1. In 1824, the first steam-powered locomotive arrived in Connecticut, having been shipped from England. It was named the Stourbridge Lion and made its debut in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.

2. On May 8, 1906, Connecticut celebrated the 250th anniversary of its founding. The festivities included a parade through Hartford, a historical pageant, and the unveiling of a monument to the state's first governor, John Winthrop.

3. The Hartford Courant, one of the oldest continuously published newspapers in the United States, began its first daily edition on May 8, 1865. It had previously been a weekly publication.

4. In 1969, Yale University students held a strike to protest the university's expansion into the surrounding neighborhood. The strike quickly became a nationwide symbol of student activism and sparked similar protests at colleges and universities across the country.

5. On May 8, 1933, the Connecticut State House of Representatives voted to repeal prohibition, making it one of the first states in the nation to do so. The repeal took effect on September 18 of that year.