Unknown America Page 2

  * As a matter of fact Delaware was the first to fly the so called “Betsy Ross” Flag in 1777 (Some historians question whether the first flag was actually sewn by Ross since there were many flag seamstresses during that period. More on this later). Although the US declared its independence from England in 1776, The United States of America, didn't become an official country until the Constitution was ratified 11 years later.

  * When conflict between the north and south broke out, Delaware, which borders the Mason Dixon line that separates the two regions, choose to remain in the Union. This was made pretty clear when the Governor said that his state was the first to join the Union by ratifying the constitution, and would be the last to leave it.

  * Delaware is the only state that does not have a single national park.

  * In 1880, the first beauty contest in the United States was held in Rehoboth Beach. Thomas Edison was one of the judges. The “Miss United States” contest is considered the forerunner of the Miss America pageant.

  Florida

  Weird FL: Florida has the highest rate of public masturbation in the United States. (Not sure how this was determined, not sure we want to know and more disturbing, unclear why anyone would care to want to know).

  * The area code (321) 3… 2… 1… was assigned to Cape Canaveral in Florida to honor the space program. The area code, which is assigned to Brevard County, has been in use since November 1, 1999. It was given to Florida (instead of suburban Chicago) after a petition was started by local a to commemorate the NASA Space Program and it's impact on the County.

  * On April 23, 1982 The Mayor of Key West declared the city would secede from the United States and the Conch Republic was born. Although the event was meant as a tongue-in-cheek protest, it was based on some very real concerns to the locals. The creation of the micro nation was motivated by a US Border Patrol roadblock and checkpoint that inconvenienced residents and tourists. The Republic celebrates its “Independence Day” each year on the anniversary of it's liberation.

  * The first Thanksgiving in the Americas was likely in Florida, not Plymouth Rock. More than a half-century before the Pilgrims broke bread with the Wampanoags, Spanish colonists landed in St. Augustine, feasted with Timucua tribesmen in what some historians have argued was America’s real first Thanksgiving and not the one held 56 years later by the Pilgrims and Wampanoags in Plymouth, Massachusetts. (In all likelihood these type events occurred dozens of times during this period, but are simply lost to history. So Plymouth Rock gets the nod for being the first, however unlikely that was)

  * During their first American tour in 1964, The Beatles refused to perform in Jacksonville until the audience was desegregated. Actually in the 1965 and 66 tours, the Fab Four had a clause placed in their performance contract that they would not play before a segregated crowd.

  Georgia

  Weird GA: Atlanta is the home of Coca Cola. In 1998 a high school student was suspended for wearing a Pepsi shirt on state Coke Day! School officials claim the punishment was because the shirt ruined a picture of students spelling out the word Coke. No word on whether said offended officials preferred new Coke over Coke Classic.

  * The state of Georgia was in constant conflict with the Confederacy during the Civil War. The friction being caused mainly by President Jefferson Davis' desire to use Georgia troops in the general war effort and the desire of Georgia Governor Joe Brown to keep the troops solely for the protection of his own state. The tension between Davis and Brown grew so heated that Brown threatened to secede from the Confederacy. (Could Brown's threat have been the inspiration for the 1974 David Bowie song Rebel Rebel?)

  * Muhammad Ali's first fight after changing his name from Cassius Clay, was fought in Atlanta in 1970 against Jerry Quarry. Ali stung like a bee in the third round.

  * The University of Georgia was the first public university founded in the United States. It received a charter from the state in 1785. Two other schools, William & Mary and the University of North Carolina, also make this claim but by using different criteria. There were other schools operating in the new land prior to UGA but many of those pre-dated the founding on the nation.

  So there is debate whether those pre-US years should be counted. As of now it seems UGA gets the nod.

  * Dahlonega was the site of the first gold rush in the nation during the late 1820s. Until 1861 the town even had a US mint that produced gold coins with the "D" mark. Tourists can still pan for gold in this quaint Southern Town. (If you make the journey dining at the Smith House is a must!)

  * Franklin Roosevelt died in Georgia while posing for a portrait at his Warm Springs retreat. He was posing for the portrait in the living room with his long time mistress, Lucy Mercer nearby. According to FDR biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin, about 1 pm Roosevelt suddenly complained of a terrific pain in the back of his head and collapsed. One of the women summoned a doctor who immediately recognized the symptoms of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. The unfinished portrait can still be seen at the “Little White House” in Warm Springs.

  * Atlanta's Techwood Homes was the first public housing project in the US. It opened in 1935 and it was actually FDR that gave the dedication speech. The project housed only white residents until 1968. (Delano loved him some Georgia).

  * The town of Madison escaped General William Sherman's destructive March to the Sea, but not because he found it “too beautiful to burn” as the myth goes. Sherman decided to spare Madison because a pro-Union senator named Joshua Hill who was also a fellow West Point grad, had a home there.

  Hawaii

  Weird HI: It's illegal to own a Hamster or Hummingbird in Hawaii. Both could have devastating effects on local plants if they escaped.

  * No matter how long you’ve lived in the state, only people with Hawaiian ancestry are called “Hawaiians.” People of non-Hawaiian ancestry, even if they are born in the state, are referred to as “locals.”

  * Hawaii was first settled by Polynesians sailing from other Pacific islands between the years 300 and 600 AD.

  * In 1778 British captain James Cook explored the region and named the islands the Sandwich Islands in honor of the Earl of Sandwich.

  * According to the US Geological Survey - Hawaii is getting bigger. Because of its continuous volcanic eruptions, Hawaii is actually gaining in land area. Eruptions from Mt. Kilauea alone have added hundreds of acres to the Hawaiian coast.

  * In the 1960s, NASA astronauts trained for moon visits by walking on Mauna Loa’s hardened lava fields which are very similar to the surface of the moon.

  * In the early 1800's missionaries were shocked to learn that Hawaiian mothers sometimes practiced infanticide if a baby was deformed or diseased or if there was already too many children for the family to care for. They were also shocked by the extreme displays of grief after the death of a loved one. Sometimes grieving family members would knock out their own teeth or tattoo their tongues.

  * Hawaii is 2,390 miles away from the nearest continent which is of course North America. This makes the 50th state the most isolated population center on earth.

  Idaho

  Weird ID: To announce the arrival of a new year, on New Years Eve Idaho drops a giant spud rather than a ball such as is used in New York City.

  * The capital city of Boise got it name when French-Canadian trappers arrived in the early 19th century and were so relieved to see the forest and river that they exclaimed “Les bois! Les bois!” which translates; “the trees.”

  * In Pocatello it’s against the law to be seen in public without a smile on your face. No it's true. The law was enacted in 1948. So no frowning, grimaces or scowls.

  * Idaho's state seal is the only one in the US designed by a woman. It was in 1890 that Emma Edwards Green submitted the design for the State Seal competition sponsored by the first state Legislature. Green won and was awarded a hundred bucks for her design by Governor N.B. Willey.

  Illinois

  Weird IL: The 4th Illinois Infantry stole the prosthetic leg
of Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna during the Mexican - American War. And to this day the state refuses to return it.

  * Illinois is the birthplace of President Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation into law. And perhaps coincidentally Illinois became the first State to abolish slavery.

  * The first public office that Abraham Lincoln took was as the postmaster of New Salem.

  * Aurora is called the City of Lights because it was the first American city to install electric street lights throughout the entire city.

  * Chicago's nickname, the Windy City, has nothing to do with meteorology. The nickname is attributed to a New York City journalist who was referring to the long-winded politicians campaigning at the World’s Columbian Exhibition of 1893.

  Indiana

  Weird IN: In 1897 the state legislature tried to round the one million digits of pi, an immutable law of mathematics, up from it's 1 million decimal places to simply 3.2.

  * Professional Baseball was born in Indiana – Fort Wayne, to be exact. The very first professional game was played on May 4, 1871. Top Pro players of the era were paid less than $3,000 a year.

  * If it wasn't for Indiana's stone deposits, New York's Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, the Pentagon, the US Treasury, the Lincoln Memorial and many other buildings in Washington DC would never exist, neither would 14 state capitols, at least not in their current form. That's because Indiana is home to a sea of limestone deep below the earth. It happens to have one of the richest deposits of that type of stone found anywhere on the planet.

  * On October 6, 1866, a gang by the name of the Reno Brothers thought it might be a good idea to rob a train. They pulled the heist in Jackson County, making off with a hefty haul of around $13,000. This was the first known train robbery in American history. Oh but it wouldn't be the last.

  Iowa

  Weird IA: The last prisoner to be executed in Iowa requested a single olive for his last meal, He was 27 year old Victor Feguer. Feguer was hanged on March 15, 1963 at Fort Madison. He hoped an olive tree would spring from his body as a sign of peace. Uh, it didn't.

  * A surveying mistake almost caused a war between the states of Iowa and Missouri in the 1830's. Due to a surveyor’s error the boundary line was four miles further north on the east side than the west because the surveyor failed to adjust his compass. A second surveyor was dispatched to re-survey the lines, but this fellows new line was a bit north of the original line, to the tune of about 2,600 acres.

  When a collector from Missouri tried to collect taxes from people that lived in the disputed area, an Iowa sheriff arrested him. The governors of each state then threatened each other with combat, with militias and volunteers called to gather at the border. Before any shots were fired, the federal government stepped in and drew the correct line, literally.

  * When the Civil War broke out, Iowa had only been a state for 15 years and had a population of just 600,000. Though only 76,534 Iowa men served in the Union army - no other state had a higher percentage of its male population serve. Iowa even had a regiment called the Greybeards because the men were all elderly including one octogenarian.

  Kansas

  Weird KS: In 2008 a tornado struck Kansas State University in the city of Manhattan. The twister destroyed only one building; The Wind Erosion lab.

  * After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened the two territories to settlement and allowed the new settlers to decide whether the states would be admitted to the union as free or slave. North and South competed to send the most settlers into the region. This quickly led to violence and the territory became known as “Bleeding Kansas.” The violence was a foretelling of the Civil War that would come just a few short years later.

  * Meade’s Ranch in Osborne County Kansas is the geodetic center of North America. This is the point of reference by which all property lines and boundaries in North America are surveyed.

  Kentucky

  Weird KY: In 1876, over the cloudless sky of Olympia Springs, it mysteriously rained meat. Although many theories would be put forth, one farmer gave what is thought to be the most plausible for the so called “meat shower.” He believed a massive flock of vultures had exploded over the town after gorging themselves on dead horses.

  * Kentucky was originally a part of Virginia, but that arrangement didn’t work out too well for early Kentuckians. Since the interests of Kentucky's residents didn’t always align with those of Virginians. Virginia gave Kentucky permission to break off on its own to become the 15th state and it did so on June 1st 1792.

  * Thomas Edison made the first major public display of his newly created incandescent light bulb at the Louisville Southern Exposition in 1883. Edison lived in Louisville in the mid 1860's and was employed as a Western Union telegraph operator. He was fired after spilling a jar of acid while doing an experiment on company time. (Now don't you feel like an underachiever just cruising social media on company time?)

  Louisiana

  Weird LA: Louisiana is the prison capital of the world. 1 out of every 86 people are in the clink in the bayou state.

  * Louisiana is the only state in the US that is not divided into counties. Rather these geographical territories are called as parishes. This is a nod to the early churches that dotted the landscape while the region was under the rule of France and Spain. (Prisons and Parishes? Something just doesn't seem right about that)

  * In 1861, Louisiana seceded from the union but did not immediately join the Confederate States of America. The state remained independent for two months prior to joining the Confederacy. (Kind of like when you break up with someone and you're just not quite ready to start seeing someone new)

  In 1868 Louisiana would formally rejoin the United States.

  Maine

  Weird ME: Cabot Cove Maine, the setting for the TV program Murder She Wrote, has twice as many murders than Honduras, the murder capital of the world.

  * With a total area of 33,215 square miles, Maine covers nearly as many square miles as the other five New England states combined.

  * In 1641, the city of York became America’s first chartered city. It then became the nation’s first incorporated city in 1642.

  * Maine is the only American state with a one-syllable name.

  Maryland

  Weird MD: If you own a toilet in Maryland, (And heaven help you if you don't) you pay a $60.00 per year tax for flushing it. Known as the “flush tax,” the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fee generates millions of dollars to help maintain the Chesapeake Bay region.

  * On the morning of August 10, 1813 the residents of Saint Michaels, were warned of a British attack and raised lanterns up the masts of ships and to the tops of trees. The height of the lights caused the British to overshoot the town. This was the first known intentional blackout in American history.

  * The Maryland state flag is one of the most distinctive in the nation. It is the only state flag to be based on English heraldry. The black and gold design on the quartered flag is based on the coat of arms of the Calvert family. The Calverts were a family of English nobles. One of the most prominent was George Calvert 1st Baron Baltimore. Baltimore Manor was the name of the estate where the family lived in Ireland before emigrating to the new land.

  * The John Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore employed the first female professor of medicine in 1901. Her name was Florence Rena Sabin a graduate of the class of 1900.

  Massachusetts

  Weird MA: There is a state law that forbids snoring unless all of your doors and windows are locked. Presumably the law was enacted due to the health belief of the day that snoring indicated a possible bad cold. Or it might just be to protect the snorer from the wrath of their spouse.

  * The first public school system was founded in Boston in 1635 and Boston Latin was the first public school in the Colonies. The Mather School in Dorchester was founded in 1639 as the first public elementary school.

  * The first Revolutionary War naval battle was fought in Bu
zzards Bay, near Fairhaven in 1775. That first naval encounter was a victory for the out manned and out gunned Colonists with the sailors capturing two British sloops and their crews.

  * The first flag of the United American Colonies was raised on Prospect Hill in Somerville, in 1776.

  * The first subway system in the United States was built in 1897 in Boston not New York City.

  * When you take a stroll on the Boston Common, you are visiting the nation's very first public park which was established in 1634. The country's first public beach, Revere Beach, is also located in Massachusetts.

  Michigan

  Weird MI: Alcona county Michigan lost 1.25 Million Dollars in 2007 to a Nigerian scam artist who had contacted the county treasurer by email. After Thomas Katona lost about $72,000 of his own money he tapped the county coffers to try again. Needless to say with the same result.

  * Although the Treaty of Paris granted the Northwest territories to the United States in 1783, most of the settlers and Native American Indians living in Detroit preferred the British, who still held control of the region. It wasn’t until a coalition of Indian tribes, known as the Western Confederacy, lost the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1795 that the British finally evacuated and the United States took control.