Connecticut Famous People

Famous Americans: History and Biographies

Links to histories and biographies of the famous people of Connecticut. Many famous people of Connecticut have made significant contributions to the history of our nation and the state of Connecticut. These famous Americans, famous entertainers, famous players, famous scientist, famous singers, famous statesmen, famous women, heroes, great explorers, and others Connecticut famous Americans have all made Connecticut their home. This list includes Connecticut historical figures, celebrities and those individuals of Connecticut who have influenced the lives of others.

Famous People from Connecticut

• Ethan Allan (January 21, 1738 [O.S. January 10, 1737] – February 12, 1789) Born in rural Connecticut he was a farmer, businessman, land speculator, philosopher, writer, lay theologian, and American Revolutionary War patriot, hero, and politician. He is best known as one of the founders of the U.S. state of Vermont, and for the capture of Fort Ticonderoga early in the American Revolutionary War along with Benedict Arnold.
• Benedict Arnold (1741 - 1801) A captain of the Colonial Army turned British spy. He is famous for burning down the town of New London; since then, his name has meant "traitor;" born in Norwich.
• Phineas T. Barnum (1810 - 1891) P.T. Barnum was born in 1810 in Bethel, Connecticut. He was one of the most colorful and well-known personalities in American history. Barnum was the founding force behind one of America's most famous circuses: Barnum & Bailey Circus.
• Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) (1835 - 1910) Author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; lived in Hartford.
• Samuel Colt (1814 - 1862) Inventor and founder of the Colt firearm company; born in Hartford.
• Charles Goodyear (1800 - 1860) Inventor of vulcanized rubber; born in New Haven.
• Ella Grasso (1919 - 1981) The first woman to be elected governor of a state; born in Windsor Locks.
• Dorothy Hamill (1956 - ) Olympic gold medallist and professional ice skater with the Ice Capades; grew up in Riverside.
• Nathan Hale (1755 -1776) A martyr soldier of the American Revolution; born in Coventry.
• Katharine Hepburn (1907 - ) Famous actress who won four Academy Awards for best actress; born in Hartford.
• Charles Ives Composer Charles Ives was born in Danbury, Connecticut in 1874. He is recognized as the most original and significant American composer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ives was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1947.
• Mary Kies, The first woman to receive a US patent, received on May 15^th, 1809 for a method of weaving straw with silk; from South Killingly.
• Edwin Herbert Land, inventor and physicist, was born in Bridgeport, Ct. in 1910. Land and a group of scientists founded the Polaroid Company in 1937. During WWII, the company produced military related items like target finders and dark-adaptation glasses. Their most successful product was the Polaroid Land Camera, the first "instant" camera. It was introduced in the late 1940s.
• Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (November 29, 1908 – April 4, 1972) was a Baptist pastor and an American politician, who represented Harlem, New York City, in the United States House of Representatives (1945–71). He was the first person of African-American descent to be elected from New York to Congress. Oscar Stanton De Priest of Illinois was the first black person to be elected to Congress in the 20th century; Powell was the fourth. Blacks in the South were disenfranchised and excluded from politics until after passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.
• Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 - July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. Harriet Elisabeth Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on June 14, 1811. She was the seventh of 13 children, born to outspoken religious leader Lyman Beecher and Roxana (Foote), a deeply religious woman who died when Stowe was only five years old. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) was a depiction of life for African Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom. It energized anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. She wrote more than 20 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential both for her writings and her public stands on social issues of the day.
• Noah Webster (1758 - 1843) published the first American dictionary in 1810. Webster was born in West Hartford, Connecticut in 1758. He was the first person to document distinctively American words such as skunk, hickory, and chowder. He also modernized spellings of words, changing the traditional English "musick" to "music," "centre" to "center," and "plough" to "plow."
  

More Famous People from Connecticut:

Find more more Connecvticut famous people below. You may not even realize many of these famous people were born in Connecvticut or notable associated with Connecvticut, including actors, actresses, explorers, historical figures, inventors, musicians, novelists, professional athletes, important politicians, singers, sport stars and more.

• Dean Acheson statesman, Middletown
• Henry Ward Beecher clergyman, Litchfield
• John Brown abolitionist, Torrington
• Oliver Ellsworth jurist, Windsor
• Eileen Farrell soprano, Willimantic
• Robert N. Hall inventor, New Haven
• Collis Potter Huntington financier, Harwinton
• Annie Leibovitz photographer, Waterbury
• John Pierpont Morgan financier, Hartford
• Frederick Law Olmsted landscape designer, Hartford
• Kenneth H. Olsen inventor, Stratford
• Rosa Ponselle soprano, Meriden
• Benjamin Spock pediatrician, New Haven