Danbury
[key], city (2020 pop. 86,518), Fairfield co., SW Conn.; settled 1685,
inc. as a city 1889. Once home to a famous hat industry dating from 1780,
this growing, diverse residential city now makes electronic equipment,
plastics, machinery, and furniture. A colonial military depot, it was
destroyed in Gen. William Tryon's 1777 raid, which led to the death of David
Wooster, who is
buried here. The noted Danbury Hatters' Case (1902) resulted in a U.S.
Supreme Court ruling (1908) prohibiting boycotts by labor unions. In the
city are Western Connecticut State Univ. and a federal prison. Several
18th-century houses are included in the Scott-Fanton Museum, and there are
sites associated with the composer Charles Ives, a native. Danbury's famous state
fair was held for 112 years until 1981; the fairgrounds now house a huge
mall. Candlewood Lake lies to the northeast.
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