Today in 1980 a part of New Jersey tried to strike out on its own and become a separate state.
There were actually two separate parts of New Jersey when it was a British colony, West and East Jersey, though the line where one ended and the other began was hard to pin down.
More recently there have been cultural divides between northern New Jersey, which is connected in many ways to the New York City metro area, and southern New Jersey, which is closer to Philadelphia.
To make this even more complicated, there are people who argue that central New Jersey is its own distinct region and isn’t just part of north or south.
In the 1970s, southern New Jersey officials complained that politicians from northern counties had too much power.
They thought these leaders were making decisions about their region of the state without including them in the conversation.
Like a bill that protected a large stretch of land in southern New Jersey that some leaders in that region wanted to develop.
So there was a movement in southern New Jersey to turn their region into the new state of South Jersey.
They even designed a flag, and on Election Day 1980, they put the idea to voters in six counties.
Five of them voted in favor of leaving New Jersey and forming a new state.
But these were advisory votes only.
Bringing South Jersey to life would have required votes from lawmakers in New Jersey and in Congress, and that was that.
So the club of would-be states that already had Franklin, Absaroka and Westsylvania added South Jersey as its newest member.
This weekend Daylight Saving Time wraps up.
In Ottawa, Ontario, the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill has a giant clock that cannot ever be turned backwards.
So, to maintain the correct time when Daylight Saving Time ends, a worker stops the clock, waits an hour, and then starts it up again.
South Jersey voted to secede from NJ (App.)
The 10 Most Iconic Clock Towers in the World (Architectural Digest)
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