About
Delaware
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Capital City: Dover
Economy: Industry, manufacturing, agriculture and tourism.
Population: 753,538
Time Zone: 5 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (-5 GMT).
Daylight Saving Time is observed from the first Sunday in April to the
last Sunday in October.
Entered Union (rank): Dec. 7, 1787 (1)
Present constitution adopted: 1897
Motto: Liberty and independence
State Symbols: colors colonial blue and buff
flower peach blossom (1895)
tree American holly (1939)
bird blue hen chicken (1939)
insect ladybug (1974)
butterfly tiger swallowtail (1999)
fish weakfish, cynoscion regalis (1981)
song “Our Delaware”
beverage milk
fossil belemnite
Nicknames: Diamond State; First State; Small Wonder
Origin of name: From Delaware River and Bay; named in
turn for Sir Thomas West, Baron De La Warr
10 largest cities (2000): Wilmington, 72,664; Dover,
32,135; Newark, 28,547; Milford, 6,732; Seaford, 6,699; Middletown, 6,161;
Elsmere, 5,800; Smyrna, 5,679; New Castle, 4,862; Georgetown, 4,643
Land area: 1,954 sq mi. (5,161 sq km)
Geographic center: In Kent Co., 11 mi. S of Dover
Number of counties: 3
Largest county by population and area: New Castle, 505,829
(2001); Sussex, 938 sq mi.
State forests: 3 (over 15,000 ac.)
State parks: 14
Residents: Delawarean
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Henry Hudson, sailing under the Dutch flag, is credited
with Delaware's discovery in 1609. The following year, Capt. Samuel
Argall of Virginia named Delaware for his colony's governor, Thomas
West, Baron De La Warr. An attempted Dutch settlement failed in 1631.
Swedish colonization began at Fort Christina (now Wilmington) in 1638,
but New Sweden fell to Dutch forces led by New Netherlands' governor
Peter Stuyvesant in 1655.
England took over the area in 1664, and it was transferred
to William Penn as the lower Three Counties in 1682. Semiautonomous
after 1704, Delaware fought as a separate state in the American Revolution
and became the first state to ratify the Constitution in 1787.
During the Civil War, although a slave state, Delaware
did not secede from the Union.
In 1802, Ëleuthère Irénée
du Pont established a gunpowder mill near Wilmington that laid the foundation
for Delaware's huge chemical industry. Delaware's manufactured products
now also include vulcanized fiber, textiles, paper, medical supplies,
metal products, machinery, machine tools, and automobiles.
Delaware also grows a great variety of fruits and
vegetables and is a U.S. pioneer in the food-canning industry. Corn,
soybeans, potatoes, and hay are important crops. Delaware's broiler-chicken
farms supply the big Eastern markets, and fishing and dairy products
are other important industries.
Points of interest include the Fort Christina Monument,
Hagley Museum, Holy Trinity Church (erected in 1698, the oldest Protestant
church in the United States still in use), and Winterthur Museum, in
and near Wilmington; central New Castle, an almost unchanged late 18th-century
capital; and the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
Popular recreation areas include Cape Henlopen,
Delaware Seashore, Trap Pond State Park, and Rehoboth Beach.
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