The Buckeye State: was first suggested around 1788. The state was full of what we call buckeye trees. Settlers really didn't know what to call the trees, but they came into contact with a lot of them as they cleared the land and built their cabins from its wood.

Actually, the buckeye tree is related to a type of chestnut tree. It bears a nut that is dark shiny brown with a tan circle on one end. Native Americans call the tree "hetuck" which means "eye of a male deer." Settlers agreed with the Native Americans and they called the nut "buck eyes" and the trees became known and buckeye trees. More about how Ohio became known as the Buckeye State

Stars, personalities and people of note for one reason or other, born in Ohio

Besides being the Mother of Presidents, Ohio has also been the Mother of lot of other folks whose names have been put in the history books and the lights of the silver screen.

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OhioTrivia

Ohio has a history full of interesting people, places and firsts that match our natural landscape of rolling hills, rich farmlands, and thick forests.

Ohio has been nicknamed the Mother of Presidents, the Birthplace of Aviation, the Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad, the Buckeye State and the Heart of It All.

As Ohioans, we have a rich heritage that we enjoy sharing with the rest of the country and the world.

The only state without a state flag

Ohio's state flag is really not technically a "flag"— it's a burgee! A burgee is a triangular shaped pennant that is more often associated with maritime flags.

We're not sure that John Eisemann was aware of this or not when he first presented his flag to fly over the Ohio Building pavilion in 1901, but our guess is that he did. Coming from Cleveland and being around Lake Erie, John probably was aware of this distinction, however, the Ohio legislature probably didn't realize the distinction when the adopted his design.

John Eisemann was the architect that designed the Ohio Building for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. His flag was simply an ornamentation to top off his design. The Ohio Legislature liked it, and finally adopted the flag's design as the official Ohio State Flag in 1902. More about the Ohio State Flag>>

Murphy's Law

You've probably heard this law at some time:

"If something can go wrong, it will go wrong"

While the saying can be attested to a team of Air Force engineers conducting tests at what is now Edwards Air Force Base in California, the name Murphy's Law was in reference to Captain Edward A. Murphy Jr. stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton.

Captain Murphy was one of the engineers working on the rocket sled tests being conducted in California. When one of the lab technicians improperly wired a sensor being used in the experiments, Captain Murphy commented:

If there is any way to do it wrong, he will.

Thus was created Murphy's Law.

Thomas Edison born in Milan Ohio, developed not only the first light bulb, but also the phonograph, motion picture camera.

Wilberforce University became the nation's first college owned and operated by African-Americans in 1856.

The Wright Brothers became the first men to fly in a powered airplane that they designed in their bicycle shop in Dayton.

John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth in 1962. His boyhood home is in Cambridge Ohio.

Neil Armstrong was the first person to step foot on the moon in 1969. Neil was from Wapakoneta.

"Ohio, The Heart of it All"

That phrase was created in 1984 by the Ohio Division of Travel and tourism to promote Ohio tourism. The phrase was adopted for several reasons, chief among them was that the geographic shape of the state has a heart shape. Also, because Ohio offers so much to do and see they figured "it" was the heart.

That phrase was replaced in the early 2000s by a new slogan: "Ohio, So Much to Discover."

Professional Football

The American Professional Football Association (direct forerunner of the NFL) was founded in Canton, Ohio on Sept 17, 1920. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is located in Canton.

One of the most visited monuments in Washington DC has its roots in Ohio:

Maya Ying Lin was born in Athens Ohio in 1959 and later attended Ohio University. She won a national design competition for the Vietnam War memorial built in Washington DC in 1982.

Geraldine Mock

What makes Geraldine special, besides being a wife and mother with 3 children, it's not that she was manager of Columbus' Port Columbus, that she was a pilot, and it's not that she once complained to her husband about not having anything interesting to do to occupy her time. What makes Geraldine special is that with only 500 hours of solo flight time under her belt, that she decided to fly around the world solo at the suggestion of her husband.

Geraldine Mock (Jerrie) became the first woman to solo around the world in 1964 flying an old 1953 Cessna 180 that she christened "The Spirit of Columbus". The flight took a total of 30 days and she covered 22,858 miles in 158 actual flying hours.

Jerrie Mock set the record for the first woman to fly solo around the world, she also set some other unofficial records: first woman to fly from the US to Africa via the North Atlantic, first woman to fly across the Pacific in a single engine aircraft, the first woman to fly the Pacific from west to east, and the first woman to fly both the Atlantic and the Pacific

Today her plane is located in in the National Air and Space Museum.

First Gas Station in America

Two Standard Oil men, B.A. Mathews and H.S. Hollingsworth, recognized the opportunity the new horseless carriages meant for the new century. To take advantage of this opportunity, the 2 men created America’s first ever service station in Columbus. More on the first service station>>

Ohio's First Female Governor

Not too many years ago (1998) Ohio had its FIRST WOMAN GOVERNOR. She actually only held office for less than a month, but she was officially the governor of Ohio. Her name: Nancy Putnam Hollister and she was sworn in as our 66th governor on December 31, 1998.

Hollister was governor George Voinovich's Lieutenant Governor. Voinovich's term was almost up and he wanted to be sworn into office as a US Senate so he resigned his governor's office so he could be sworn in on January 1, 1999. Upon Governor Voinovich's resignation, Hollister became Ohio's chief executive. Hollister was the first woman to become governor. Her term was a short one, however, lasting only eleven days from late December 1998 to early January 1999. Bob Taft, whom voters elected in November 1998, took office in January 1999.

Did you know...

Rod Serling, creator of "The Twilight Zone" enrolled at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio after being discharged from the Army in 1946. After graduating from Antioch, Rod and his new wife Carol moved to Cincinnati and got a job with WLW radio.

First Soap Box Derby

In 1933 a Dayton news photographer saw 3 boys racing their handmade, motor-less carts down a brick road. From that chance meeting, the Soap Box Derby got its start.

The photographer, Myron Scott convinced his editor that they should put on a race just for kids. After announcing the upcoming race in the Dayton Daily News, 360 kids showed up with their "soap box" creations (there is no record of anyone actually using a soap box). Forty thousand people came out to watch.

The event gained even more popularity the following year when a Chevrolet dealer sponsored the race. In 1935 the Soap Box Derby was moved to Akron because Akron had more hills!

That event continues today on the same site called Derby Downs.

Randy Custer won the inaugural Soap Box Derby as a 16-year-old Oakwood High School student in 1933 in a car that looked like something out of a science-fiction comic book.

First kindergarten

In 1838 German immigrants living in Columbus Ohio began the first kindergarten in the United States.

Grocery store scanning

The first item ever scanned by a supermarket scanner was a pack of chewing gum. The item scanned was at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy Ohio. The pack of chewing gum is now on display at the Smithsonian Institute. FYI: it was a pack of Wrigley's.

In 1949, Battelle Memorial Institute agreed to help engineer Chester Carlson develop an electrostatic copying process. Battelle joined forces with a small New England company now known as Xerox. In 1959 the first xerographic copy machine came on the market.

In 1910, Columbus became the first city in the United States to collect garbage door to door.

Other trivial facts nobody cares about...

Ohio has some 19,000 miles of highway, 40,948 square miles in area, 44,000 miles of rivers and streams, and the tallest point is Campbell Hill near Bellefontaine at 1,550 feet.

Wineries: Ohio has nearly 100

State Flower: Scarlet Carnation

State Bird: Cardinal

State Tree: Ohio Buckeye Tree

State Wildflower: White Trillium

State Insect: Ladybug

State Animal: White-tailed Deer

State Gemstone: Flint