Interesting facts about California

• California is the most populous state (36,961,664) in the United States and the third-largest by land area, after Alaska and Texas. 
• California adjoins the Pacific Ocean, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and the Mexican state of Baja California. 
• California's first Spanish mission (San Diego) was not established until 1769.
• California became a U.S. territory in 1847.
• When California gained statehood in 1850, San Jose served as its first capital.
• By 1964, California had surpassed New York to become the most populous state.
• Its five largest cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, and Long Beach.
• Almost 40 percent of California is forested.
• Death Valley, in the southeast, is -86 m (282 ft) below sea level, the lowest point in the nation.
• Mt. Whitney 4,418 m (14,491 ft) is the highest point in the contiguous 48 states.
• California has a varied climate and geography and a multi-cultural population.
• Gray Davis was the first governor of California, and second governor in American history, to be recalled by voters.
• If California were a country, it would rank among the 10 largest economies in the world, with a GDP similar to that of Italy.
• If it were a country, California would be the 59th-largest in the world in area.
• The Central Valley is California's agricultural heartland and grows approximately one-third of the nation's food.

Some facts about Alaska

1. Alaska is the largest state of the United States by area.
2. Juneau is the only capital city in the United States accessible only by boat or plane. It is also the largest U.S. city covering 3,108 square miles. Los Angeles covers only 458.2 square miles.
3. Total Area: 1st among states, 1,717,854 sq km (663,267 sq mi)
4. Approximately half of Alaska's 698,473 residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area
5. Rhode Island could fit into Alaska 425 times.
6. Alaska’s name comes from the Eskimo word Alakshak, meaning great lands or peninsula.
7. As of 2010, Alaska remains the least densely populated state of the U.S
   
   

25 Arizona facts

1. Arizona is a state of the United States of America located in the southwestern region of the United States.
2. Total Area: 6th among states, 295,254 sq km (113,998 sq mi).
3. The capital and largest city is Phoenix.
4. Arizona is roughly the size of Italy.
5. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the eight Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, Scottsdale, Gilbert, Tempe, Peoria, Surprise and then by Yuma in Yuma County.
6. Navajo Community College in Tsaile, was the first college on an Indian reservation.
7. Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912 - the 50th anniversary of Arizona's recognition as a territory of the United States.
8. The original London Bridge was shipped stone-by-stone and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City.
9. Arizona is one of the Four Corners states. It borders New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, touches Colorado, and has a 389-mile (626 km) international border with the states of Sonora and Baja California in Mexico.
10. Arizona has more parks and national monuments than any other state, more mountains than Switzerland, and more golf courses than Scotland.
11. It is the largest landlocked U.S. state by population.
12. Camels were used at one time to transport goods across Arizona.
13. In addition to the Grand Canyon, many other national forests, parks, monuments, and Indian reservations are located in the state.
14. The sun shines in southern Arizona 85% of the time, which is considerably more sunshine than Florida or Hawaii.
15. Despite the state's aridity, 27% of Arizona is forest, a percentage comparable to modern day France or Germany.
16. Arizona has the largest percentage of its land set aside and designated as Indian lands.
17. The saguaro cactus blossom is the official state flower. The white flower blooms on the tips of the saguaro cactus during May and June. The saguaro is the largest American cactus.
18. Historically, Arizona’s strongest economic support came from the Four C’s – cotton, copper, cattle, and citrus. In recent years, a fifth – climate – has been added.
19. Petrified wood is the official state fossil. Most petrified wood comes from the Petrified Forest in northeastern Arizona.
20. The Navajo Reservation, the nation's largest reservation, lies primarily in Arizona and extends into Utah and New Mexico.
21. Turquoise is the official state gemstone. The blue-green stone has a somewhat waxy surface and can be found throughout the state.
22. The world’s largest solar telescope is located at Kitts Peak National Observatory in the city of Sells.
23. The battleship USS Arizona was named in honor of the state. It was commissioned in 1913 and launched in 1915 from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
24. Arizona became the home of the first major irrigation project by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation when former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt dedicated a dam on the Salt River in 1911.
25. In 1876 the Chiricahua Apache chief Geronimo began ten years of raids against white settlements when the U.S. government attempted to move his tribe from their traditional home in Arizona to a reservation in New Mexico.

Twenty Arkansas facts

1. Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States.
2. The capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state.
3. Total Area: 28th among states, 137,732 sq km (53,179 sq mi)
4. The name "Arkansas" derives from the same root as the name for the state of Kansas.
5. Pivot Rock balances on a base 15 times smaller than its top.
6. The name Arkansas comes from an Indian word that means down-stream people.
7. The mockingbird is the official state bird. It was designated in 1929.
   
   

25 Colorado facts

1. Colorado is a state of the United States of America that encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains.
2. Denver is the capital and the most populous city of Colorado.
3. Total Area: 8th among states, 269,618 sq km (104,100 sq mi)
4. With an average elevation of about 2070 m (6800 ft), Colorado is the highest of all the states.
5. Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because it was admitted to the Union as the 38th state in 1876, the centennial year of the United States Declaration of Independence.
6. In 1858 a party of prospectors led by William Green Russell discovered gold in what is now downtown Denver

21 Connecticut facts

1. The State of Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States.
2. Total Area: 48th among states, 14,359 sq km (5,544 sq mi)
3. Southwestern Connecticut is part of the New York metropolitan area; three of Connecticut's eight counties, including most of the state's population, are in the New York City combined statistical area, commonly called the Tri-State Region
4. In 1898 the first car insurance in America is issued at Hartford.
5. Connecticut's center of population is in Cheshire, New Haven County.
6. The New Haven District Telephone Company published the first telephone book ever issued on February 1878, in New Haven.

20 Delaware facts

1. The State of Delaware is located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
2. Total Area: 49th among states, 6,206 sq km (2,396 sq mi).
3. The state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, a British nobleman and Virginia's first colonial governor, after whom (what is now called) Cape Henlopen was originally named.
4. Among Delaware's many historic churches is Old Swedes Church and Hendrickson House Museum, in Wilmington, which has been in use since its completion in 1698.
5. Delaware is located in the northeastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula and is the second smallest state in area (after Rhode Island).
6. Delaware was the first state to ratify the United States constitution. It did so on December 7, 1787.

Twenty facts about Florida

1. Florida is located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north.
2. Total Area: 23rd among states, 155,213 sq km (59,928 sq mi).
3. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States.
4. Inventor Thomas A. Edison maintained a winter home and laboratory in Fort Myers.
5. Much of the land mass of the state is a large peninsula with the Gulf of Mexico to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east
6. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States.
7. It is nicknamed the "Sunshine State" because of its generally warm climate—subtropical in the northern and central regions of the state, with a true tropical climate in the southern portion.
8. Hurricane Andrew, which ripped through southeastern Florida in August 1992, killed 41 people and caused property damages in excess of $20 billion.
9. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the state population was 18,328,340 in 2008, ranking Florida as the fourth most populous state in the U.S.
10. The first U.S. earth satellite, Explorer I, was launched from the U.S. Air Force Missile Test Center at Cape Canaveral in 1958.
11. Tallahassee is the state capital, Jacksonville is the largest city, and the Miami metropolitan area is the largest metropolitan area.
12. Key West has the highest average temperature in the United States.
13. "Florida" is the oldest surviving European place-name in the United States. Juan Ponce de León, a Spanish conquistador, named the region in honor of his discovery of the land on the evening April 2, 1513, six days after Easter and still during Pascua Florida, a Spanish term for the "Flowery Easter" season, and for the land's appearance as a "flowered land."
14. Cape Canaveral is America's launch pad for space flights.
15. The seasons in Florida are determined more by precipitation than by temperature, with the hot, wet springs and summers making up the wet season, and mild to cool, and the relatively dry winters and autumns, making the dry season.
16. Fort Lauderdale is known as the Venice of America because the city has 185 miles of local waterways.
17. Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where the drink was first developed.
18. The Florida Panther is the official state animal. The species is endangered, with only about 50 left in the wild.
19. The crocodile is classified as an endangered species and there are only 400 to 500 remaining in Florida.
20. The world's first scheduled commercial airline flight occurred in Florida on January 1, 1914. The flight occurred between Tampa and St. Petersburg, and traversed Tampa Bay.

26 Georgia Facts

1. Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States.
2. Total Area: 24th among states, 152,750 sq km (58,977 sq mi).
3. Georgia had four previous capital cities: Savannah (1733-1786), Augusta (1786-1795), Louisville (1796-1806), and Milledgeville (1807-1868). Atlanta became the capital in 1868.
4. Most of Georgia's large lakes are artificial bodies of water constructed by utility companies for power generation, or by the United States Army Corps of Engineers for flood control.
5. With an estimated 9,829,211 residents as of July 1, 2009, Georgia is the ninth most populous state.
6. Colonized in 1732 by James Edward Oglethorpe, Georgia was the last of the original thirteen English colonies.
7. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South.

22 facts about Hawaii

1. Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states (August 21, 1959), and is the only state made up entirely of islands.
2. Total Area: 47th among states, 16,729 sq km (6,459 sq mi).
3. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu.
4. Hawaii occupies most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia.
5. During the late 1800s, Hawaii developed an export economy based on sugar and pineapple cultivation, drawing thousands of Asian immigrant workers to the farms.
6. Hawaii’s natural beauty, warm tropical climate, inviting waters and waves, and active volcanoes make it a popular destination for tourists, surfers, biologists, and volcanologists alike.
7. Hawaii's `Iolani Palace is the only royal residence in the United States of America.

Twenty interesting facts about Idaho

1. The state of Idaho is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America.
2. Total Area: 14th among states, 216,456 sq km (83,574 sq mi).
3. The Cataldo mission is the oldest building in the state. 
4. The state's largest city and capital is Boise.
5. The entire town of American Falls was moved in the 1920s when the original American Falls Dam was constructed. 
6. Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890 as the 43rd state. 
7. Seven Devils’ Peaks has Heaven’s Gate Lookout where you can see into four states. 

24 facts about Illinois

1. Illinois, the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation.
2. Total Area: 26th among states, 150,007 sq km (57,918 sq mi).
3. The Port of Chicago connects the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River via the Illinois River.
4. Abraham Lincoln's first public office was as postmaster of New Salem, Illinois.
5. Metropolis the home of Superman really exists in Southern Illinois.
6. Capital: Springfield.
7. Illinois is often viewed as a microcosm of the United States; an Associated Press analysis of 21 demographic factors found Illinois the "most average state", while Peoria has long been a proverbial social and cultural bellwether.

Twenty Indiana Facts

1. The State of Indiana is a U.S. state, the 19th admitted to the Union.
2. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis, the largest of any state capital east of the Mississippi River.
3. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area, and is the smallest state in the continental US west of the Appalachian Mountains.
4. James Dean, a popular movie star of the 1950s was born February 8, 1931, in Marion.
5. It is located in the Great Lakes Region, and with approximately 6.3 million residents, is ranked 16th in population and 17th in population density.
6. In a typical year, almost half of all cropland in Indiana is planted in corn.
7. Indiana has several metropolitan areas with populations greater than 100,000 as well as a number of smaller industrial cities and small towns.

Eighteen facts about Iowa

1. Des Moines is Iowa's capital and largest city.
2. Total Area: 26th among states, 145,754 sq km (56,276 sq mi).
3. Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland."
4. Amana, in east central Iowa, is one of seven small villages established by a German religious sect in the 1850s and early 1860s.
5. The state derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration.
6. In Spillville, near Decorah, is the house where the famous Czech composer Antonín Dvorák lived in the summer of 1893 during his visit to America.
7. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New France.

20 facts about the State of Kansas

1. The State of Kansas is located in the Midwestern United States.
2. In 1990 Kansas wheat farmers produced enough wheat to make 33 billion loaves of bread, or enough to provide each person on earth with 6 loaves. 
3. Residents of Kansas are called "Kansans."
4. At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas. 
5. Historically, the area was home to large numbers of nomadic Native Americans who hunted bison.
6. A grain elevator in Hutchinson is ½ mile long and holds 46 million bushels in its 1,000 bins.
7. When officially opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854, abolitionist Free-Staters from New England and pro-slavery settlers from neighboring Missouri rushed to the territory to determine if Kansas would become a free state or a slave state. 

Seventeen Kentucky facts

1. Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America.
2. The origin of Kentucky's name does not have a consensus. The most likely etymology is that it comes from an Iroquoian word kenhtake meaning "meadow" or "prairie"
3. The Kentucky Derby is the oldest continuously held horse race in the country. It is held at Churchill Downs in Louisville.
4. Kentucky's economic growth during the first half of the 19th century was marked by the development of large-scale commercial agriculture, especially the growing of hemp and tobacco.
5. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth (the others being Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts).
6. The radio was invented by a Kentuckian named Nathan B. Stubblefield of Murray in 1892.
7. Originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 it became the 15th state to join the Union.

Twelve Louisiana facts

1. The state of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America.
2. Total Area: 31st among states, 128,595 sq km (49,651 sq mi).
3. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans.
4. Parts of the Mississippi River delta plain near New Orleans lie below sea level.
5. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties.
6. Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643–1715. When René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane, meaning "Land of Louis".

Twenty facts about Maine

1. The state of Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States.
2. Maine's original capital was Portland, the largest city in Maine, until it was moved to Augusta in 1832 to make it more central within the state.
3. Total Area: 39th among states, 87,389 sq km (33,741 sq mi).
4. Maine is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast.
5. Maine is the only U.S. state to have a name that is one syllable long, and the only state which borders exactly one other state.
6. Maine is the northernmost portion of New England and is the easternmost state in the contiguous United States. It is known for its scenery—its jagged, mostly rocky coastline, its low, rolling mountains, and its heavily forested interior—as well as for its seafood cuisine, especially lobsters and clams.

Fifteen Maryland facts

1. The State of Maryland is an American State located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States.
2. Annapolis, home of the U.S. Naval Academy, has served as the state capital of Maryland since 1694 and is one of the oldest settlements in Maryland.
3. Total Area: 42nd among states, 31,849 sq km (12,297 sq mi).
4. Maryland is comparable in overall area with the European country of Belgium.
5. Baltimore was home to the nation’s first umbrella factory, the first coal-burning steam engine in 1830, and elevated electric railway in 1893. 
6. For 2009, Maryland ranked first—for the third year in a row—as the U.S. state with the highest median income for 2008, with a median income of $70,545.
7. The first dental school in the United States opened at the University of Maryland. 

Massachusetts facts

• The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States.
• Total Area: 45th among states, 23,934 sq km (9,241 sq mi).
• Massachusetts is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean.
• Capital: Boston
• Boston Common became the first public park in 1634.
• Many of Massachusetts's towns were founded by colonists from England in the 1620s and 1630s. 
• Plymouth was the second permanent English settlement in North America.
• Boston Latin School became the first secondary school in 1635.