Providence

From dKosopedia

Category: Rhode Island

Providence - City in Rhode Island

Mayor - David Cicilline

Demographics

Population: 173,618 (2000) Male 47.83% Female 52.17%

White 54.53% Black or African American 14.54% American Indian and Alaska Native 1.14% Asian 6.01% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.16% Some other race 17.55% Two or more races 3.0 % Hispanic or Latino(of any race) 30.03%

History

• The state's first permanent settlement (Providence Plantations) was established at Providence in 1636 by English clergyman Roger Williams and a small band of followers who had left the repressive atmosphere of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to seek freedom of worship.  Canonicus and Miantonomi granted Williams a sizable tract of land for his new village. 
• The First Baptisit Church in America was formed in Providence in 1639.
• Prominent in the Triangle Trade to the state early on forbid the inportation of slaves to Rhode Island.
• (1876) President Rutherford B. Hayes tests the newly invented telephone. A short 8 mile call from Rocky Point to Providence
• Roger Williams National Memorial -- smallest national park/memorial in the country
• George Michael Cohan, 1878–1942, American showman
• Nelson Eddy, 1901 - 1967, actor, singer
• HP Lovecraft, 1890 - 1937, author
• With David Cicilline's election in 2002, Providence became the largest American city to have an openly gay or lesbian mayor. This remained true until 2005, when the San Diego City Council appointed Councilwoman Toni Atkins acting mayor. Providence remains the largest American city to have elected an openly gay man or woman mayor.