Short answers, pulled from the story.
Trenton became New Jersey's state capital on the 25th of November 1790. Prior to that year, the New Jersey Legislature frequently met in the city, and the New Jersey State House was constructed in 1792, making it the third-oldest state house in the country.
Yes. Trenton served as the capital of the United States from November 1 to the 24th of December 1784, when the Congress of the Confederation met at the French Arms Tavern. New England and northern states preferred Trenton as a permanent capital, but southern states prevailed in choosing a site south of the Mason-Dixon line.
On December 25-26, 1776, George Washington led his army across the icy Delaware River and defeated Hessian troops garrisoned at Trenton. A second engagement, the Battle of the Assunpink Creek, followed on the 2nd of January 1777. The Trenton Battle Monument, a 150-foot granite column designed by John H. Duncan, was built in 1893 to commemorate the victory.
Trenton was a major manufacturing center known for iron, steel, wire rope, rubber, ceramics, and cigars. From the 1850s to the 1950s, the city was known as the "Staffordshire of America" for its ceramics industry. John Roebling's wire rope mill, relocated to Trenton in 1848, produced the suspension cables used in the Brooklyn Bridge.
"Trenton Makes, The World Takes" is a slogan the city adopted in 1917 to represent its leading role in manufacturing rubber, wire rope, ceramics, and cigars. The phrase is displayed on the Lower Free Bridge spanning the Delaware River and remains a symbol of the city's industrial heritage.
The Trenton Riots of 1968 were a major civil disturbance that broke out in the week following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on the 4th of April 1968. More than 200 businesses in Downtown Trenton were ransacked and burned, more than 300 people were arrested, and the city estimated losses at $7 million, though insurance settlements came to $2.5 million.