1. A law was introduced in the Maine state legislature in 1939 to make it illegal to add tomatoes to clam chowder. (Because fuck Manhattan "clam chowder" or whatever that crap is.)
2. Dunkin' Donuts, which first opened in Quincy, MA, estimates that it sells more than 30 cups of coffee every second.
3. That amounts to 1.7 BILLION cups of coffee each year (iced and hot together).
4. Boston is home to the first subway system in North America, having begun in 1897.
5. The Library of Congress recognizes Louis Lassen, a resident of New Haven, CT, as having served the first hamburger in America, in 1900.
6. The Hartford Courant, started in 1764, is the country's oldest newspaper in continuous publication. It's older than the country itself, in fact.
7. Members of the von Trapp family, the real life family that inspired The Sound of Music, eventually settled in Stowe, Vermont. Their property has been turned into a hotel lodge, which screens the film for guests every week.
8. The all-time fastest recorded surface wind speed was recorded at Mount Washington, in New Hampshire. The wind reached 231 miles per hour.
9. Great Barrington, MA, was one of the first communities in the world to have electric street lights.
10. At one time, the Forster Manufacturing Co. in Maine was the leading manufacturer of toothpicks in the entire nation. It was also the first toothpick manufacturer in the country.
11. The portrait of George Washington used on dollar bills was created by Gilbert Stuart, a painter from Rhode Island.
12. The first person to go to jail for speeding — who was traveling at a whopping 15 miles per hour — was arrested in Newport, RI, in 1904.
13. The state with the most breweries per capita? Vermont. Maine clocks in at number four on the list.
14. Maine is home to the only museum in the world dedicated to umbrella covers, aptly named the Umbrella Cover Museum. The museum curator holds the world record for the largest collection of umbrella covers.
15. The state of Maine produces about 98% of the wild blueberries in the entire nation. Naturally, Maine's state fruit is the blueberry.
16. New Hampshire was the site of the first permanent potato patches in North America, planted in 1719.
17. When the public library in Peterborough, NH, was established in 1833, it became the first free public library supported by taxes in the entire world.
18. Neither Connecticut nor Rhode Island ever actually ratified the 18th amendment (prohibition).
19. Connecticut's Mary Kies was the first woman to receive a patent from the United States government. It was in 1809, granted for a technique she developed to braid straw with various threads to produce bonnets.
20. Vermont is the number one producer of maple syrup in the United States. (And it is SO DELICIOUS.)
21. Because the nation's first textile mill was built in Pawtucket, RI, the area is generally considered the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution.
22. The oldest tavern in America is the White Horse Tavern in Newport, RI, although the building it is housed in was originally a private residence in the late 1600s.
23. The easternmost municipality in the country is Eastport, ME.
24. Vermont has the highest cow-to-person ratio of any state in the country, at about 1:2, according to figures from 2006.
25. Maine has a longer shoreline than California, with 3,478 miles compared to 3,427.
26. The first color television in the United States could be found in Connecticut, in 1948.
27. Rhode Island is home to not only the first synagogue in the country, but also the first Baptist church.
28. New England is 100%, unquestionably, without a doubt, according to SCIENCE, the best part of these United States.