Related top topics

Massachusetts

Delaware

Pennsylvania

Florida

North Carolina

Connecticut

New York

Indiana

West Virginia

Ohio

Jersey Shore

Did you know ...

• in what The New York Times described as a "food fight", Assemblymember Clare Farragher argued that the tomato, rather than the blueberry, should be chosen as New Jersey's official state fruit?
• in the wake of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Stephen A. Mikulak sponsored a bill, later signed into law, that would impose the death penalty for terrorists who kill anyone in New Jersey?
• in the 1984 Brown v. Hotel and Restaurant Employees case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a New Jersey gaming law requiring union leaders to be of good moral character?
• legislation proposed by Barbara Wright would impose jail terms up to 10 years and fines of as much as US$100,000 for filing false car- or health-insurance claims in New Jersey?
• the $1 million spent by Sean F. Dalton and the other candidates in the 1993 General Assembly race for New Jersey's 4th Legislative District was the most for any district in the state that year?
• the Hindu temple Swaminaryan Mandir in Colonia, New Jersey, USA, was originally a synagogue?
• the Emmy Award-winning show The Freddy Awards, a ceremony honoring high school theater in the Lehigh Valley region in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, is to be the subject of a documentary film?
• in a 1981 case, Judge Fred C. Galda allowed a woman to claim she shot her husband in self-defense, making him the first judge in New Jersey to accept a battered woman defense in a spousal killing?
• in 1996 then New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman may have violated the civil rights of Sherron Rolax by frisking him?
• during the 2008 fall migration, over 10,000 hawks passed the observation point at Washington Valley Park, New Jersey?
• at the time he was elected to the New Jersey Senate in 1913, Charles M. Egan received the largest margin of victory for any county-wide office in New Jersey history?
• as part of efforts to balance New Jersey's $2.76 billion budget in 1976, State Senator James P. Vreeland proposed cutting the governor's annual salary by $2,500?
• former New Jersey State Senator Harry L. Sears secretly delivered a briefcase containing $200,000 from financier Robert Vesco to the 1972 campaign of Richard Nixon?
• former New Jersey Representative Edward J. Patten was unanimously cleared by the House Ethics Committee of charges associated with the 1978 Koreagate scandal?
• former New Jersey Representative Henry Helstoski was charged with receiving bribes from illegal aliens in 1976?
• former New Jersey Representative Fred A. Hartley, Jr., co-sponsor of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, served as the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor?
• the 1903 Vagabond Hurricane is the most recent Atlantic hurricane to strike the state of New Jersey, and briefly threatened the life of President Theodore Roosevelt?
• the Banta-Coe House in Teaneck, New Jersey, is one of the oldest existing homes in the Garden State?
• the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, New Jersey, is the only zoo in the world that has a pair of Malaysian "black dragon" monitor lizards on display?
• the Sussex Railroad was the last independently operated New Jersey railroad to be incorporated into the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad system?
• the North American Phalanx was a mid-19th century Utopian community in Monmouth County, New Jersey based on the idea of French socialist Charles Fourier?
• the replica of a Hadrosaurus unearthed in New Jersey in 1858 was displayed at the New Jersey State Museum for decades with an incorrect skull?
• thousands of people watched the Action of 31 July 1793 between British and French frigates from the New Jersey shoreline?
• wild garlic and mustard are grown in Kings Pond Park, a public park in New Jersey?
• under a bill proposed by Assemblymember Joel Weingarten, religious headwear cannot be banned in New Jersey public schools?
• the New Jersey Library Association, the oldest library organization in New Jersey, began in 1890 with 39 members and currently has over 1,600?
• the New Jersey County Colleges is a system of 19 public community colleges with over 60 campuses in the U.S. state of New Jersey?
• the Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel (map at right) is a proposed underwater tunnel for rail transport of freight between central New Jersey and southern New York City, United States?
• the Berlin Circle in New Jersey was eliminated at a cost of $73 million after it was described as one of "South Jersey's worst traffic nightmares"?
• the Essex Street Station in New Jersey, was once the terminus and headquarters of the Hackensack and New York Railroad?
• the Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950 led to wind gusts in excess of 100 mph across New York, New Jersey, and New England?
• the tallest building in Jersey City, New Jersey is the 781-foot (238 m) 30 Hudson Street (pictured)?
• the Lipari Landfill in New Jersey, where nearly 3 million gallons and 12 thousand tons of hazardous waste were dumped, was called the worst toxic dump in the United States?
• an Irish immigrant to America who settled on New Jersey's Pettys Island in 1851 was later proclaimed "king" of the island?
• among New Jersey's state symbols, the slogan "Come See For Yourself" was chosen in 2006 after an earlier proposal "We'll Win You Over" was deemed to be too negative?
• LeRoy J. Jones, Jr. proposed a ban on the sale of box cutters to teenagers in New Jersey, saying that they had become "the weapon of choice" for gang members?
• John J. Matheussen introduced legislation in the New Jersey Senate in 1999 to implement the US$1 billion property tax rebate proposed by Governor Christine Todd Whitman?
• Gerald R. Stockman's support of fair housing efforts in New Jersey earned him recognition by The New York Times as "one of the Legislature's strongest open-housing advocates"?
• Maureen Ogden of New Jersey's 22nd Legislative District sponsored a bill making original birth certificates available to adoptees, saying "basic rights of the little babies were not being considered"?
• Melvin Cottrell sponsored legislation to allow sports betting in Atlantic City casinos on professional and college sports that would exclude wagering on games played by New Jersey college teams?
• Monroe Jay Lustbader of New Jersey's 21st Legislative District proposed stiffening penalties for juvenile car thieves, as those "old enough to steal cars are old enough to face severe consequences"?
• Moggy Hollow Natural Area was where Glacial Lake Passaic overflowed as the Wisconsin Glacier expanded in New Jersey?
• Arline Friscia sponsored a bill making New Jersey the first U.S. state to require businesses with 50+ employees to rehire a worker at the same or comparable position after taking a family leave?
• Albinus of Angers, who as bishop reportedly used diocesan funds to ransom people captured by pirates, thereafter became the patron saint against pirate attack and of coastal communities as far away as Poland and New Jersey?
• Assembly member Gerald H. Zecker justified higher car insurance rates for drivers in New Jersey's largest cities because "cars in Newark are stolen and wrecked in far greater numbers"?
• New Jersey's Pigeon Swamp State Park, named for 18th-century landowner Ann Pidgeon, was a nesting place for passenger pigeons before they became extinct in the early 20th century?
• New Jersey's Museum of Early Trades and Crafts houses a collection of over 8,000 tools and artifacts used before 1860 that had been collected by Agnes and Edgar Land over a 50-year span?
• New Jersey General Assemblyman Peter J. Genova sponsored a bill that would make English the state's official language, stating that "Spanish has just grown too prominent in New Jersey"?
• State Senator John H. Ewing of New Jersey's 16th District opposed state funding for poorer school districts, as "some drive a Ford Taurus, like me", but "we can't pay for everyone to drive a Mercedes"?
• white Republican State Senator Norman M. Robertson criticized New Jersey's 2001 redistricting plan, stating "that the map is racist" in reducing the voting strength of African-American voters?
• Union's Connecticut Farms Presbyterian Church (pictured) was the first church in New Jersey to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places?
• Overlook Hospital, founded in 1906 by a 26-year-old entrepreneur, established the first hematology oncology children's clinic in New Jersey, in 1977?
• Poricy Park in New Jersey is known for allowing limited collecting at its Cretaceous-era fossil shell beds?
• according to the 2000 United States Census, Guttenberg, New Jersey, is the most densely populated incorporated place in the U.S.?
• a daughter of Philip Johnston, the first colonel of the New Jersey militia to die in battle during the Revolutionary War married the son of Nathaniel Scudder, the last colonel of the New Jersey militia to so die?
• President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points speech was transmitted to Europe from New Jersey's New Brunswick Marconi Station in 1918?
• after Ernest L. Oros proposed a bill to tack a $5 surcharge on New Jersey traffic tickets to pay for new police cars, opponents argued that police officers would only be encouraged to give out more tickets?
• after ceasing operations in New Jersey, the West Jersey Railroad operated in Michigan for several months before being renamed West Michigan Railroad?
• although the songs "Tougher Than the Rest" and "Spare Parts" by New Jersey musician Bruce Springsteen were not released as singles in the United States, each became a Top-20 single in Europe?
• after the death of New Jersey Representative George N. Seger, a Liberty ship used in World War II was commissioned in his honor?
• Judge Morris Pashman upheld a ban on the sale of the John Cleland book Fanny Hill in New Jersey, calling it "sufficiently obscene to forfeit the protection of the First Amendment"?
• Freeheld is an Academy Award-winning documentary by Cynthia Wade that follows a New Jersey detective fighting for the right to pass on her pension to her female domestic partner?
• Robert J. Morris lost a bid for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate from New Jersey in 1958, and then ran for the Senate in Texas in 1964 and 1970, losing both times to George H. W. Bush?
• Robert C. Janiszewski, longtime County Executive of Hudson County, New Jersey, was the highest-ranking elected official in state history ever to work undercover for the FBI?
• Seymour Reit, co-creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost, claimed that Da Vinci had painted two Mona Lisas, one of which was in a bank vault in New Jersey?
• Thomas H. Paterniti introduced legislation in the state of New Jersey that would hold owners of adult bookstores liable if individuals contracted AIDS as a result of sexual activity on the premises?
• William Burnet, Governor of New Jersey and New York, obtained his position of governorship by trading his job as comptroller of the customs with Robert Hunter?
• Thomas J. Deverin proposed a bill requiring New Jersey public schools to begin with a daily period of silent meditation, which both opponents and supporters saw as reintroducing school prayer?
• College Football Hall of Fame inductee Stan "Bags" Pennock was killed in an explosion that wrecked the chemical plant he opened in an abandoned New Jersey slaughterhouse?