Fun Facts About the Fifty States (And Puerto Rico)

It's a rather damp, dreary day in the East this Veterans' Day, one of those days that seems to be appropriate for turning on your local easy listening radio station and curling up with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate. But since there are no easy listening radio stations left, I prefer to read at night, and I don't feel like having a hot chocolate at this very moment, I thought I'd entertain you all with something I like to call "Fun Facts About the Fifty States" - some trivial yet interesting facts about the fifty entities that make up these United States of America. So here we go:

Vermont, Texas, and Hawaii are the only states that were once independent countries. (Of the three, Hawaii was the only monarchy.) And political extremists on both sides have been suggesting for years, for various reasons, that these states get their independence back.

Alaska and Louisiana are the only states not divided into counties. Alaska used to be divided into districts (since disbanded), and Louisiana is divided into parishes.

Connecticut abolished county government in 1961, but the old county boundaries remain on many maps today.

Ohio is the only state without a square or rectangular flag. (Its state flag is a double-pointed pennant.) 

Hawaii has the only state flag incorporating the British Union Jack (symbolizing Captain Cook's discovery of the islands in 1778).

Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Kentucky are the only states officially constituted as "commonwealths."

Oregon and New Jersey are the only states that forbid self-serve gasoline stations. Similarly, Hawaii and Utah are the only states without lotteries.

Nebraska is the only state with a one-house, or unicameral, legislature.

Four states were created from existing states - Kentucky and West Virginia (from Virginia), Tennessee (from North Carolina), and Maine (from Massachusetts).

Alaska is the only state with no interstate highways. (Hawaii has expressways designated as "interstates" - Routes H1, H2, and H3 - and they're all on Oahu. Don't ask me why.)

Georgia, the largest state east of the Mississippi River, and Texas, the largest of the forty-eight contiguous states, used to be much bigger. Georgia used to include most of Mississippi and Alabama, but this land was taken away by the federal government and subdivided into territories that achieved statehood later. Texas used to include eastern New Mexico, southwestern Kansas, and parts of Colorado and Oklahoma with a panhandle stretching into present-day Wyoming before a federal redrawing of borders and a reorganization of territories in 1850 reduced Texas to its current size.

Rhode Island's official name is The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. It refers to Rhode Island in Narragansett Bay, where Newport is (the island itself was named for the Isle of Rhodes in Greece), and the surrounding mainland and islands under the jurisdiction of Providence, the state capital. (The word "plantations" refers to farms and towns, not large slave-operated complexes.)

If Puerto Rico ever becomes a state, it will be the only state in the Atlantic Time Zone.

Now memorize these facts, then go out and amaze your friends! :-)