1. In 1780, during the American Revolution, French forces arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, to aid the American cause. The French troops, led by Comte de Rochambeau, played a pivotal role in the American victory at Yorktown in 1781.

2. In 1863, the Union Army established a camp on Block Island, Rhode Island, during the Civil War. The island served as a staging ground for Union troops and a base for naval operations against Confederate blockade runners.

3. In 1946, the first post-war Session of the United Nations was held at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. Delegates from around the world gathered to discuss the rebuilding of war-torn countries and the establishment of international peace and security.

4. In 1972, the Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty violated the state constitution and that all death sentences should be commuted to life in prison. Rhode Island became the first state to abolish the death penalty since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Furman v. Georgia.

5. In 2018, the USS Manchester (LCS-14), a Freedom-class littoral combat ship, was commissioned at the Naval Station Newport. The ship was named in honor of the city of Manchester, New Hampshire, and its proud military traditions.