Rhode Island Firsts

Not only is Rhode Island #1, it also claims several other "firsts"

• The first Baptist Church in America was founded in Providence in 1638.

• Rhode Island enacted the first law prohibiting slavery in North America on May 18, 1652.

• Portsmouth is home to the oldest schoolhouse in the United States. The school was built in 1716.

• The Redwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport is the United States' oldest library building, founded in 1747.

• Ann Smith Franklin of the Newport Mercury was the first woman newspaper editor in America (August 22, 1762). She was the editor of "The Newport Mercury" in Newport, Rhode Island.

• The first armed act of rebellion in America against the British Crown was the boarding and burning of the Revenue Schooner Gaspee in Narragansett Bay on June 10, 1772.

• • The idea of a Continental Congress was first proposed at a town meeting in Providence on May 17, 1774. Rhode Island elected the first delegates (Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward) to the Continental Congress on June 15, 1774.
  
  • The Rhode Island General Assembly created the first standing army in the colonies (1,500 men) on April 22, 1775.
  
  • Rhode Island was the first Colony to declare independence from Britain on May 4, 1776.
  
  • The first African-American regiment to fight for America made a gallant stand against the British in the Battle of Rhode Island (August 29, 1778).
  
  • The oldest Fourth of July Parade, established in 1785, in the country is still held annually in Bristol, RI.
  
  • Slater Mill, built in 1793 in Pawtucket, was the first commercially successful cotton-spinning mill with a fully mechanized power system in America and was the birth place of the Industrial Revolution.
  
  • Pelham Street in Newport was the first in America to be illuminated by gaslight in 1806.
  
  • The first strike in the United States in which women participated occurred in Pawtucket in 1824.
  
  • Watch Hill has the nation’s oldest carousel that has been in continuous operation since 1850.
  
  • The motion picture machine (a machine showing animated pictures) was patented in Providence on April 23, 1867.
  
  • The first torpedo boat "Stiletto" was built in Bristol in 1887.
  
  • In 1895 the state of Rhode Island was home to the first open golf tournament.
  
  • The Rhode Island State House was the first building with an all-marble dome to be built in the United States (1895–1901).
  
  • The first automobile race on a track was held in Cranston on September 7, 1896.