New Jersey (NJ).

• Region: Atlantic coast
• Population: 9,261,699 (ranked 11th; 2022 estimate)
• Capital: Trenton (pop. 89,661) (2022 estimate)
• Largest city: Newark (pop. 305,344) (2022 estimate)
• Number of counties: 21
• State nickname: Garden State
• State motto: Liberty and Prosperity
• State flag: Buff field with state coat of arms

Admitted to the Union as the third state on December 18, 1787, New Jersey has since earned a reputation as the urban, industrialized passageway between New York City and Philadelphia. Its suburbs are home to many of the workers employed in these two metropolitan areas, contributing to New Jersey’s considerable ethnic diversity as well as its status as the most densely populated state in the country. Occupying a key position in the Northeast Corridor, New Jersey is an important link in the region’s economic and agricultural structure, and very few states match its per capita industrial output. Although many visitors never experience anything beyond the urban sprawl and the smokestacks that line the New Jersey Turnpike, the Garden State’s nickname is well deserved, as New Jersey is home to picturesque highlands and recreation areas in the northwest, the exotic Pine Barrens in the south, and some of the best-loved beaches on the Atlantic Coast.

State Name: After England’s King Charles II gained control of a number of North American possessions from the Dutch in 1664, he granted New Jersey to his brother, James, the Duke of York. The duke in turn made Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret proprietors of the new colony and named the area in honor of Carteret, who had served as governor of the island of Jersey in the English Channel. During the eighteenth century, New Jersey earned the nickname Cockpit of the Revolution, after the dozens of Revolutionary War battles fought on its soil were compared to cockfights. The state’s official nickname, the Garden State, refers to the number of flower gardens, farms, and orchards found throughout the state.

Capital:Trenton, located in the west-central part of the state, has served as the capital of New Jersey since 1790. First settled by Quakers in 1679, the area was named Trent’s Town in 1719, after local merchant and landowner William Trent. Following his famous crossing of the Delaware River, which took place near the area, George Washington won his first decisive Revolutionary War victory at the Battle of Trenton in December 1776. Trenton served as the US capital for two months in 1784 and was chartered as a city in 1792. Although the city was once an important US manufacturing center, Trenton’s population declined steadily throughout the twentieth century, and today the city is the center of operations for the New Jersey state government.

Flag: The New Jersey state flag was adopted in 1896 and features the state coat of arms in the center of a buff-colored field. The coat of arms consists of a shield depicting three plows and a horse’s head, representing agriculture. Two women stand on either side, supporting the shield: they are Liberty and Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, who symbolizes grain and abundance. Emblazoned on a ribbon below the shield is the state motto, “Liberty and Prosperity,” along with the year of independence, 1776.

Official Symbols

• Flower: Violet
• Bird: Eastern goldfinch
• Tree: Red oak
• Animal: Horse
• Fish: Brook trout

State and National Historic Sites

• Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area (Trenton)
• Grover Cleveland State Historic Site (Caldwell)
• Monmouth Battlefield State Park (Manalapan)
• Morristown National Historical Park (Morristown)
• New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail Route (Newport)
• Statue of Liberty National Monument (New York Harbor)
• Paterson Great Falls Historical Park (Paterson)
• Thomas Edison National Historical Park (West Orange)
• Twin Lights State Historic Site (Highlands)
• Walt Whitman House National Historic Site (Camden)

DEMOGRAPHICS

• Population: 9,261,699 (ranked 11th; 2022 estimate)
• Population density: 1,263.0/sq mi (2020)
• Urban population: 93.8% (2020 estimate)
• Rural population: 6.2% (2020 estimate)
• Population under 18: 21.5% (2022 estimate)
• Population over 65: 17.4% (2022 estimate)
• White alone: 70.7% (2022)
• Black or African American alone: 15.4% (2022)
• Hispanic or Latino: 21.9% (2022)
• American Indian and Alaska Native alone: 0.7% (2022)
• Asian alone: 10.5% (2022)
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone: 0.1% (2022)
• Two or More Races: 2.4% (2022)
• Per capita income: $46,691 (ranked 3rd; 2021)
• Unemployment: 3.7% (2021)

American Indians: When European settlers first arrived in what is now New Jersey, there were no more than eight thousand American Indians farming, fishing, and hunting in the area, a relatively small number for the time. They called themselves the Lenni Lenape, meaning genuine people, and spoke a dialect of the Algonquian language group. To the Europeans, they were known as the Delaware Indians, and by the beginning of the eighteenth century, they had been overwhelmed by the influx of foreign settlers, and their numbers diminished rapidly. Although New Jersey does not have any federally recognized tribes, in 2019, the state began officially recognizing three: the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians; the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation; and the Powhatan Renape Indians. The state also recognizes Inter-Tribal People, or those who live in New Jersey but belong to federally or state-recognized tribes in other states.

ENVIRONMENT AND GEOGRAPHY

• Total area: 8,723 sq mi (ranked 47th)
• Land area: 7,354 sq mi (84.3% of total area)
• Water area: 1,368 sq mi (15.7% of total area)
• Shoreline: 1,792 miles
• National parks: 9
• Highest point: High Point, Kittatinny Mountains (1,803 feet)
• Lowest point: Atlantic Ocean (sea level)
• Highest temperature: 110° F (Runyon, July 10, 1936)
• Lowest temperature: -34° F (River Vale, January 5, 1904)

Topography: New Jersey is actually a peninsula, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware River and Hudson River as well as by a small land boundary with New York to the north. The relatively small state contains portions of four distinct physiographic regions: the Appalachian Ridge and Valley, the New England Highlands, the Piedmont Plateau, and the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

The areas of both the Appalachian and New England Highlands that run through New Jersey are extensions of two major North American land formations. The mountains, steep cliffs, and parallel valleys characteristic of these regions dominate the geography of the northern part of the state and were an obstacle to early efforts to develop a transportation network in New Jersey.

The Piedmont, or “foot of the mountains,” accounts for one-fifth of the state’s total area and contains the bulk of the state’s population. The majority of this region consists of sedimentary plateaus and basins, punctuated by the Watchung Mountains and the Palisades, a series of vertical cliffs rising from the west bank of the Hudson River. These cliffs were formed by cooling molten lava at the end of the Triassic Period, a fact that accounts for the numerous discoveries of dinosaur fossils in the area.

The combined inner and outer plains of the Atlantic Coastal region account for more than half the state’s area. In addition to approximately 130 miles of coastline, the region includes the southern New Jersey Pine Barrens, a roughly one-thousand-square-mile flat area containing streams, swamps, and sandy soil. This sparsely populated region is covered with mostly second-growth pine and cedar trees, since the Pine Barrens were largely deforested during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to support the shipbuilding industry. The rest of the coastal plain is dominated by sand, silt, and clay, with more fertile soils generally found in the highland and inland parts of the state.

Major Lakes

• Budd Lake
• Culvers Lake
• Green Pond
• Greenwood Lake
• Lake Hopatcong
• Lake Mohawk
• Swartswood Lake
• Wanaque Reservoir

Major Rivers

• Delaware River
• Great Egg Harbor River
• Hackensack River
• Hudson River
• Maurice River
• Millstone River
• Mullica River
• Passaic River
• Raritan River
• Toms River
• Wallkill River

State and National Parks: There is a great deal of federally protected land in the Garden State, with nine areas managed as national parks, including the Gateway National Recreation Area in Sandy Hook and a portion of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The Pinelands National Reserve was created in order to protect more than 1 million acres of the Pine Barrens’ unique ecology from overdevelopment, and the Barnegat National Wildlife Refuge provides a safe haven for migratory birds and other native seashore wildlife. In addition, there are forty four state parks and forests in New Jersey, offering camping, hiking, boating, and other recreational facilities. The most popular spots among tourists and residents alike include High Point State Park, Stokes State Forest, Island Beach State Park, and Wharton State Forest, which encompasses most of the Pine Barrens.

Natural Resources: Unlike in some other states, industrial production in New Jersey does not rely solely on native natural resources for raw materials. Since the 1960s, conservation efforts have been underway in order to protect the state’s resources from the effects of increasing population, overcrowding, and urban sprawl. There are more Environmental Protection Agency Superfund hazardous waste sites in New Jersey than in any other state in the nation.

Common mineral deposits found in the state include zinc, magnetite iron ore, and limonite, also known as bog ore. Although iron ore was the focus of the state’s mining activity for more than two centuries, it is no longer mined in New Jersey, although a 50-million-ton deposit of magnetite remains buried beneath the highland region.

New Jersey’s most economically viable mineral resources are those used in the construction industry, especially crushed stone, gravel, and sand. For several decades during the latter half of the twentieth century, the state experienced a boom in the construction of homes, offices, and retail spaces that resulted in an increased demand for materials. As of 2020, nearly every county was home to a quarry or sand pit. In addition, New Jersey is the chief state to produce greensand marl, which is used in water filtration and as an organic fertilizer.

Plants and Animals: Approximately 40 percent, or two million acres, of New Jersey is wooded, with the bulk of the heaviest forest cover in the mountain and highland regions. Most of the trees found in the northern part of the state are hardwoods, such as oak, hickory, maple, poplar, beech, and sycamore. To the south, the heavily forested Pine Barrens region is comprised mostly of pine and scrub oak.

There are thousands of different wildflowers found throughout New Jersey, including daisies, honeysuckles, holly, ferns, wild azaleas, mountain laurel, and pink lady’s slippers. More exotic plants, including several types of rare wild orchids, thrive in the Pine Barrens. In addition, the state’s roadsides are home to asters, goldenrod, and Queen Anne’s lace.

White-tailed deer are often spotted throughout the state, while black bears, foxes, bobcats, and coyotes make their home primarily in wooded areas and are seen less frequently. Smaller animals, such as the squirrel, skunk, rabbit, raccoon, and opossum, are common in all parts of the state, having adapted to urban as well as rural environments.

Climate: Like most Mid-Atlantic states, New Jersey has a variable, seasonal climate. Outside of the immediate coastal area, the ocean has little effect on the state’s weather, as the prevailing winds blow west to east from the continental landmass. As would be expected, higher elevations within New Jersey experience colder winters and cooler summers, while the southern plains enjoy mild winters and hot summers. Average July temperatures range from 70 to 76 degrees Fahrenheit, and January temperatures usually average between 26 and 34 degrees Fahrenheit. The state’s record high temperature of 110 degrees was recorded in Runyon on July 10, 1936, while the record low of -34 degrees was recorded on January 5, 1904 in River Vale.

The state averages forty-five inches of combined precipitation from rain, melted snow, and other moisture each year. Rainfall amounts range from approximately forty inches in the southern half of the state to more than fifty inches in the north. Likewise, the south receives an average of thirteen inches of snow each year, while northern areas may receive as many as fifty inches.

EDUCATION AND CULTURE

Major Colleges and Universities

• College of New Jersey (Ewing)
• Drew University (Madison)
• Fairleigh Dickinson University (Teaneck)
• Monmouth University (West Long Branch)
• Montclair State University (Upper Montclair)
• New Jersey City University (Jersey City)
• New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark)
• Princeton University (Princeton)
• Stockton University (Galloway)
• Rider University (Lawrenceville)
• Rowan University (Glassboro)
• Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (New Brunswick, Newark, Camden)
• Seton Hall University (South Orange)
• Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken)
• William Paterson University (Wayne)

Major Museums

• Liberty Science Center (Jersey City)
• Morris Museum (Morristown)
• Museum of American Glass (Millville)
• New Jersey Historical Society Museum (Newark)
• New Jersey State Museum (Trenton)
• Newark Museum (Newark)
• Paterson Museum (Paterson)
• Princeton University Art and Natural History Museums (Princeton)
• Visual Arts Center of New Jersey (Summit)

Major Libraries

• Alexander Library, Rutgers University (New Brunswick)
• Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library, Princeton University (Princeton)
• New Jersey State Library (Trenton)
• Newark Public Library (Newark)
• Robert W. Van Houten Library, NJIT (Newark)
• Robert Wood Johnson Library of the Health Sciences, UMDNJ (New Brunswick)

Media

Newark's Star-Ledger has the largest circulation of any daily paper specific to the state. Other leading dailies include Cherry Hill's Courier-Post, the Press of Atlantic City, Bergen County's Record, and Trenton's Times.

The first-ever radio impulse was transmitted from Princeton in 1840, and the second licensed commercial broadcaster in the United States, WJZ, began operating in Newark in 1921. There are a large number of radio stations broadcasting from New Jersey, as well as a handful of television stations. The state's first television station, WATV, began broadcasting from Newark in 1948, and still operates as New York City's WNET. In 1969, the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority was created to operate an ultrahigh frequency (UHF) public television system.

ECONOMY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

• Gross domestic product (in millions $USD): 745,422.2 (ranked 9th; 2022)
• GDP percent change: 2.6%

Major Industries: New Jersey has a reputation as an industrial state, even though its economy has always been fairly diverse, and the state has boasted success in agriculture, service industries, and manufacturing throughout its history. The service sector is the largest component of New Jersey's economy, as it has benefited from the state's growing population. Leading service industries include the finance, insurance, and real estate sectors, bolstered by northern New Jersey's status as one of the country's leading centers of commercial real estate, and educational services. Business as well as professional services and the wholesale and retail trade, built around the state's many large shopping malls, round out the service sector of New Jersey's economy.

Goods manufactured in New Jersey contribute more than $50 billion to the state's gross domestic product. During the 1920s, New Jersey led the nation in textile production, but by the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century, the focus was on chemical and high-technology manufacturing, with telecommunication equipment, electronic components, and computer software increasing in economic importance. Many leading manufacturers are drawn to New Jersey for its convenient location, access to large pools of skilled labor, and its efficient transportation structure. As a result, the state's manufacturing activities are quite diversified, and include the production of chemicals, plastics, pharmaceuticals, electrical machinery, and food processing.

Compared to other economic activities, New Jersey's fishing fleet is less significant in terms of employment and value. Years of pollution have reduced the fish population off the coast of New Jersey, and resulted in the destruction of many fertile shellfish grounds. Nonetheless, the state's fleet is a leading source of clams, thanks to the unspoiled clam beds between Cape Cod and Barnegat Bay. Other components of the total catch include lobster, sea scallops, crab, swordfish, flounder, mackerel, squid, and whiting.

Tourism: New Jersey's nearly 130-mile-long stretch of Atlantic seaboard is the focal point of the state's tourist activities. The industry accounts for a large portion of the state's jobs. While the bulk of New Jersey's tourist trade revolves around its Atlantic shore resort areas, known as the Jersey Shore, other popular tourist destinations include the Meadowlands Sports Complex, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, portions of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, and the various casinos in Atlantic City.

Energy Production: In 2021, three nuclear power plants and natural gas supplied 90 percent of the New Jersey's utility-scale electricity generation. The state ranked ninth in the nation in generating electricity from solar energy. In the past, hydroelectric power played a major role in the industrial development of New Jersey, particularly in Paterson, where early textile mills were powered by the Great Falls on the nearby Passaic River.

Agriculture:. During the twentieth century, the state's total farm area devoted to farmland decreased by more than half, so that by 2015, there were only about 9,600 farm operations in the state. Between 2015 and 2022, the number of farm operations increased to about 10,000.

New Jersey produces several nationally important crops each year. In 2019, the state was ranked seventh in horticultural sales, with more than half a billion dollars worth of produce. That same year the state was ranked the top producer of eggplants in the nation, second highest producer of spinach, third highest producer of tomatoes, and fourth highest producer of cranberries, asparagus, and bell peppers. Additionally, the state was the fifth highest producer of blueberries and peaches. Cranberries and blueberries are primarily grown in the Pine Barrens region, while peaches are grown in southern New Jersey. Other significant field crops include cucumbers, squash, and corn.

In late 2019, New Jersey became one of the first states in the nation to receive United States Department of Agriculture approval for growing and processing hemp as an agricultural product. By 2020, there were fifty-nine licensed hemp growers and thirteen licensed hemp processors.

A percentage of the state's agricultural income comes from the sale of poultry, eggs, livestock, and dairy products, most of which are produced in the northern part of the state.

Airports: In 1919, the first regular air service began operation, shuttling passengers between New York City and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Newark Liberty International Airport is one of the largest and busiest airports in the United States.

Seaports: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates several major ports throughout New Jersey, including bulk cargo facilities in Elizabeth, Hoboken, and Newark. The Port of Camden handles most of New Jersey’s Delaware River shipping traffic and is one of the busiest shipping ports in the country.

GOVERNMENT

• Governor: Phil Murphy (Democrat)
• Present constitution date: 1947
• Electoral votes: 14
• Number of counties: 21
• Violent crime rate: 195.4 (per 100,000 residents) (2020 estimate)
• Death penalty: No (abolished in 2007)

Constitution: New Jersey’s current constitution was adopted in 1947, replacing the previous state constitution of 1844. Among the changes instituted by the new constitution were expanded powers for the governor and other state executives and a reorganization of the state court system.

New Jersey is unique in designating the governments of its twenty-one counties as “boards of chosen freeholders,” a term that dates back to the colonial period, when only those who owned land could hold political office. Freeholders serve three-year terms.

Branches of Government

Executive: The governor may serve an unlimited number of terms but no more than two terms in succession. The position of lieutenant governor was introduced in 2009. The governor has the power to appoint the remainder of the state’s executive-level officials. These offices include the secretary of state, the state treasurer, the attorney general, and various state commissioners.

Legislative: The New Jersey legislature consists of a forty-member senate and an eighty-member general assembly. State senators are elected to four-year terms, except in the election that occurs after the US census, which is for a two-year term. General assembly members serve two-year terms.

Judicial: The state supreme court consists of a chief justice and six associate justices, all of whom are appointed to seven-year terms by the governor, with the approval of the senate. The state’s main trial court, the superior court, has nearly four hundred judges and three divisions: appellate, chancery, and law.

HISTORY

5000 BCE Early American Indians practice hunting, gathering, and some agriculture in the area known today as New Jersey.

c.1400 The Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians, first arrive in the New Jersey region.

1524 Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano is likely the first European to visit the New Jersey coast.

1609 English mariner Henry Hudson explores the Sandy Hook Bay area, in addition to sailing up the river now named for him.

1614 Dutch explorer Cornelius May sails up the Delaware River. Cape May is later named in his honor.

1655 Fearing competition in the burgeoning fur trade, Dutch settlers force Swedish traders out of southern New Jersey.

1660 Dutch settlers establish the town of Bergen (now Jersey City), the first permanent European settlement in New Jersey.

1664 The Dutch cede their North American possessions, including New Jersey, to England’s Charles II.

1674 Attracted by the guarantee of religious freedom, a group of Quaker investors, headed by Edward Byllynge, purchase Lord John Berkeley’s interest in New Jersey.

1676 The New Jersey colony is divided into East and West Jersey.

1702 The East and West Jersey colonies are reunited, but the royal province remains under the jurisdiction of the governor of New York.

1738 New Jersey becomes a separate province under royal governor Lewis Morris.

1746 Princeton University is chartered as the College of New Jersey. The school’s original site is in Elizabeth.

1750 The Trenton Library Company, the first public library in New Jersey and the second in the United States, is established by Dr. Thomas Cadwalader.

1758 The remnants of the Lenni Lenape in New Jersey are forced onto a reservation at Brotherton, in Burlington County. Today, the town is known as Indian Mills.

1764 Sandy Hook Lighthouse is built. It has operated continuously longer than any other lighthouse in the United States.

1766 Queen’s College, later known as Rutgers University, is chartered.

1774 The Greenwich Tea Burning, a protest against British taxation that was a precursor to the more famous Boston Tea Party, takes place in Greenwich, New Jersey.

1775–78 Many important battles of the American Revolution are fought on New Jersey soil, including major engagements in Trenton (1776), Princeton (1777), and Monmouth (1778).

1776 On July 2, New Jersey adopts its first constitution and declares its independence from England. On Christmas night, George Washington crosses the Delaware River prior to the Battle of Trenton.

1783 Princeton acts as the capital of the United States for four months. The following year, Trenton serves as the capital during November and December.

1787 New Jersey ratifies the US Constitution and becomes the third state on December 18.

1804 US Vice President Aaron Burr kills his political enemy, Alexander Hamilton, in an infamous pistol duel in Weehawken.

1833 New Jersey’s first railroad begins operation between Camden and Amboy.

1845 Charles C. Stratton becomes the first popularly elected governor of New Jersey, in accordance with the new state constitution adopted the previous year.

1858 The first dinosaur skeleton found in North America is unearthed by William Parker Foulke in Haddonfield. The study of the skeleton, dubbed Hadrosaurus foulkii, establishes Dr. Joseph Leidy as “the father of modern paleontology.”

1861–65 During the US Civil War, approximately 88,000 men from New Jersey serve in the Union army. The state is one of only three to vote against President Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 election.

1869 The world’s first intercollegiate football game is held in New Brunswick, between Rutgers and Princeton.

1873 Poet Walt Whitman moves to Camden, New Jersey, where he lives for the remainder of his life.

1877–79 Working from his workshop in Menlo Park, New Jersey (now part of Edison), inventor Thomas Edison patents the phonograph and the incandescent light bulb, among other inventions.

1884 Caldwell native Grover Cleveland is elected the twenty-second president of the United States. He is reelected in 1892.

1889 Elizabeth-based Singer Manufacturing Company begins production of the first electric sewing machine.

1912 Former New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson is elected the twenty-eighth president of the United States. He is reelected in 1916.

1917 During World War I, Hoboken becomes a key port for shipping US troops to Europe. New Jersey industries also provide ships, munitions, and training grounds for the war effort.

1919 The country’s first regular air service begins operation, transporting passengers between New York City and Atlantic City.

1932 In one of the most famous kidnapping cases in US history, aviator Charles Lindbergh’s infant son is abducted and killed in Hunterdon County. Four years later, German immigrant Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the crime, although his guilt is never proven conclusively.

1933 Movie theater owner Richard Hollingshead Jr. opens the first drive-in theater in Camden. He is credited with inventing the drive-in motion picture theater.

1937 The German dirigible Hindenburg bursts into flame while attempting to land in Lakehurst, New Jersey, on May 6. The largest rigid airship ever built, the Hindenburg was the first commercial aircraft to conduct transatlantic flights. Out of the ninety-seven passengers aboard the ship, thirty-six were killed in the explosion.

1939–45 New Jersey manufacturers produce weapons and equipment for the US military during World War II.

1952 The 118-mile New Jersey Turnpike, linking Philadelphia and New York City through the Garden State, opens. A four-mile extension is added during the 1960s.

1955 Construction on the Garden State Parkway, running the length of the New Jersey coastline, is completed.

1961 In an effort to increase the amount of recreational space in New Jersey, the state institutes its Green Acres program, which places hundreds of thousands of acres of open spaces under the control of the state and local governments.

1967Riots erupt in Newark after a Black cab driver is arrested and beaten by police. The National Guard is eventually called in to quell the unrest. After six days of rioting, twenty-six people lie dead and approximately 1,000 are injured. Damage estimates climb toward $15 million in the worst instance of rioting in the city’s history.

1969 A state lottery is approved by popular referendum to provide funding for public schools and other government services.

1976 New Jersey institutes its first state income tax in order to pay for public education, after the state Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that property taxes could be used as the primary funding source for public schools.

1978 The state’s first gambling casino opens in Atlantic City, after voters approve a measure legalizing gambling in order to raise money for social services.

1993 Republican Christine Todd Whitman becomes the first woman elected governor of New Jersey.

1994 Seven-year-old Megan Kanka is murdered near her Mercerville home by convicted sex offender Jesse Timmendequas. The case paves the way for the 1996 federal Megan’s Law, requiring that residents be notified when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood.

1997 The New Jersey Performing Arts Center opens in Newark as part of the city’s attempted redevelopment and economic recovery.

1998 After years of legal wrangling between New Jersey and New York, the US Supreme Court rules that the majority of Ellis Island, a part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, falls within New Jersey’s jurisdiction.

2001 Former governor Christine Todd Whitman is appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by President George W. Bush. She resigns two years later in the midst of criticism of her support for anti-environment legislation.

2002 Newark International Airport is renamed Newark Liberty International Airport after United Airlines Flight 93, which departed from Newark, was hijacked and crashed in Pennsylvania as part of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

2007 Governor Jon Corzine suffers severe injuries in an automobile accident on April 12. New Jersey Senate president Richard Codey steps in as acting governor as Corzine recuperates.

2009 Republican Kim Guadagno is elected first lieutenant governor of New Jersey.

2012Hurricane Sandy causes devastating damage throughout New Jersey, particularly along the shoreline.

2013 A fire sparked by older electrical wires located underneath a store that had been damaged by Hurricane Sandy spreads quickly and devastates at least three blocks of buildings on New Jersey's iconic boardwalk.

2016 New Jersey governor Chris Christie withdraws from the US presidential race after finishing sixth in the Republican primary election in New Hampshire. Christie later endorses Republican Donald Trump, who controversially wins the presidency, and serves on his administration transition team.

2017 Democrat Phil Murphy is elected governor on November 7, succeeding Christie. New Jersey was the seventh state in the nation to place Democrats in control of both its executive and legislative branches after the 2016 presidential election.

2019 Murphy signs into law a bill that enables undocumented immigrants in the state to obtain a driver's license. That same year, a non-binary gender identification option is added to birth certificates and legislation is signed mandating LGBTQ inclusive curriculums in schools.

2022 Jennifer Williams becomes New Jersey's first openly transgender city councilmember.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

William A. “Bud” Abbot, 1896–1974 (Asbury Park) , Comedian.

Count Basie, 1904–84 (Red Bank) , Jazz musician, conductor.

Judy Blume, 1938– (Elizabeth) , Children’s fiction author.

William J. Brennan, 1906–97 (Newark) , United States Supreme Court justice.

Aaron Burr, 1756–1836 (Newark) , Politician, third vice president of the United States.

Grover Cleveland, 1837–1908 (Caldwell) , Twenty-second and twenty-fourth president of the United States.

Lloyd H. Conover, 1923–2017 (Orange) , Inventor of the antibiotic tetracycline.

James Fenimore Cooper, 1789–1851 (Burlington) , Author, The Last of the Mohicans (1826).

Lou Costello, 1908–59 (Paterson) , Comedian.

Stephen Crane, 1871–1900 (Newark) , Author, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) and The Red Badge of Courage (1895).

Allen Ginsberg, 1926–97 (Newark) , Poet, leader of the Beat Movement, author of Howl and Other Poems (1956).

Whitney Houston, 1963–2012 (Newark) , Popular singer.

Joyce Kilmer, 1886–1918 (New Brunswick) , Poet.

Queen Latifah, 1970– (Newark) , Musician and actor.

Jerry Lewis, 1926–2017 (Newark) , Actor, comedian.

Norman Mailer, 1923–2007 (Long Branch) , Author, The Naked and the Dead (1948), Armies of the Night (1968).

Jack Nicholson, 1937– (Neptune City) , Actor, screenwriter, director.

Shaquille O'Neal, 1972– (Newark) , Basketball player.

Dorothy Parker, 1893–1967 (West Bend) , Writer, journalist, intellectual.

Antonin Scalia, 1936–2016 (Trenton) , United States Supreme Court justice.

Norman Schwarzkopf, 1934–2012 (Trenton) , United States general.

Paul Simon, 1942– (Newark) , Popular singer, songwriter.

Frank Sinatra, 1915–98 (Hoboken) , Singer, actor.

Bruce Springsteen, 1949– (Freehold) , Popular musician.

Alfred Stieglitz, 1864–1946 (Hoboken) , Photographer.

Meryl Streep, 1949– (Summit) , Actress.

Ice-T, 1958– (Newark) , Actor; rapper.

Dave Thomas, 1932–2002 (Atlantic City) , Restaurateur, founder of the Wendy’s International restaurant chain.

William Carlos Williams, 1883–1963 (Rutherford) , Poet, physician.

Edmund Wilson, 1895–1972 (Red Bank) , Literary critic, writer.

TRIVIA

• Since 1735, New Jersey residents have reported sightings of the “Jersey Devil,” concentrated around the Pine Barrens area in the southern part of the state. According to legend, the deformed creature was the unwanted thirteenth child of a local woman, and is described as having a horse's head with horns, a reptilian body, wings, hoofs, and a devil's tail.
• In a milestone in the history of radio broadcasting, the first radio impulse was broadcast in Princeton in 1840.
• Another telecommunications first took place in 1877, when the first interstate long-distance telephone call was placed from New Brunswick, New Jersey to New York City. The call was received by Alexander Graham Bell.
• New Jersey is considered the birthplace of saltwater taffy, which was developed in the 1880s in Atlantic City.
• In 2020, New Jersey was reported to be the first state to mandate that climate change be included as part of the curriculum for students from kindergarten through high school.

Bibliography

Bilby, Joseph G., et al. Hidden History of New Jersey. Arcadia, 2011.

"Economic Profile for New Jersey." BearFacts, Bureau of Economic Analysis, US Department of Commerce, 31 Mar. 2023, apps.bea.gov/regional/bearfacts/. Accessed 11 Sept. 2023.

Lurie, Maxine N., and Richard Veit. New Jersey: A History of the Garden State. Rutgers UP, 2012.

Murphy, Philip D., and Douglas H. Fisher. 2022 Annual Report and Agricultural Statistics, New Jersey Department of Agriculture, www.nj.gov/agriculture/pdf/2022AnnualReportFinal.pdf. Accessed 11 Sept. 2023.

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James Ryan