EACH STATE IS FAMOUS FOR SOMETHING

I recently came across an interesting list.  Every state is famous for something…some big, attention grabbing things and others for more quiet achievements…some praiseworthy and others definitely not.

And some possibly questionable with regard to authenticity.

So here, alphabetically, is that list.  Check out your state and see what achievement put it on the list.

ALABAMA:  was the first state it bring the emergency reporting phone number, 9-1-1, into use in 1968.

ALASKA:  one of every 64 residents has a pilot's license.

ARIZONA:  is the only state of the contiguous 48 states that does not go on Daylight Saving Time, although some of the Native American reservations do.

ARKANSAS:  has the only active diamond mine in the U.S.

CALIFORNIA:  has an economy so large that if it were a country of its own it would rank 8^th in the entire world.

COLORADO:  in 1976 it became the only state to turn down the opportunity to host the Olympics.

CONNECTICUT:  the Frisbee was invented at Yale University.

DELAWARE:  has more scientists and engineers than any other state.

FLORIDA:  Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. in physical area at 874.3 square miles.

GEORGIA:  in 1886, pharmacist John Pemberton made the first vat of Coca Cola.

HAWAII:  Hawaiians live an average of 5 years longer than residents of any other state.

IDAHO:  television was invented in 1922 in Rigby, Idaho.

ILLINOIS:  has a governor in jail, one pending jail, and is considered the most corrupt state in the union!

INDIANA:  home of Santa Clause, Indiana, which receives half a million letters addressed to Santa each year.

IOWA:  is the only state name to begin with 2 vowels, and the Winnebago motor home/RV gets its name from Winnebago County.

KANSAS:  an exact replica of the house in THE WIZARD OF OZ is in Liberal, Kansas.

KENTUCKY:  has more than $6 billion in gold stored at Fort Knox.

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

MAINE:  it covers as many square miles as the other 5 New England states combined.

MARYLAND:  in 1892, the Ouija board was created in Baltimore.

MASSACHUSETTS:  the Fig Newton cookie is named for Newton, MA.

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

MINNESOTA:  the Mall of America in Bloomington is so big that if you spent 10 minutes in each store, you'd be there almost 4 days.

MISSISSIPPI:  President Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear here and 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:  in 1938, Earl Tupper invented Tupperware.

NEW JERSEY:  has the most shopping malls located in one area in the world.

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

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

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 of any state 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 in 1673.

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

SOUTH DAKOTA:  is the only state that has 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 and the hamburger was invented in Arlington in 1906. [Note:  if you've ever watched any of the American Eats and other similar shows on the History Channel and Travel Channel, you've probably noticed that several U.S. cities in different states have claimed credit for the invention of the hamburger.]

UTAH:  the first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant opened here in 1952.

VERMONT:  And speaking of fast food, Montpelier is the only state capital without a McDonald's.

VIRGINIA:  home to 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 (as in the entire city laid out prior to being constructed) in the world.

WEST VIRGINIA:  had the world's first brick paved street, Summers Street, 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 Sunday.  The new breed of the American Water Spaniel was created here and is the state dog.

WYOMING:  was the first state to allow women to vote, as a territory it extended the right to women in 1869, then as a state was the first state constitution to include women's right to vote in 1889.  The U.S. did not allow women's right to vote until many years later when the 19^th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920.