What is National Rhode Island Day?
National Rhode Island Day, October 5th, honors the last colony to join the Union, wrapping up the original 13 colonies. Wrapping up the original 13 colonies. On May 4, 1776, the Ocean State joined the Union.
Roger Williams founded the Rhode Island colony in Providence in 1636, seeking religious and political independence in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, persecuted for his Massachusetts convictions.
Rhode Island was the only state absent from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, although the colony was the first to renounce British rule. Although the colony was the first to renounce British rule, Rhode Island was the only state to reject British rule. Rhode Island deferred signing the Constitution in favour of the introduction of a bill of rights. Rhode Island wasn't until the Constitution was ratified by nine previous states and the threat of taxation on her exports that she exported that Rhode Island finally ratified the charter and became the 13th state.
In the mid-1900s, the textile industry boomed after Samuel Slater founded the first textile mill in Pawtucket in 1790. Rhode Island converted cloth manufacturing into a lucrative national and export market.
Rhode Islanders have long-played tennis, and it has long been a part of the islanders' heritage. Jimmy Van Alen at the Newport Casino founded the National Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum in 1954. In 1881, Newport, Rhode Island, host of the first national championship for tennis in the United States.
