1. Connecticut became a state on July 1, 1776. This was before the United States Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, making Connecticut one of the original thirteen colonies to become a state.

2. On July 1, 1848, the Connecticut Temperance Society was founded in New Haven. This organization promoted abstinence from alcohol and was part of a larger national movement towards temperance.

3. The Hartford Circus Fire, one of the deadliest fires in U.S. history, occurred on July 1, 1944. The fire broke out during a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performance in Hartford, killing 168 people and injuring more than 700.

4. A significant event in the civil rights movement occurred on July 1, 1961, when thirteen Freedom Riders were arrested in Danbury for refusing to abide by Jim Crow segregation laws on buses. This event helped to bring attention to ongoing racial inequalities in the United States.

5. In 2011, same-sex marriage became legal in Connecticut on July 1, following a ruling by the state's Supreme Court. Connecticut was the third state in the United States to legalize same-sex marriage, after Massachusetts and Vermont.