OK, it's the off season.

ALABAMA .................. Was the first state to have 9-1-1, started in 1968.

ALASKA ..................... One out of every 64 people has a pilot's license.

ARIZONA ................... Is the only state in the continental U.S. that doesn't follow Daylight Savings Time.

ARKANSAS ................ Has the only active diamond mine in the U.S.

CALIFORNIA .............. Its economy is so large that if it were a country, it would rank seventh in the entire world.

COLORADO ................ In 1976 it became the only state to turn down the Olympics.

CONNECTICUT ........... The Frisbee was invented here at Yale University.

DELAWARE ................. Has more scientists and engineers than any other state.

FLORIDA ..................... At 874.3 square miles, Jacksonville is the U.S.'s largest city.

GEORGIA .................... It was here, in 1886, that pharmacist John
Pemberton made the first vat of Coca-Cola.

HAWAII ....................... Hawaiians live, on average, five years longer than residents of any other state.

IDAHO ........................ TV was invented in Rigby, Idaho, in 1922.

ILLINOIS....................... Has a Governor in jail, one pending jail, & is the most corrupt state in the union!

INDIANA ..................... Home to Santa Claus, Indiana, which gets a half million letters to Santa every year.

IOWA........................... Winnebagos get their name from Winnebago County. Also, it is the only state name
that begins with two vowels.

KANSAS ...................... Liberal, Kansas, has an exact replica of the house in The Wizard of Oz.

KENTUCKY .................. Has more than $6 billion in gold underneath Fort Knox.

LOUISIANA .................. Has parishes instead of counties because they were originally Spanish church units.

MAINE ......................... It's so big, it covers as many square miles as the other five New England states combined.

MARYLAND ................. The Ouija board was created in Baltimore in 1892.

MASSACHUSETTS ....... The Fig Newton is named after Newton, Massachusetts.

MICHIGAN ................... Fremont, home to Gerber, is the baby food capital of the world.

MINNESOTA ................ Bloomington’s Mall of America is so big, that if you spent 10 minutes in each store,
you'd be there nearly four days.

MISSISSIPPI ................. President Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear here ... that's how the teddy bear got its name.

MISSOURI .................... Is the birthplace of the ice cream cone.

MONTANA ................... A sapphire from Montana is in the Crown Jewels of England.

NEBRASKA .................... More triplets are born here than in any other state.

NEW HAMPSHIRE ........ Birthplace of Tupperware, invented in 1938 by Earl Tupper.

NEW JERSEY ................. Has the most shopping malls in one area in the world.

NEW MEXICO ............... Smokey the Bear was rescued from a 1950 forest fire here.

NEW YORK .................... Is home to the nation's oldest cattle ranch, started in 1747 in Montauk.

NORTH CAROLINA ........ Home of the first Krispy Kreme doughnut.

NORTH DAKOTA ........... Rigby, North Dakota, is the exact geographic center of North America.

OHIO ............................. The hot dog was invented here in 1900.

OKLAHOMA .................. The grounds of the state capital are covered by operating oil wells.

OREGON ........................ Has the most ghost towns in the country.

PENNSYLVANIA ............ The smiley : ) was first used in 1980 by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University.

RHODE ISLAND ............. The nation's oldest bar, the White Horse Tavern, opened here in 1673.

SOUTH CAROLINA ......... Sumter County is home to the world's largest gingko farm.

SOUTH DAKOTA ............. Is the only state that's never had an earthquake.

TENNESSEE ..................... Nashville's Grand Ole Opry is the longest running live radio show in the world.

TEXAS ............................... Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. The hamburger was invented in Arlington in 1906.

UTAH ................................ The first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant opened here in 1952.

VERMONT ........................ Montpelier is the only state capital without a McDonald's.

VIRGINIA .......................... Home of the world's largest office building, The Pentagon.

WASHINGTON ................. Seattle has twice as many college graduates as any other state.

WASHINGTON D.C. ......... Is the first planned capital in the world.

WEST VIRGINIA ................ Had the world's first brick paved street, Summers Street, laid in Charleston in 1870.

WISCONSIN ..................... The ice cream sundae was invented here in 1881 to get around Blue Laws prohibiting ice cream from being sold on Sundays.

WYOMING ........................ Was the first state to allow women to vote.

Wouldn't have thought Utah was the home for the first KFC. Thanks for posting that, it's pretty interesting.

(06-13-2011 12:41 PM)tyler90wm Wrote:  Wouldn't have thought Utah was the home for the first KFC. Thanks for posting that, it's pretty interesting.

Must mean the first "franchised" KFC. I've eaten at the supposed first KFC in Corbin, Ky. Maybe it was called something else, though.

(06-13-2011 12:17 PM)MG61 Wrote:  KENTUCKY .................. Has more goats per capita, than anywhere in the United States.

I'm not so sure the goats would agree to this being a 'fun fact'.

(06-13-2011 01:51 PM)Fanof49ASU Wrote:  

(06-13-2011 12:17 PM)MG61 Wrote:  KENTUCKY .................. Has more goats per capita, than anywhere in the United States.

I'm not so sure the goats would agree to this being a 'fun fact'.

Have you seen these when you've been to Diddle Arena (i.e. Murphy Center Norte) :

I haven't had 'the pleasure' of going there.....though, 'Diddle' as a word, just makes me nervous.

Tennessee was origionally part of the colony of North Carolina. We were the western region. Our first governor, John Sevier, was from North Carolina and was a signer of the constitution. He was also kicked out of some office or something in disgrace. The state of "Franklin" (named after Ben Franklin) was briefly formed in East Tennessee and Sevier was the first governor there as well. Our Native American tribes were the Quapaw, Chickasaw, Shawnee, Koasati, Yuchi, and Cherokee.

Iroquois, bred at Nashville's Belle Meade Plantation, was the first American winner of the English Derby in 1881. Such modern thoroughbreds as Secretariat trace their bloodlines to Iroquois.

The largest earthquake in American history, the New Madrid Earthquake occurred in the winter of 1811-12 in northwestern Tennessee. Reelfoot Lake located in Obion and Lake Counties was formed during this earthquake. (I've felt two earhtquakes that I can remember here)

The legendary railroad engineer Casey Jones, who was killed when his train crashed on April 30, 1900, lived in Jackson

Nashville's Grand Ole Opry is the longest continuously running live radio program in the world. It has broadcast every Friday and Saturday night since 1925

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the United States. The park was named for the smoke-like bluish haze that often envelops these fabled mountains

Tennessee was the last state to secede from the Union during the Civil War and the first state to be readmitted after the war

The "Guinness Book of World Records" lists the Lost Sea in Sweetwater as the largest underground lake in the United States.

When Tennessee became a state in 1796, the total population was 77,000.

Tennessee ranks number one among other states in the total number of soldiers who fought in the War Between the States

The name "Tennessee" originated from the old Yuchi Indian word, "Tana-see," meaning "The Meeting Place."

Cumberland University, located in Lebanon, lost a football game to Georgia Tech on October 7, 1916 by a score of 222 to 0. The Georgia Tech coach was George Heisman for whom the Heisman Trophy is named

(06-13-2011 06:43 PM)BlueRaiderFan. Wrote:  The largest earthquake in American history, the New Madrid Earthquake occurred in the winter of 1811-12 in northwestern Tennessee. Reelfoot Lake located in Obion and Lake Counties was formed during this earthquake. (I've felt two earhtquakes that I can remember here)

Reelfoot was formed due to the Mississippi River running 'backwards'....due to the earthquake.

Not certain if that was all there was too it to form the lake but no worries.

(06-13-2011 08:56 PM)BlueRaiderFan. Wrote:  Not certain if that was all there was too it to form the lake but no worries.

Link to a book about the earthquake and general history during that time.

Link

The quake caused church bells to ring in Boston Mass.

In addition to being the first state to have 9-1-1, Alabama was also the first state to make Christmas a holiday.

(06-14-2011 07:36 AM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  In addition to being the first state to have 9-1-1, Alabama was also the first state to make Christmas a holiday.

Alabama needed 9 1 1 the most!

Some Arkansas trivia.

The US Marshall's Museum is moving to Ft. Smith. Over half of all US Marshalls killed in the line of duty were serving out of the Western District of Arkansas which covered the western half of Arkansas and all of Oklahoma and they were the only law enforcement for Oklahoma other than tribal enforcement.

Judge Isaac Parker sentenced more people to death than any other judge in US history but was opposed to the death penalty.

Arkansas is the nation's top producer of rice but also the top producer of bauxite (the ore aluminum comes from), quartz, and silica.

Arkansas is headquarters to Wal-Mart the nation's largest retailer, and Walton heiress Alice Walton is funding the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville which has already amassed one of the most important collections of American art in the country (and Alice has pissed off more than one city by buying top pieces to be moved to Arkansas).

Helena is argued by some to be the birthplace of the blues with the first and greatest blues radio show "King Biscuit Blues Hour" originating there and there are claims that WC Handy composed the St. Louis Blues there or on a steamboat between Memphis and Helena.

The Bowie knife was invented in Washington, Arkansas and early planning for the Texas Revolution took place there.

Texarkana was named that way because it was thought to be the point where Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas all met. Once the borders were surveyed, they discovered they were nearly 30 miles too far north of Louisiana.

Tyson Foods based in Springdale (just a few minutes south of the Wal-Mart HQ) is the largest poultry producer in the country.

Arkansas was the US frontier for some time bordering Indian nations on the west and Mexico in the southwest.

Arkansas is smaller than it is supposed to be. Andrew Jackson accidentally negotiated the western border of Missouri and Arkansas further east than he had intended when the error was to be corrected four years later, the Choctaw refused to move more than 100 paces west of the Belle Pointe garrison creating a bow in the Arkansas/Oklahoma border instead of the border being true north/south as intended.

(06-14-2011 10:53 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  Judge Isaac Parker sentenced more people to death than any other judge in US history but was opposed to the death penalty.

I think you can break his record.

(06-13-2011 01:51 PM)Fanof49ASU Wrote:  

(06-13-2011 12:17 PM)MG61 Wrote:  KENTUCKY .................. Has more goats per capita, than anywhere in the United States.

I'm not so sure the goats would agree to this being a 'fun fact'.

TENNESSEE ..................... First toothbrush invented in Tennessee. This is why it's not called "teethbrush".

Oklahoma has a state economy based entirely on Meth traffic, Copper wiring theft, and personal injury lawsuits. :towel:

(06-14-2011 05:41 PM)Mean Gruene Wrote:  Oklahoma has a state economy based entirely on Meth traffic, Copper wiring theft, and personal injury lawsuits. :towel:

The only reason that Texas doesn't slide off into the Gulf of Mexico is because Oklahoma sucks...

(06-13-2011 12:17 PM)MG61 Wrote:  KENTUCKY .................. Has more than $6 billion in gold underneath Fort Knox.

Ph-shaw! Nothin' but dust and lint balls in there.

(06-13-2011 12:17 PM)MG61 Wrote:  CALIFORNIA ... Its economy is so large that if it were a country, it would rank seventh in the entire world.

I would be curious to see where California's ranking will be in 20 years. A bit lower than 7th, I'd daresay.

Quote:WYOMING ... Was the first state to allow women to vote.

A lot of sparsely-settled western states enacted women's suffrage early-on, for the purpose of increasing the # of registered voters in the state. This was relevant to obtaining statehood.