5 Interesting Bits of History that Could Only Happen in NJ

Whether you call it the armpit of America or a hidden treasure, New Jersey has been around for a while, since 1660 in Bergen county at least. New Jersey has served as the backdrop for lots of interesting and significant events from colonial duels to famous inventions. Just a look through this list proves the many parts of history that have taken place in the most densely populated state in the country. Inspiration for a lot of this: https://blog.njm.com/11-interesting-facts-about-new-jersey https://nj.gov/nj/about/history/short_history.html Washington’s Crossing- December 25-26, 1776 While it started across the Delaware river in Pennsylvania, the actual ambush of Washington's troops on the Hessians happened in Trenton, New Jersey. On December 25 and 26, 1776 Washington and his troops crossed the river late at night during a storm. While the river is only about 300 yards wide at that part the ice and freezing rain made it a much harder crossing. They made it across thanks to the New England sailors and Philadelphia natives in the platoon who were familiar with the river.

Fun fact, the Hessians had multiple warnings from local tories, spies in Washington’s camp, and deserters that an attack was imminent. However, due to the storm and multiple prior false alarms, the Hessian Colonel Johann Rall, decided that an attack was unlikely. The victory that ensued at the Battle of Trenton helped to spur support for the Revolutionary cause and bring much-needed morale to the soldiers. A somewhat idealized portrait of the event, Washington Crossing the Delaware, was painted by German Emanuel Leutze in 1851 and can be seen less than 100 miles away at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Sources: https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-revolutionary-war/washingtons-revolutionary-war-battles/the-trenton-princeton-campaign/10-facts-about-washingtons-crossing-of-the-delaware-river/ Burr-Hamilton Duel- July 11, 1804 Alexander Hamilton’s place of death is located in Weehawken, New Jersey where he dueled Aaron Burr. Hamilton’s son died at the same dueling grounds 3 years before his father’s death in what the memorial calls “the most famous duel in American history.” Burr and Hamilton were long-time political rivals and this eventually made its way into their personal lives. These squabbles eventually boiled over when Hamilton was quoted in a Newspaper saying that Burr was a dangerous man to hold office. After seeing these, Burr sent a note that asked Hamilton to confirm or deny the statements to which he did neither. The public insult coupled with the history of the two eventually led to the duel that killed Hamilton.

Dueling was illegal in New Jersey at the time but was not as well enforced as it was in New York, hence the place for the duel. While attitudes toward dueling were starting to turn in the 1800s, it was still popular with the aristocracy and former military since they wanted to avoid seeming cowardly. The original setting of the duel would have sat below where the monument is today but was destroyed due to the construction of a rail line in 1870. Source: https://www.revolutionarywarnewjersey.com/new_jersey_revolutionary_war_sites/towns/weehawken_nj_revolutionary_war_sites.htm Test of the First Modern Submarine- 1879 In the Passaic River in Patterson, James Philip Holland proceeded with testing the Fenian Ram, his submarine prototype, and the first modern submarine. Since he was originally from Ireland, Holland received support from the Irish Fenian Society which wanted to leverage the advantage of the submarine against the English. However, it appears to have backfired since this prototype led to both the U.S. Navy and Her Majesty’s Royal Navy to contract Holland to build their first submarines in service. Sources: https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Philip-Holland https://americanhistory.si.edu/subs/history/subsbeforenuc/early/holland.html Thomas Edison’s Many Inventions- 1870-90s Edison is known as a great inventor who holds the most patents of anyone with 1093. Many of these were developed in his Menlo park laboratory, which is credited as the first industrial research labs and the precursor to how modern corporate research happens. Some of his most famous inventions were improvements on things that already existed such as his improvement on Nicola Tesla’s lightbulb and the carbon telephone transmitter which improved on Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone. Edison’s Menlo Park lab was also the place where sound was first recorded onto a wax cylinder. This was a huge change and led to the music industry refocusing on recorded music. Sources: https://www.history.com/news/thomas-edison-inventions https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/thomas-edison Orsen Welles’ War of the Worlds Broadcast- October 30, 1938 The night before Halloween in 1938, in what he thought was like a prank, Orsen Welles orchestrated an adaptation of H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, on the radio in the style of a real broadcast. While Welles had mentioned that the broadcast was drama at the beginning many missed it and panic ensued. The announcer talked about the touchdown of hostile Martians in Grover’s Mill, New Jersey, and how they used heat rays to dispatch local law enforcement. This threw the citizens in Grover’s Mill while some hunkered down to survive the invasion while others made roaming bands of townsfolk with shotguns to fight the aliens.. Some residents even attacked a local water tower, thinking it was a martian robot. Eventually, the aliens are defeated by earthly germs that they had no immunity to, which seems like an oddly-fitting end in the age of COVID-19. Sources: https://weirdnj.com/stories/roadside-oddities/martians-attack-nj-on-halloween-eve/