A NEW LAND: Immigrants from Italy arrive in Rhode Island at Fields Point around 1910.

12.19.99

Thank God we're the smallest state.

It was tough enough winnowing the events and people of the Rhode Island Century to just 100. We could easily have written 200, 300, or more, and still have left great stories untold, inspiring events unmentioned.

We opted instead to show the parade of people, the evolution of places, the sweep of events that make Rhode Island such a remarkable place. The characters and the crooks, the visionaries and the leaders, the All-Stars and the average Joes -- the sheer variety of people who meld together to create the texture of today's Rhode Island.

This isn't a best-and-worst list -- the items in each category unfold in mostly chronological order. But it's no mistake that we start with people and end with people, because decade by decade, their efforts and inspirations and talents have transformed this place.

As they will in the 21st century.

A yearlong Providence Journal series about life in Rhode Island.
Produced in cooperation with the Rhode Island Historical Society.