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Everybody knows about Paul Revere's Ride, and the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord in 1775, but in 1749 Rhode Island sunk the British ship, Liberty, which was bringing the stamps to America for the Stamp Tax, on the first night the ship was in Newport Harbor, and that was the end of the Stamp Tax in Rhode Island; in 1772 Rhode Island sunk the British warship, Gaspee, and wounded its Captain for the first bloodshed of the Revolutionary War; in 1773 Esek Hopkins raided the Nassau Arsenal in the Bahamas and stole the British supplies of gunpowder, muskets, bayonets, and cannon, making our colony one of the strongest armed in America; May 4, 1790 Rhode Island terminated its allegiance to England, 60 days before the Declaration of Independence on July 4th; then, under pressure of military invasion from James Madison, Rhode Island ratified the Constitution of the United States in 1790 by a vote of 34-32, the smallest majority of any colony, and the last to ratify. Rhode Island became a significant contributor to political changes in both the Constitution, and form of US Government. This talk touches on all these Rhode Island firsts and lasts.
The Honorable Bruce Sundlun was Rhode Island's Governor from 1990-1995. He is currently Governor-in-Residence at URI. He has had a distinguished military career, beginning as an Aviation Cadet in the US Army Air Corps during WWII, flying bombers over Germany, and retiring as a Colonel from the US Air Force Reserve in 1980. He also held many civilian executive-level positions in business, and served on numerous governmental advisory commissions and community and philanthropic boards.