlitz language school in Providence, Rhode Island. In 2001 Berlitz became a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan's Benesse Corporation.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.52)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlitz_Corporation)
1881 Aug 31, The first U.S. tennis championships (for men) were played, in Newport, R.I.
1884 Oct 6, The US Naval War College was established in Newport, R.I.
1890 Aug 20, H.P. Lovecraft (d.1937), author of horror tales, was born in Providence, RI.
(HN, 8/20/98)(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.B1)
1892 Jan 17, In Exeter, Rhode Island, Mercy Brown (19), rumored to be a vampire, died of consumption. Some believed her story inspired Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula."
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6628164)(SFC, 9/2/11, p.A8)
1895 Apr 24, Joshua Slocum (1844-1909), a Canadian-American sailor, began a voyage around the world from Boston in a 37-foot rebuilt fishing boat called the Spray. He ended on Jun 27, 1898, at Newport, Rhode Island. His record was not beaten until 1938. In 1899 Slocum authored "Sailing Alone Around the World."
(www.millicentlibrary.org/slocum.htm)(WSJ, 3/9/00, p.A27)(WSJ, 6/21/08, p.W8)
1895 Oct 4, The first U.S. Open golf tournament was held, at the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island. At the US Amateur Golf Championship at Newport, R.I., officials ruled against the prone position use of a pool cue to sink a put.
(AP, 10/4/97)(SFC, 11/29/97, p.C3)
1895 Cornelius Vanderbilt built his 70-room mansion, the Breakers, in Newport, Rhode Island.
(USAT, 5/8/98, p.3D)
1898 Jun 27, Joshua Slocum (1844-1909) became the first person to sail single-handedly around the world. His voyage began on April 24, 1895 in Boston and ended on this day at Newport, Rhode Island.
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.86)(www.millicentlibrary.org/slocum.htm)
1901 Jun 29, Nelson Eddy, baritone (Met opera, film star, duets with Jeanette MacDonald), was born in Providence, RI.
1907 Feb 11, The passenger ship Larchmont was steaming through a winter storm in heavy seas, 4 miles southwest of Watch Hill, Rhode Island when she was rammed by the coal carrying schooner Harry P. Knowles, which had drifted off course in the blizzard. The Larchmont sank in 10 minutes and only 19 men including the captain, George McVey survived the ordeal.
(http://rhodeisland-philatelic.com/rhodeisland/postcard120.htm)
1907 Feb 12, Bodies continued to wash ashore from the steamer Larchmont, which had collided the previous with a schooner off New England's Block Island. The vessel's quartermaster, James E. Staples, claimed a loss of 332.
1910 Oct 17, Julia Ward Howe, prominent American abolitionist, social activist, poet, died at her home in Rhode Island. She was the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". In 2016 Elaine Showalter authored "The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe. A Biography."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Ward_Howe)(Econ, 2/20/15, p.74)
1916 Aug 25, Van Johnson (d.2008), film actor, was born in Newport, RI.
1937 Mar 15, H.P. Lovecraft (b.1890), author of horror tales whose works included "The Color out of Space," died in Providence, RI.
1939 Nov 14, Wendy (Walter) Carlos, composer (Switched on Bach), was born in Pawtucket, RI.
1939 The heirs of financier Nelson W. Aldrich sold his 70-room Narragansett Bay beachfront estate for a token amount to the Catholic Providence diocese.
1940 In Rhode Island the Jamestown Bridge was completed. It connected North Kingstown and Jamestown. It was demolished in 2006 and replaced by the Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge.
c1941 In Quonset, R.I., Harry Cobden (d.1999 at 95) co-designed a quick-to-construct steel building for the Navy. It was called a Quonset Hut.
1941 The Narragansett Bay Plum Beach Lighthouse at North Kingston, R.I., closed. A restoration in 2003 removed 60 tons of pigeon guano.
1942 Apr 13, Bill Conti, composer (For Your Eyes Only, Rocky IV), was born in Providence, RI.
1947 Apr 18, James Woods, actor (Salvador, Against All Odds), was born in Warwick, RI.
1954 The first Newport Jazz Festival was organized by George Wein and held on the lawn of the Lorrilard estate in Newport, R.I.
(SFC, 6/30/96, B9)
1956 May 26, Aircraft carrier "Bennington" burned off RI, killing 103.
1957 Sep 14, Pres. Eisenhower met with Arkansas Gov. Faubus in Rhode Island. Faubus agreed to cooperate with the president's decisions regarding the high schools of Little Rock.
(http://tinyurl.com/2vggdj)
1959 The Newport Folk Festival began.
1960 Oct 20, The 1st fully mechanized post office opened in Providence, RI.
1965 Jul 25, Bob Dylan played a Fender Stratocaster at the Newport Folk Festival, RI. In 2015 Elijah Wald authored "Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night that Split the Sixties."
1965 Rev. Edward Flannery (d.1998 at 86) of Providence, R.I., published "The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-three Centuries of Anti-Semitism.
1969 The Newport, RI., Music Festival began.
1973 Oct 3, The Providence Journal in Rhode Island ran a story by journalist Jack White (1942-2005) that revealed Pres. Nixon and his wife paid just $793 in income taxes in 1970 and $878 in 1971 and received tax refunds totaling over $131,000. Nixon claimed a $570,000 tax deduction for donating his vice-presidential papers to the government. Nixon later agreed to pay $476,000 in back taxes.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-8)(SFC, 10/13/05, p.B7)
1974 Vincent Cianci Jr. was elected mayor of Providence.
(WSJ, 8/5/03, p.D6)
1974 Betty Hutton (1921-2007), former Hollywood film star underwent a detox program in Rhode Island. Under the guidance of Father Peter McGuire she finished her high school education and later became a faculty member at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I., where she taught classes in TV and cinema.
1976 Former Gov. John O. Pastore retired after 25 years as a US Senator .
1977 Superior Court Judge Thomas Needham (d.2000) ruled that Rhode Island wives were required to use their husbands' surnames. The State later overturned his decision.
1978 The Cuban jazz band Irakere performed at the Newport Jazz Festival.
(SFC, 6/16/96, BR p.42)(www.apassion4jazz.net/newport.html)
1980 In Providence a fiberglass sculpture of a termite was erected by the New England Pest Control Co. overlooking I-95 for $20,000. The termite was named Nibbles Woodaway in 1990.
1982 Mar 16, Claus Von Bulow was found guilty in Newport, R.I., of trying to kill his now-comatose wife, Martha, with insulin. Von Bulow was acquitted in a retrial.
1984 In Rhode Island Vincent Cianci, the mayor of Providence, was forced to resign after a decade on the job after being convicted of assaulting a man with a cigarette, an ashtray and a log. He was re-elected in 1990. In 2002 he was brought down by a federal racketeering probe and served nearly five years in prison.
1985 Jun 10, Socialite Claus von Bulow was acquitted by a jury in Providence, Rhode Island, at his retrial on charges he'd tried to murder his heiress wife, Martha "Sunny" von Bulow.
1987 Jul 27, In Warwick, RI, Craig Price (13) crept across his neighbor's yard, broke into a little brown house on Inez Avenue and stabbed Rebecca Spencer 58 times. She was a 27-year-old mother of two. On Sep 1, 1989, he butchered Joan Heaton (39) with kitchen knives she had bought earlier that day. The bodies of her daughters, Jennifer 10, and Melissa 8, were found in pools of blood, pieces of knives broken off in their bones; Jennifer had been stabbed 62 times. Price was scheduled to be released in 1994 but was sentenced to 15 years, seven to serve and eight suspended, following contempt charges and belligerent statements. Fights in prison added more time to his sentence. As of 2007 Price's scheduled release date was February 2022. He will be 48.
(AP, 12/16/07)(www.projo.com/extra/2004/craigprice/content/timeline.htm)
1993 Rhode Island repealed its nautical taxes and became something of a nautical tax haven.
1997 The first Terrastock music festival was held in Providence R.I. In 1998 the festival moved to SF.
1999 Oct 24, R.I. Senator John Chafee died in Maryland at age 77. He was first elected to the state Legislature in 1956 and served 3 terms as governor. He was also a veteran of the Korean War and served as Secretary of the Navy.
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.A5)(SFEC, 6/25/00, Par p.4)
2000 Jan 28, In Providence Cornel Young Jr., 28, an off duty police officer, was shot dead by 2 police officers when he tried to assist in a street confrontation. In April a grand jury decided not to file charges against the officers.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D3)(SFC, 4/19/00, p.A8)
2000 Jul 15, Former governor and senator John O. Pastore died at age 93.
2000 Aug 23, The final winner of the "Survivor" TV contest set on Pulau Tiga island was broadcast to as many as 40-50 million viewers. Richard Hatch (39), a corporate trainer from Newport, R.I., won the $1 million grand prize. In 2006 Hatch was convicted on three counts related to tax evasion and was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison plus three years of supervised probation.
(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/24/00, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/4sna5j)
2000 Nov 9, Ruth Simmons was named the 18th Pres. of Brown Univ. She became the 1st African American to head an Ivy League institution.
2001 Apr 2, Vincent Cianci Jr. (59), mayor of Providence, RI, was indicted by a federal grand jury on racketeering charges. Cianci was convicted on a single count of racketeering conspiracy in Jun, 2002, and sentenced to 5 years and 4 months in jail on Sep 6. In 2003 Mike Stanton authored "The Prince of Providence," a biography of Cianci.
(SFC, 4/3/01, p.A2)(SFC, 6/25/02, p.A4)(SFC, 9/7/02, p.A3)(WSJ, 8/5/03, p.D5)
2001 Jul 19, Rhode Island became the 3rd state, behind Minnesota and Connecticut, to extend civil rights protections to transsexuals and cross-dressers.
2002 Apr, Provincetown acquired the Russian submarine Juliett 484 as an attraction to raise money for a museum centered on the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, yet to be acquired. Russia launched Juliett in 1968 as a diesel sub that carried 4 nuclear missiles. In 1994 it was taken from the Liepaja naval base in Latvia to Helsinki, Finland, for use as a restaurant and bar. In 1998 it was towed to St. Petersburg but failed as a tourist attraction. In 2001 she taken to Halifax for use in the movie "K-19: The Widowmaker."
2002 Jun 8, Carlos Pacheco, an employee at the Providence Journal production plant, killed 2 co-workers and wounded another. He was later found dead in a burned out car in Warwick.
2003 Feb 20, In Rhode Island The Station, a West Warwick nightclub, erupted in a raging fire during a pyrotechnics display at a rock concert, 98 people were killed and 200 others injured. Flammable soundproofing was later blamed. In Feb, 2006, Dan Biechele, manager of the band, pleaded guilty to 100 counts of manslaughter in exchange for up to 10 years in prison. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison. In 2008 Anheuser-Busch and a Rhode Island beer distributor agreed to pay $21 million to settle lawsuits brought by survivors of the fire.
(SFC, 2/22/03, A1)(WSJ, 3/3/03, p.A1)(SFC, 2/1/06, p.A3)(SFC, 5/11/06, p.A7)(SFC, 5/24/08, p.A3)
2003 Dec 9, Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, owners of a Rhode Island nightclub, and Dan Biechele, the tour manager for the rock band Great White, were indicted on charges related to the February 20 fire that killed 100 people. In 2006 a judge gave the owners 4 years and probation.
(AP, 12/9/04)(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A7)(WSJ, 9/30/06, p.A1)
2004 Jun, Doctors at Rhode Island Hospital implanted a BrainGate, pea-size sensor made by Cyberkinetics, in the brain of Matthew Nagle, a quadriplegic, which connected to computer. Over a 9-month period he learned to use his mind to control motion on a video monitor and a robotic arm. The journal Nature reported the results of the experiment on July 13, 2006.
(SFC, 7/13/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.77)
2005 Mar 26, A small plane, carrying 2 Rhode Island families from vacation in Florida, crashed near Penn. State Univ. All 6 people aboard were killed.
2006 Jan 3, Rhode Island became the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana and the first since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that patients who use the drug can still be prosecuted under federal law.
2006 Jan 25, "Survivor" Richard Hatch was convicted in Providence, R.I., of failing to pay taxes on his $1 million winnings. He was later sentenced to more than four years in prison.
2006 Feb 22, A Rhode Island jury found 3 companies, Sherwin-Williams, NL Industries and Millennium Holdings, liable for creating a public nuisance by selling lead paint decades ago, and that the companies should pay to clean it up from homes and buildings in the state.
2006 Feb 25, In Rhode Island Brown University announced it will stop investing in companies that do business in Sudan because the country has been accused of genocide.
2006 Apr 18, In Rhode Island the 1940 Jamestown Bridge was demolished. It connected North Kingstown and Jamestown and was replaced by the Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge.
2006 Apr 28, Rhode Island, America's smallest state, was reported to be seeking to become the first state to offer a wireless broadband network from border to border. The Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs) was expected to be fully in place by 2007, providing wireless connectivity throughout the state, whose land mass of about 1,045 square miles is only slightly more than double the size of metropolitan Los Angeles.
2006 Sep 29, A Rhode Island nightclub owner was sentenced to four years in prison and his brother to probation, angering relatives of the 100 people who died in a 2003 fire at their club.
2006 Dec 15, New US rules went into effect governing the reporting of public sector pension assets. A number of US states faced pension asset shortfalls. Taxpayers in Connecticut and Rhode Island faced some $3500 in unfunded liabilities per citizen. California faced $49 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.
2007 Mar 3, Warren Alpert (b.1920), philanthropist, died in NYC. In 1950 he formed Warren Equities Inc., which became one of the largest independent gasoline and convenience store marketers and one of the leading independent wholesale petroleum marketers in the Northeast. In 1986 Alpert founded the Warren Alpert Foundation, a philanthropic effort devoted to supporting medical research and health care. On Jan 29 it was announced that he had donated $100 million to Rhode Island's Brown Medical school.
(WSJ, 3/5/07, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/25gd5v)
2007 Rhode Island lawmakers ended a 51-year prohibition on Sunday auto sales.
2008 Mar 4, John McCain clinched the Republican nomination. Hillary Clinton won primaries in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, halting Barack Obama's winning streak. Obama won in Vermont. Obama came away with a large share of delegates, too, in counting that continued.
2008 May 26, David Mumford of Brown University said he would donate his $33,333 portion of the prestigious Israeli mathematics Wolf Prize, to a Palestinian university and an Israeli group that tries to ease Israeli travel restrictions on Palestinian students.
2009 Jan 1, Claiborne Pell (b.1918), former US Senator from Rhode Island (1660-1997), died. He was the chief sponsor of the 1965 law establishing the national Endowment for the Arts and the national Endowment for the Humanities. He also sponsored legislation creating the Basic Educational Opportunities Grants (1972), which provided direct aid to college students. The awards were renamed the Pell Grants in 1980.
2009 May, Rhode Island under Gov. Donald Carcieri projected a budget gap of $372 million for the year ending June 30. Carcieri pushed a plan to phase out the state's 9% corporate tax rate to improve the state's friendliness towards business.
2009 Jun 16, Rhode Island became the 3rd state in the US to allow marijuana sales to chronically ill patients as the General Assembly voted to override a veto by Gov. Don Carcieri.
2010 Mar 2, In Rhode Island the Central Falls Teachers' Union pledged to support reforms. The school board had voted last week to fire 93 teachers and staff from the high school after the end of the school year. On May 16 the school district announced that it had reached an agreement with the union to return all staffers.
(SFC, 3/4/10, p.A8)(SFC, 5/17/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 31, Flooding across the US Northeast forced hundreds of residents from their homes, knocked out sewage plants, and snarled traffic on major East Coast routes as roads. Rhode Island endured the most severe damage as the Pawtuxet reached 20.8 feet unleashing the worst flooding in over 200 years.
2011 Aug 1, Central Falls, Rhode Island, filed for bankruptcy as it faced unfunded pension and benefit liabilities nearly 4 times its annual budget. Former state Supreme Court Justice Robert G. Flanders Jr. became the receiver superseding the powers of the elected city officials.
(Econ, 12/3/11, p.89)(http://tinyurl.com/7lwpbxg)(AP, 1/15/12)
2011 Aug, The US Department of Justice announced that Google had agreed to pay $500 million to settle allegations that it allowed Canadian-based "rogue pharmacies" -- which offer counterfeit medications or do not require valid prescriptions -- to run ads through AdWords. In 2012 Rhode Island received about $230 million of the $500 million settlement.
(http://tinyurl.com/lpx5lq2)
2011 Sep 23, Federal agents in Rhode Island said they have put a major dent in the ranks of the New England mafia with the arrests of Edward Lato (64), Alfred Scivola (70), Raymond Jenkins (47) and Albino Folcarelli (53).
2012 Mar 6, Louise White (81) of Newport, RI, claimed last month's $336.4 million Powerball jackpot.
2012 May 14, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee issued an executive order that the state will recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
2012 Jul 8, Dozens of women who attended a Rhode Island high school run by the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order urged the Vatican to close the program, saying the psychological abuse they endured trying to live like teenage nuns led to multiple cases of anorexia, stress-induced migraines, depression and even suicidal thoughts. On July 12 The Legion's lay branch Regnum Christi posted a statement on its website outlining changes.
(AP, 7/9/12)(AP, 7/13/12)
2012 Nov 14, In Rhode Island Anthony L. DiNunzio, acting head of the New England Mafia, was sentenced to 6½ years in prison for shaking down local strip clubs for protection money.
2012 Nov 19, In Rhode Island Charles Moreau, the former mayor of Central Falls. Pleaded guilty to accepting gifts from a supporter who received a lucrative city contract.
2012 Nov 30, US Interior Sec. Ken Salazar said the government plans to sell leases for wind farms off the coasts of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Virginia.
2013 Jan 1, Ten states kicked off the new year with a minimum wage rise of between 10 and 35 cents. The rises went into effect in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
2013 Feb 9, A record-breaking blizzard packing hurricane-force winds hammered the northeastern United States, cutting power to 700,000 homes and businesses, shutting down travel and leaving at least five people dead. The storm centered its fury on Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. 38 inches fell in Milford, Connecticut. 29.3 inches fell on Portland, Maine, breaking a 1979 record.
2013 Apr 16, Rhode Island held a gun buy-back day and netted 186 firearms.
2013 May 2, Rhode Island became the nation's 10th state to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed as Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed the bill into law.
2013 Aug 1, US gay couples exchanged vows in Minnesota and Rhode Island as the number of states allowing same sex marriages grew to 13 plus Washington DC.
2013 Nov 1, In Rhode Island Ralph Mariano (55), was sentenced to 10 years in prison as the mastermind of a kickback scheme that cost the Navy $18 million.
2014 Feb 28, In Rhode Island former Central Falls mayor Charles Moreau, convicted in 2012 of corruption, was freed from prison after pleading guilty to accepting a bribe. An appeals court had thrown his earlier conviction into question.
2014 Sep 17, In the US version of the Mayors Challenge, announced by former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the $5 million top prize went to Providence, Rhode Island. Its project called for improving poor children's vocabulary by outfitting them with recording devices if their parents agreed.
2016 Jul 20, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo signed legislation banning the use of bullhooks to train elephants, making her state the first to do so.
(http://tinyurl.com/hrewt2q)(SFC, 7/22/16, p.A7)
2016 Dec 26, In Rhode Island the occupation of a tribal government building by a faction of the Narragansett tribe entered its seventh day. Occupiers included council members who impeached Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and want him to step down.
2018 Feb 19, In Rhode Island a grand jury indictment was unsealed accusing Republican Sen. Nicholas Kettle of extorting sex from a male page.
2018 Apr 10, The Newport Arctic Scholars Initiative convened in Newport, Rhode Island, with representatives from the Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and the US.
2018 Sep 6, Rhode Island signed a reciprocal driver's license agreement with Taiwan.
2018 Sep 19, In Rhode Island senior military representatives from over 100 countries gathered for the 23rd Int'l. Seapower Symposium at the US Naval College in Newport for a three day meeting on cooperation and shared challenges.
2018 Oct 8, Rhode Island-based Deepwater Wind announced that Denmark-based Orsted has entered into an agreement to buy it. Orsted said it's paying $510 million.
2018 Dec 1, In Louisiana the Democratic Governors Assoc. meeting in New Orleans selected Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo as its new chairwoman.
(SSFC, 12/2/18, p.A10)
Subject = Rhode Island