1. In 1971, the Connecticut General Assembly voted to abolish the death penalty. Connecticut was the first state to do so after a four-year legislative battle.

2. In 1913, a fire broke out at the Bijou Theater in New Haven, killing six people and injuring dozens more. The incident sparked reforms in fire safety regulations and construction codes.

3. On May 3, 1740, Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" at the Congregational Church in Enfield. The sermon is widely regarded as a masterpiece of Puritan literature.

4. In 1845, the Hartford Courant became the first newspaper to print daguerreotype portraits. The paper also advocated strongly for the abolition of slavery and was the first newspaper in the country to offer a full-time correspondent in Washington D.C.

5. On May 3, 1967, the Connecticut House of Representatives passed the landmark Fair Housing Act, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, religion, or national origin in the sale or rental of housing. The law was one of the first of its kind in the country and helped pave the way for the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968.