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I’m going to steer clear of the interesting facts that are horrifically obvious or have been done to death in other answers (“Rhode Island is the smallest state,” for example). I’m going for the wack factor here, people. Buckle up.Alabama - full of rocket scientistsHuntsville, Alabama is known as “the rocket capital of the world.” The Marshall Space Flight Center, activated on July 1, 1960, was responsible for the creation of the Jupiter C rocket (which propelled the first U.S. satellite into orbit) and also built the Saturn V rocket (which launched the Apollo 11 spacecraft). Yes, that’s right: Alabama, at one point, was the home of the world’s highest concentration of rocket scientists. And here you thought Alabama was full of nothing but racist hicks, didn’t you?Alaska - a bit warmer than you thoughtThink it doesn’t get that hot in Alaska? A record high of 100 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded at Fort Yukon in 1915. (Just in case you were curious, the record low was -80 degrees Fahrenheit, recorded in 1971 at Prospect Creek Camp.)Arizona - where the fishing’s fineDespite being one of the most notoriously arid and desert-coated states in the country, Arizona has two native species of trout—one of which, the Apache trout, is found only in Arizona. Unsurprisingly, it’s the official state fish.Arkansas - diamonds in the roughArkansas is a girl’s best friend. The largest and most valuable diamonds ever found in the U.S. were discovered in the state, including the 8.52-carat Esperanza gem discovered in 2015 (pictured above; estimated value $1 million). Arkansas is jam-packed with gems, minerals, ores, and semi-precious stones. The Crater of Diamonds State Park in Pike County allows visitors to search for precious and semi-precious stones, including diamonds, quartz, amethyst, agate, jasper, and garnet.California - an agricultural giantBetter known for the Hollywood film industry and Silicon Valley, California’s real economic powerhouse is its agriculture. More turkeys are raised in California than in any other state, so raise a glass to the Golden State next Thanksgiving. California also produces 300,000 tons of grapes (and 17 million gallons of wine) a year, plus 20% of the nation’s milk and simply staggering amounts of fruit, vegetables, beef, and chicken. Almost all of America’s almonds, figs, apricots, kiwi fruit, olives, dates, nectarines, prunes, pistachios, and walnuts are grown in California—and almost 100% of America’s commercially grown artichokes as well. True story: in 1948, a pretty 22-year-old woman named Norma Jean Baker was crowned California’s first “Artichoke Queen” in Castroville, a few miles north of Monterey (a hotbed of artichoke cultivation). She went on to become actress and bombshell Marilyn Monroe.Colorado - pretty far up thereThey don’t call it “mile-high” for nothing. Not only is Colorado’s largest city, Denver, a mile above sea level, but Colorado also has the highest mean altitude of any state in the country. The highest paved road in North America (14,258 feet at its highest point), the highest auto tunnel in the world (11,000 feet), and the highest incorporated city in the United States (Leadville) are all located in Colorado. Seventy-five percent of all United States soil higher than 10,000 feet is in Colorado. And the views in Colorado, unsurprisingly, are breathtaking. The poet Katharine Lee Bates was inspired to write “America the Beautiful” in 1893, after she and some of her coworkers climbed to the 14,000-foot summit of Pike’s Peak (pictured above).Connecticut - birthplace of the hamburgerBeing one of America’s oldest states, Connecticut is a land of firsts. After copper was discovered in Simsbury in 1705, America’s first copper coins were minted in Connecticut in 1737. America’s oldest public library—the Scoville Memorial Library—started up in Salisbury in 1771, after the owner of a local blast furnace solicited contributions from the community and bought 200 books in London to start the collection. America’s first phone book was published in New Haven in 1878 (it only had 50 names in it). The idea for the Polaroid camera was born at a boy’s camp in Connecticut in 1922, with the first camera being sold in 1934. The world’s first practical helicopter, the VS-300, took flight in Stratford in 1939. But those probably aren’t the best and most beloved of Connecticut’s “firsts”—America’s first hamburger was served in New Haven in 1900, at a spot called “Louis’s Lunch.” According to local legend, a customer asked owner Louis Lassen if the “ground steak trimmings” they’d just ordered could be served to go. Lassen slid the ground beef patty between a pair of bread slices, and presto! Burger-ception.Delaware - workin’ on the night shiftReggae legend Bob Marley resided in Delaware from 1965 to 1977, working at the Chrysler plant in Newark and for the Dupont Company, saving up money to move back to Jamaica and start a record company. His song “Night Shift” (one of my favorites by Marley, actually) is rumored to be based on his time there. How apropos that Marley, spokesman for the downtrodden and oppressed, should take up residence in Delaware, a hub of the Underground Railroad. Pennsylvania-born Quaker Thomas Garrett, a close friend and benefactor of Harriet Tubman, was a “stationmaster” for the Underground Railroad in Delaware in the years leading up to the American Civil War. He is thought to have helped over 2,000 escaped slaves reach safety; Garrett’s personal (and very modest) estimate was 2,700. Now that’s workin’ on the night shift.Florida - crocs and gators, gators and crocsEven by American standards, Florida is a weird place. For starters, it’s the only place in the world where both crocodiles and alligators exist side by side (in the Everglades). Another fun Florida fact: Saint Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the continental U.S., having been founded by the Spanish in 1565. (I couldn’t decide which fact was more interesting, so I included them both.)Georgia - Blackbeard’s hideout, maybeNotorious buccaneer Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, terrorized the Caribbean and the southeast coast of British North America in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Legends say he may have had a hideout on Blackbeard Island just off the coast of Georgia, and may even have buried some of his treasure there. Either way, the United States Congress set aside 3,000 acres as the “Blackbeard Island Wilderness Area” in 1975.Hawaii - what isn’t interesting about it?There as many interesting facts about Hawaii as there are grains of sand on its beaches. Let me throw a few at ya:Hawaii is the only U.S. state which grows coffee.There are only 13 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet—five vowels and eight consonants.Waialeale Mountain on the island of Kauai is considered the wettest place on earth, with an average rainfall of 488 inches.The only royal palace in the United States, Iolani Palace, is located on Oahu.The biggest contiguous ranch in the United States is located on the Big Island of Hawai’i—the Parker Ranch, at roughly 480,000 acres.The Big Island is home to the world’s most active volcano—Kilauea.The two tallest mountains in the Pacific (Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa) are also located on the Big Island.Idaho - deep canyons, tall waterfallsThought the deepest canyon in the United States was that big one in Arizona? Nope. Hells Canyon in western Idaho is the deepest river gorge in the country at 7,993 feet—about 1,900 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon. Oh, and Shoshone Falls, also on the Snake River (in Twin Falls), is 212 feet high—45 feet higher than Niagara.Illinois - one of the flattest flats that ever flattened a flatIllinois is the second-flattest of the lower 48 states. (The only flatter state is Florida, with all those low-lying coastal plains.) It lies, on average, 600 feet above sea level, except down near the Mississippi River, where it reaches as low as 279 feet above sea level. The highest point in the whole state, Charles Mound, is a mere 1,235 feet above sea level. That’s less than a thousand feet of elevation change in an area of almost 58,000 square miles. Quite a difference from Colorado, eh?Indiana - the popcorn capital of the worldHawaii grows coffee. Georgia grows the “three P’s”—peaches, peanuts, and pecans. California grows…almost everything. Indiana, however, grows corn. Almost half of the state’s farmland is devoted to growing corn. Not surprising, given that Indiana is the home state of Orville Redenbacher, and produces 20% of the United States’ popcorn. In 2014, Indiana farmers planted 91,000 acres of corn just for popcorn.Iowa - rivers, lakes, and mammoth bonesDespite lying almost smack-dab in the middle of the United States, Iowa is the only state whose eastern and western borders are 100% water. It is bounded to the west by the Missouri River and to the east by the Mississippi. Much like Illinois, Iowa is quite flat—mashed into a pancake by the glaciers that marched across North America during the last Ice Age. The Iowa Great Lakes in Dickinson County were scooped out by these glaciers. Not surprisingly, Iowa is saturated with woolly mammoth bones—the big hairy critters once dominated the region.Kansas - they got a lotta breadIn addition to being the state that’s less flat than Iowa only because it’s got a hill or two, Kansas is America’s breadbasket. Almost literally. In 1990, Kansas wheat farmers produced enough wheat to make 33 billion loaves of bread—enough to give every single human being on Earth six loaves apiece. The Kansan wheat farmers broke their record in 1997, producing enough wheat to make 35.9 billion loaves of bread. Dang, dude. Pass the butter and jam…Kentucky - not just a part of Virginia anymoreBluegrass. The Kentucky Derby. Kentucky Fried Chicken. Mammoth Cave. Fort Knox. The song “Happy Birthday.” Kentucky’s famous for a lot of things, but not many folks know that Kentucky wasn’t even its own state in the beginning. It was originally a county of Virginia. Kentuckians got fed up with having to travel such a long distance to the capital of Richmond, and successfully petitioned to break away and become the 15th state in 1792.Louisiana - where you won’t make the parish lineMaybe this isn’t the most interesting fact about the Bayou State (supposedly it’s where the turducken was invented, popularized by the chef Paul Prudhomme in his New Orleans restaurant K-Paul in the late 1980s). But I’ll throw it out there anyway. Louisiana is the only state in the Union (aside from Alaska) that doesn’t have counties. (Even Hawaii has counties, for Pete’s sake. Alaska has boroughs and census-designated areas.) Louisiana has “parishes” instead.Maine - secluded but beautifulMaine is kind of a lonely place. It’s the only state in the lower 48 that borders just one other state and the only state in the country with a one-syllable name. Mainers speak a completely different language than the rest of the United States. But despite these setbacks, Maine has a lot to offer. Ninety percent of the nation’s toothpick supply is produced in Maine, and they also supply 40% of the nation’s lobster. Jaw-droppingly beautiful Acadia National Park (pictured above, in a photo that won a U.S. Department of the Interior photo contest in 2018) consistently ranks in the top ten most-visited national parks in the country. Oh, and Maine is also home to a rather obscure horror writer named Stephen King.Maryland - home of the U.S. Naval AcademyColorado has the U.S. Air Force Academy, and New York’s got West Point, but Maryland has the U.S. Naval Academy, founded October 10, 1845. (Notable graduates include state governors, ambassadors, cabinet members, Congressmen, Nobel Prize winners, astronauts, and even a U.S. president.) The location of the academy isn’t surprising. Sixteen of Maryland’s 23 counties touch the tidal basin, and Maryland, despite being less than 12,500 miles square, has 4,431 miles of shoreline. Annapolis has been called the sailing capital of the world.Massachusetts - birthplace of basketballAnother New England state with a rich history of “firsts,” Massachusetts can boast of the very first subway system in the United States; the invention of the sport of volleyball (originally called “mintonette”); the namesake of the Fig Newton (Newton, Massachusetts); America’s first planned industrial city (Lowell); America’s first public park (Boston Common, 1634); and the very first game of basketball, played in Springfield in 1891. That may have something to do with why the Basketball Hall of Fame is located in the state.Michigan - land of magicMichigan doesn’t just do cars and rock and roll—the state leads the U.S. in the production of peat, gypsum, and iron ore, and was once home to the world’s largest cement plant, the world’s biggest limestone quarry, and the world’s biggest herd of Holstein cows. But Michigan is known for mass-producing something else, too, something a bit more…whimsical. The city of Colon is the self-proclaimed “Magic Capital of the World.” Every summer the city hosts a four-day magician’s convention, to which amateur and professional magicians flock from across the country. There’s a magic museum, a Magician’s Walk of Fame, and of course, a Magic Capital Cemetery—dozens of famous magicians are buried there. (Or are they?)Minnesota - land o’ lakesJolly Green Giant canned vegetables. Scotch tape. Wheaties. The Bundt pan. Bisquick. Water skiing. The pop-up toaster. Armored cars (and Tonka trucks). The stapler. The Mayo Clinic. Paul Bunyan. The Mall of America—the largest shopping center in America, the size of 78 football fields (9.5 million square feet), with 520 stores, 60 restaurants, and an indoor theme park. Minnesota is famous for a lot of stuff, but it’s most famous for its lakes. Known as “the Land of 10,000 Lakes,” Minnesota actually has 11,842 lakes over ten acres in area. Again—blame those damn glaciers.Mississippi - performing surgical wondersThe first lung transplant and the first heart transplant were both performed in Mississippi, in 1963 and 1964 respectively.Missouri - birthplace of the world's tallest-ever manAside from inventing iced tea and ice cream cones, and falling victim to the deadliest tornado in U.S. history (the Tri-State Tornado of 1925, which claimed 695 lives and destroyed 15,000 homes), Missouri is also the birthplace of the tallest man in modern medical history, Robert Pershing Wadlow (8 feet 11.1 inches tall). EDIT: On another Quoran's suggestion, I've amended my answer to say that Wadlow was born in Missouri. He lived most of his life in Illinois.Montana - where the deer, elk, and antelope outnumber the humansNo two ways about it: this state is just plain wild. I’m gonna pull a Hawaii here and throw some more facts at ya:Largest migratory herd of elk in the country.Largest breeding population of trumpeter swans in the lower 48.Most likely more golden eagles than any other state.Largest nesting population of common loons in the western U.S.A moose population of 8,000—not bad, considering moose were thought to be extinct south of the Canadian border in 1900.Largest grizzly bear population in the lower 48.One average square mile of Montana contains 1.4 elk, 1.4 pronghorn antelope, and 3.3 deer.The Freezeout Lake Wildlife Management Area may contain as many as 300,000 snow geese and 10,000 tundra swans during a typical migration season.Forty-six of Montana’s fifty-six counties are “frontier counties,” with an average population density of less than six people per square mile.Nebraska - drinkin’ the Kool-AidConnecticut’s got hamburgers, New York has French fries, Missouri has ice cream cones, and Florida has Gatorade…but Nebraska is the birthplace of Kool-Aid. Back in the 1920s, Edwin Perkins of Hastings invented a sweet punch he called “Fruit Smack.” But he needed a way to cut production costs. In 1927, he hit upon the idea of selling it as a powder (in his mother’s kitchen, no less) and the rest is history.Nevada - the last bastion of the world’s oldest professionLet’s skip the obvious stuff—casinos, the mob, nuclear testing, Hoover Dam. Let’s get sexy. Nevada is the only state in the Union where some forms of prostitution are still legal. Prostitution is legal in every county in Nevada except Clark County, wherein lies Las Vegas. (Sorry, tourists.) Even so, it is illegal for “freelance” prostitutes to ply their trade—prostitution is illegal except for that practiced in the state’s 21 licensed brothels, such as the famous Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Mound House.New Hampshire - pretty dang windy, as it turns outThought Chicago was the Windy City? Think again. The winds and weather around Mount Washington, New Hampshire are notoriously wacky and unpredictable. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934, the Mount Washington Observatory recorded a wind speed of 231 miles per hour—three times faster than a Category 1 hurricane. (Two other quick New Hampshire facts—the state declared its independence from Britain six months before the Declaration of Independence was signed—way to go, guys. The state’s motto, unsurprisingly, is “Live Free or Die.”)New Jersey - a seething mass of humanityNew Jersey is pretty much the polar opposite of Montana. Every single one of the state’s 21 counties contains, in whole or in part, a metropolitan area. Ninety percent of the state’s population lives in one of those metropolitan areas. The state has the highest population density of any U.S. state—over a thousand people per square mile, which is 13 times the national average. New Jersey—thanks to its proximity to New York, probably—also has the densest and most tangled network of railroads and highways in the country. And yes, Jersey Shore fans—NJ has no fewer than 50 seaside resort towns and cities, which get horrifically busy during the season.New Mexico - high and dryDenver may be the “Mile-High City” (a mile, for non-Americans reading this answer, is 5,280 feet, and Denver’s elevation ranges between 5,130 and 5,690 feet). But Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, sits at a staggering 7,000 feet. The state is not only high, but also dry—I read somewhere that New Mexico is so arid that 75% of its roads have been left unpaved. They never wash out.New York - always on the verge of a catastrophic subway floodThe trouble with really old cities it’s that it’s pretty dang difficult to modernize them. In New York City’s case, the subway system had to be built below the sewers and storm drains. Over 750 pumps prevent 1.3 million gallons of water from flooding the New York subway system every. Single. Day. I remember reading Alan Weisman’s amazing book The World Without Us, in which he said that the first thing that would happen if humanity suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth is that the New York City subways would flood, and the streets would collapse.North Carolina - flying, jazz, golf, and missing colonistsWhat do aviation, Andrew Jackson, John Coltrane, Nina Simone, and Thelonious Monk all have in common? They were all born in North Carolina. Oh yeah, and it’s also where Babe Ruth hit his first home run, where Arnold Palmer honed his swing (at Wake Forest University), and where the first English colony in North America was established (at Roanoke Island). Yeah, that colony. The one that mysteriously vanished. Oh yeah, and the state’s motto is “Esse quam videri” (“To be, rather than to seem”). How cool is that?North Dakota - protecting “mom and pop shops”Aside from being home to the geographical center of North America (located in Rugby), North Dakota has also become a symbol of the fight against Big Pharma. By North Dakota law, pharmacies must be owned by local pharmacists. You can scour North Dakota from one end to the other and you’d be hard-pressed to find a Rite-Aid or a Walgreens. The law is intended to protect small business owners from being squeezed out by big chains.Ohio - infrastructure galoreYou might say Ohio had the best interest of its citizens at heart. The city of Cincinnati inaugurated America’s first professional fire department on April 1, 1853. Twelve years later, that same city started up the nation’s first ambulance service. A Dayton shopkeeper invented the cash register in 1879 to keep his customers’ sticky fingers off his profits. The city of Akron was the first to use police cars (or rather, police carriages) in 1899. The city of Cleveland installed the nation’s first traffic light in 1914. Ohio also has a long and loving relationship with rock-’n’-roll and aviation—the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is in Cleveland (and the official state song is “Hang On Sloopy”). Ohio is the birthplace of the Wright Brothers and also Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.Oklahoma - birthplace of the electric guitarWhen you think of the phrase “coolest state in America,” Oklahoma probably doesn’t spring to mind. But did you know that that’s where the electric guitar was invented? By a fellow called Bob Dunn in 1934? Didn’t think so. I don’t think even he knew what he was kicking off. Fun fact: the invention of the electric guitar predates the invention of the parking meter (also invented and implemented in Oklahoma) by a year.Oregon - home of the world’s largest (and most terrifying) organismI could say a lot of things about Oregon—the beautiful coastline, the dormant volcanoes, that really deep lake, the wines, the full-service gas stations—but what I really ought to say is that this state is home to the largest organism on earth. It’s a fungus 2.4 miles wide. It’s called a “honey fungus”—an innocuous and dangerously misleading name, in my opinion—and it’s spread itself out over Oregon’s Blue Mountains. I’m sorry, I don’t trust any living thing more than a mile wide. Kill it with fire.Pennsylvania - home of “The Raven” (yes, that raven)Yet another of those old northeastern states rich in history and “firsts,” Pennsylvania is the home of Hershey’s chocolate; the first daily newspaper (1784); the first zoo (1859); the first baseball stadium (1909); the first automobile service station (1913); and the first computer (1946). But Pennsylvania’s claim to fame may be even more profound than that. If you go to the rare book department of the Free Library of Philadelphia, you’ll see a taxidermied raven. It was once the pet of Charles Dickens. But the stuffed bird most famously inspired a certain melancholy Baltimore poet named Edgar Allan Poe to write a poem called “The Raven.” EDIT: This answer previously said that Pennsylvania was part of New England. I've corrected that error on the suggestion of another Quoran.Rhode Island - founded by a true AmericanYes, Rhode Island is the smallest state—let’s get that out of the way. But it’s so much more than that. The colony of Rhode Island was founded by a man who just might have been the most moral American who ever lived. His name was Roger Williams. He was a Puritan minister, author, and theologian who pretty much laid the foundation for the Bill of Rights. Williams was a staunch advocate for religious freedom, firmly supported the separation of church and state, and wanted the colonies to deal fairly with the Native Americans. He was also one of the first abolitionists, way before it was cool. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both acknowledged Williams as a major influence on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. After being excommunicated by the Puritan leadership for espousing “new and radical ideas,” Williams founded the Providence Plantations in 1636, offering what he called “liberty of conscience.” If that’s not American, I don’t know what is.South Carolina - shakin’ and quakin’California by no means has a monopoly on earthquakes. On August 31, 1886, an earthquake believed to have registered 7.6 on the Richter scale rocked the city of Charleston, killing over a hundred people, leveling the city, and causing $5.5 million in damages—about $136 million in today’s currency.South Dakota - dyin’ place of a Western legendAmong its many claims to fame—the location of Mount Rushmore, birthplace of Tom Brokaw, homeland of the Sioux nation—South Dakota is also famous for being the place where the legendary gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok met his end. ’Twas in Deadwood, in 1876, when jealous gambler Jack McCall shot Hickok in the back of the head at point-blank range while Hickok was playing poker. In Hickok’s hand were aces and eights—known forever after as “the dead man’s hand.” Though Hickok’s star had faded over the years, his folk hero status was such that Jack McCall’s trial was swift and merciless. In 1877, he was convicted of murder, hanged, and buried in an unmarked grave in Yankton.Tennessee - home of the braveTennessee’s history is a martial one. Tennessee earned its nickname (“the Volunteer State”) due to the valor exhibited by Tennessean volunteers who fought under Andrew Jackson during the Battle of New Orleans at the close of the War of 1812. Davy Crockett, the famous American frontiersman, soldier, folk hero, and politician, was born in Tennessee and went on to die a glorious death at the Alamo in 1836 during the Texas Revolution. Tennesee sent more soldiers to fight in the American Civil War than any other state—120,000 to the Confederacy and 31,000 to the Union. Alvin C. York, born in Pall Mall, became one of the most decorated soldiers of World War I. More than 3,600 Tennessee National Guardsmen participated in Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield. Aside from its indisputable martial prowess, Tennessee is also famous for whiskey (Jack Daniels, anyone?) and music—it’s the birthplace of country music (and Dolly Parton), the location of Elvis Presley’s home of Graceland, and the home of the Grand Ole Opry, the longest-running live radio program in the world. It’s been going nonstop since 1925.Texas - a pretty damn big placeI’m afraid I’m going to have to go with the most obvious interesting fact about Texas, guys. Texas is big. Like, mega-big. The state’s King Ranch is larger than the state of Rhode Island. The city of El Paso is closer to Needles, California (two states away) than it is to Dallas. The state is home to the country’s largest population of whitetail deer and is estimated to be home to 16 million head of cattle. Texas makes up 7.4% of the United States’ total area all by itself. Texas’s largest county (Brewster) is 6,208 square miles—larger than the state of Connecticut (and the nation of Montenegro). Texas itself is 268,597 square miles, which would make it the 40th largest country if it was a country by itself—slightly larger than Burma, and slightly smaller than Morocco.Utah - addicted to gelatinThe state seems to be a little bit obsessed with Jell-O. Salt Lake City has the highest per-capita consumption of the gelatinous stuff in the entire world.Vermont - milk and maple syrupVermont seems to be a bit…removed from the rest of American culture. A mere 22% of Vermonters attend church regularly. The state capital, Montpelier, doesn’t have a McDonalds. Like, anywhere. And until 1996, there were no Walmarts in the state either. (Vermont, much like North Dakota, tends to favor local businesses over nationwide chains.) Vermont has the highest proportion of dairy cows to people—its 1,000 dairy farms and 135,000 cows produce 2.3 billion pounds of milk per annum. Vermont also produces more maple syrup than any other state. (And they’re pretty snobby about it, too.)Virginia - steeped in historyNo discussion of American history is complete without Virginia. It was the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America (Jamestown—sorry you disappeared there, Roanoke). It was the location of the first Thanksgiving. The birthplace of eight U.S. presidents (and six president’s wives). The site of the British surrender during the Revolutionary War (Yorktown). The location of numerous battles of the American Civil War, and the location of the Confederate capital (Richmond). The home base of the U.S. Navy’s Atlantic fleet (Norfolk). Rumor has it that 50% of the people in the United States live within a 500-mile radius of Richmond, Virginia…in which case the Old Dominion would be the “center” of the United States, even more so than Rugby, North Dakota.Washington - home of the world’s biggest buildingWhile Washington State is famous for a number of things—being the only state named after a U.S. president, growing fantastic apples, having more glaciers than the other lower 48 states combined, being the birthplace of both Jimi Hendrix and Bing Crosby—Washington is probably best known for being the headquarters of some of America’s wealthiest and most well-known corporations, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Boeing. It’s also home to the largest building in the world—the Boeing assembly plant in Everett, which is a staggering 4,280,000 square feet in area and 472 million cubic feet in volume.West Virginia - birthplace of the ballsiest test pilot in historyYet another piece of the state of Virginia that broke away, West Virginia split away from its mother state in 1861, after Virginia voted to secede from the Union. Only 17 of the 49 delegates from the northwestern corner of the state were in favor of secession, so a convention was held in Wheeling and the notion of becoming an independent state was floated. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation formally admitting West Virginia to the Union, making WV the only state to be admitted to the Union via presidential proclamation. The state is probably most famous for two things: producing 15% of America’s coal and producing Chuck Yeager, the heroic WWII triple ace and test pilot who broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 in 1947.Wisconsin - milk, cheese, cranberries, and…ginseng?Wisconsin sees Vermont’s 1,000 dairy farms and raises ’em 9,920. Wisconsin’s cows produce 25.4% of the country’s cheese and 13.5% of its milk. Wisconsin’s abundance of arable land allows it to grow 60% of the nation’s cranberries and 97% of its ginseng. Wisconsin also grows plenty of green peas, snap peas, carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, cherries, apples, and corn. The city of Milwaukee was once home to four of the world’s biggest producers of beer: Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst, and Miller. Only Miller remains, but Wisconsin’s craft brew scene is thriving. Wisconsin is also the birthplace of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, entertainer Chris Farley, actor and producer Orson Welles, author Laura Ingalls Wilder, painter Georgia O’Keeffe, circus impresarios Charles and John Ringling, and pianist Liberace.WyomingUniversal suffrage! Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote, in 1869–51 years before the 19th Amendment was ratified.And there you have it, Quora. Fifty exhaustively researched (heh) facts about the American states. Hope you enjoyed it. My information may be out of date, so please suggest any corrections in the comments section. And thanks for reading.

This answer may contain sensitive images. Click on an image to unblur it.My answer is going to be vastly different than everyone else’s seems to be, because they all seem to focus on self defense and risk. And to be honest, I don’t really get behind the ‘home defense’ line of reasoning. It’s been pretty much proven that drawing a gun on a home invader leads to more issues than it solves, and that there are other methods a person could/should use with an intruder before drawing a weapon. Of course there are exceptions to every rule, and of course it’s a person’s right to choose whether to draw or not, and when, but I personally don’t ascribe to the reasoning in most cases.Why do I own a gun?Many reasons.Yes, they are weapons of war. They are also tools used by hunters and the like to provide themselves with a means to survive, either by self sustenance or selling the meat, etc. from their kills, or just recreational hunters too.The objective fact is they are also marvels of engineering. Seriously. Look at the internal mechanisms of an AR-15 in action:It’s also a SUPER fun hobby. I go target shooting. This is what I bought:And this is after a ton of work I did to it that cost about $700 USD:If I wanted, I could also turn it into something like:Or even:That’s the Chinese variant of a Russian SKS in the first two pics, a battle rifle that started to be produced in the late 1940’s and is still in use in places today, because like an AK, you can throw it in mud, snow, dirt, water, beat the crap out of it, and it will still fire reliably. It was made with the idea in mind that an uneducated Russian peasant conscripted into the military would be able to use and maintain the weapon with little to no training, in less than ideal conditions.Which is part of why I bought it; it being my first firearm, I wanted something to ease into the hobby with, and getting the Chinese variant also helped with cost. Then I found out I could do what I did to it, and used that as a self-education process to learn more. I’m also a military history/tech buff, so this being a bit of a historical piece (it’s milsurp, or ‘military surplus’, from the ‘50s, meaning it was issued to a soldier, and mine was actually used in battle. So, you know, cool. I have a piece of history in my house.) Guns, especially the more modern guns, are highly modular and customizable (which is why I posted all those pics, to prove the point). Who doesn’t want something they can make completely unique to themselves? We’re all about individuality these days, this fits *right* in with that mentality, and now I can swap between a classic historical general-use rifle, or a modernized dual-purpose (close[r] range and long[er] range) rifle.So as I said, I use this for target shooting, which is wicked fun, and requires a certain amount of knowledge and skill to be good at, especially at the distances I shoot at. It allows me to bond with others over the hobby. I’ve had a number of truly AWESOME days with awesome people, spending 6–8 hours at the shooting range, having fun, and like I said, *bonding*. Which coming from a history where I’ve been very isolated with few/no friends, is incredibly important to me. It’s an evolution of the old archery contests. You know. Like these:It’s a skill. One that takes a lot of practice to develop. One that I am *insanely* proud to have, considering my low self esteem (and learning how the gun works and all the parts fit together is also a skill. So. You know. Self improvement and all. Yay!) Never mind that I’d rather be knowledgeable and skilled about a thing that could potentially hurt someone else, or myself, if mishandled, than ignorant about it, and owning a firearm is the best way to gain that experience.Bows and arrows were weapons of war, too. And yet no one raised a fuss about them. Nor did they raise a fuss about wearing a sword openly. Because everyone realized the sword/bow and arrow didn’t kill another person, a PERSON killed another person. We kept that rationality up until at least the mid to late 1800s, if not longer, cuz most people forget this, TONS of people carried flintlock pistols around openly, and no one gave a SINGLE SOLITARY FUCK, and modern firearm laws are a relatively recent thing (Gun Control Act of ‘68, anyone?). I wish I could find the link again, it’s been years since I read the article, but there’s even a university over in Europe, in the British Isles IIRC, that (at least as of a few years ago when I read the article) that allows (and I believe even expects?) students to wear a sword openly on campus. And not some dull-bladed, ceremonial thing either; no, they’re allowed to carry fully-edged and sharpened, lethal blades that are a few feet long. FUCK I’d love to go there. Swords are stylish, yo.Now, I’m not saying everyone should be able to just carry around a Desert Eagle or AK-47 willy nilly, what with the advancement of technology, I realize we need the laws we have in place. We just need to stop being so terrified of what is no more than a tool. A wrench, or a nail gun, or ANYTHING ON EARTH, if used properly, can be used to kill someone, but you don’t see people freaking out over hardware stores selling these things, or banning them when someone goes full psycho with said nail gun cuz their neighbor left dog crap on Person A’s lawn one too many times.I also own a gun, because I can. I have that right guaranteed by the US Constitution, and that privilege guaranteed because I can pass background checks, am not a violent psycho, and because I was taught proper safety and make DAMN sure I only associate with like minded individuals, who handle their weapons safely. (And, news flash, anyone who got their gun legally is going to be of that mindset. We value this right too much to fuck it up for everyone else, unlike the shooters you see on the news.) The US is one of roughly a dozen or so countries out of the one hundred and ninety six in the WORLD that allow gun ownership and also aren’t *incredibly* strict with their laws (for example, some nations allow civilian ownership, but only for the aforementioned ‘livelihood’ reasons, not for recreation, and even then, there’s a whole stringent process where you need to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt you are a hunter and you need a rifle in order to make a living.) So you can be DAMN sure if I have the option to own and use a firearm recreationally where I live, I’m gonna make good on it.Now that’s not to say I don’t think we need to tweak the laws here, either. But I also recognize that I’m not knowledgeable enough about all the statistics and data and minutiae of current laws to even form an opinion on how it can be changed for the better.THAT’S why I own a gun, and frankly, everyone who is saying ‘GUNS R BAD, MMKAY’ needs to grow a goddamn brain and start blaming what’s *actually* responsible for violence: people who fell through the cracks of the mental health system, and people intent on being violent criminals. Cuz sorry to say, guys, if a person is intent on violent crime, they’re gonna find a way to be violent whether guns are legal or not.Period.PS: By the by, this answer is written by a person who grew up absolutely fucking terrified of firearms, to the point when I found an unfinsished 19th century cap and ball revolver kit (unfinished meaning it would NEVER fire until it was finished, physically impossible to do so) in the basement as a 10 year old, I slammed that box back into it’s spot, ran the hell away, and never looked back. What got me to change? Meeting the father of a now-ex-girlfriend who was very pro gun, did things right, and educated me on the subject, as well as made it beyond obvious he had safety in mind above all else. There’s a rather short and funny story he had that I can share (and now use myself to educate extremely anti gun people) if readers want me to tell it enough, and that story is actually a large part of what got me to trust him enough to allow him to teach me.*Edited a few hours after original post for readability and a few extra thoughts that occurred.

Now, I’ma start by saying I’ve always been told by others I come across as a very self aware, intelligent, thoughtful and introspective person, someone who would always do right by you so long as you didn’t give me reason not to, with a reputation for honesty rivaling Applejack’s (sorry, showing my MLP pride, here :P). In other words, an all around decent person.But there’s 3 things that, due to where and how I was raised, I’ve changed my opinion on drastically, and am now proud that I think this way, and am ashamed I ever held a different opinion:Marijuana. I grew up in a classic small New England Colonial town. Lotta woods, a town center with the post office and small grocery store, barber’s, etc, and one elementary, middle, and high school each. Very un-diverse. I was always the ‘goody two shoes’ kid, even if I was also very very quiet and shy. And when it came to booze and drugs, I was 100% NOPE. Why would anyone ever want to intoxicate themselves and impair their brain function, your brain is the most important thing you have, I would think. I was actually VERY militant in my anti-booze and drug stances. I’m still pretty damn anti booze, but slightly less so these days. And as far as hard drugs, I’m still 100% against. But weed? We need to legalize that shit NOW. What changed me? Moving to the 7th highest consumer of weed in the nation, allowing me to meet more people who actually partook, and going through a REALLY bad break up. I’ve always suffered from mental health problems, and this particular ex was one I wound up with after a very abusive marriage, and was my first REAL relationship, and the day she broke up with me was the same day I’d affirmed to myself I’d wanted to marry her. I was also very close to her family; her dad was the dad I always wanted and never had in my own. So when I met someone from my town a few months later through a dating site, and she invited me over for a movie, she suddenly broke out her pipe and a bag, and asked if I wanted to partake. I declined at first, because I still hadn’t shaken off the last of my prejudice, despite by this time being more open to it, just not for myself. But as the night wore on, and this girl was puffing a few feet away from me, I thought to myself: You know…they’re legalizing it for medical uses. That means there’s SOMETHING legit about it. And you’ve done some research now, it’s really NOT that bad for you…and gods DAMMIT do you need a pick me up like WHOAH. ……. …………… ….know what? FUCKIT. “Pass the pipe and tell me how to do this”, I said. She showed me, and I took my first puff, and holy FUCK did the world get so much better instantly. I wouldn’t say I was fine, but the crushing depression that had put me in the ER and psych ward was briefly lifted, I could just sit and enjoy the night and not dwell on my misery. That was 6 years ago. I now smoke marijuana regularly for my mental health, as well as my horrible natural circadian rhythm, and my dietary issues. However I do think the age limit to legally buy weed should be around 23, since while it doesn’t kill brain cells outright, it does inhibit growth of new ones. Since your brain stops growing around age 23–25, that should be when you can legally buy and smoke it, to avoid turning yourself into the stereotypical stoner (which do definitely exist, I admit, but because, generally, they started at age 13).LGBTQ and Kink Now, I’ve never EVER looked at the LGBTQ and Kink communities and thought they need to be exiled, put to death, ‘fixed’, were evil, sick, or anything remotely close to those. However, as I said, I grew up in an undiverse town, under a father who while not OVERLY religious, definitely believed, and as such viewed LGBTQ with a ‘It’s wrong, but they can do what they want….WAAAAYYYY over there’ manner. Me, I was more ‘It’s not wrong, and I fully support their quest for equal rights but I don’t get it and it kinda weirds me out, please don’t try and hug me if you’re LGBTQ.’ Also didn’t help the ONLY openly gay kid in my school was this utter shit-twat special snowflake over the top ‘HAAAAAIIIIIIIIIII’ type goth-emo kid. And I was sometimes accused of hating the little fucker because he was gay, or because he was goth/emo. And I’d reply ‘No, I don’t care that he’s gay, so long as he doesn’t try to hit on me, and I actually have a bit of a fetish for the goth look. I hate him because he’s an annoying little priss with a shit personality, and I’d hate him if he were a girl too, whether he was lesbian or straight, because these personality types are annoying as FUCK to EVERYONE unless you have a similar personality.’ And kink was a virtually unknown thing across the board. Fast forward to my 20s, and again, due to that ex I mentioned in my last bullet, had my horizons broadened. She’d been volunteering at a Ren Faire since 14, and when I met her, being a geek, that shizz is right up my alley, so I get involved. And needless to say, Faire Folk are….colorful, to say the least XD Then after 6 months of dating, she came out to me as bi. Between meeting all these cool, zany, kinky, LGBTQ people at Faire, and my own girlfriend being bi, I’m now at the ‘Aight, cool. Tell me more, cuz I’m genuinely curious about YOU as a person’ stage. After we broke up, and another relationship or two, also with people in LGBTQ and/or kink (or at least friendly/allies), I started looking at myself and my history, and added to at the time I noticed I was paying more attention to the males in the porn I watched, went “….Shit. You know what? In hindsight….I think I’ve always been bi, and something other than cis.” Over time, I thought to myself that if I liked both parts on fully biological males and females, what’s the difference in someone who has a mix/is in transition? Ok, welp, that means I’m Pansexual. Now for my gender…what’s goin on there? Hm, well, definitely not cis…genderfluid? Hm, nah, I’m really never firmly in what I’d feel is a masculine state…which means I feel female most of the time…ergo, I’m transgendered, woman born in a man’s body, and lookin back….kinda obvious. I’m just sad that by the time I figured all this out, I had no funding, support, or self esteem to actually go THROUGH with a transition. So I’m probably going to be stuck feeling like I’m in the wrong skin for life. Plus as far as lower ‘parts’ go, current transition methods have no way to make them completely natural, like the upper parts. Until science can do that, I’d only go on hormones and refrain from surgery (so long as I had somewhat of a guarantee I’d like how I’d look post HRT, which at my age and current methods, can’t be given).Guns Note that I said GUNS, not GUN CONTROL. I still, and have always believed, that guns do indeed need to be regulated well, and consistently across the nation. Failing to do that leads to FAR too many problems. I also believe we need to add mandatory Firearms Safety classes to 11th and 12th grade curriculum, to give us a baseline standard for gun education and safety. The laws, as they are now, allow for far too many issued to slip through the cracks. Anyway, back to the point…in my childhood, I was fully in the NOPE GUNS ARE BAD KEEP EM AWAY WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM I DONT TRUST MYSELF AND THEY SCARE ME GET AWAY GET AWAAAAAAAAY….but if YOU wanna go play with something dangerous, go right ahead. I was so bad that one day when I was poking through the basement, I found what at the time I didn’t know was an unfinished 1800s cap n ball revolver kit my dad had and never did anything with. But I saw the unmarked box, and being an inquisitive 8 year old, opened it…and when I saw what I knew was a GUN, I slammed that cover back on and the box back in place faster than you could blink. Cuz…GUN. IDFK how to use one, how to be safe, all I know is that a lotta kids hurt and kill friends and themselves due to unsecured weapons in the home. I knew it wasn’t a MODERN firearm, but that made it worse, because that meant I had even LESS knowledge about how it worked and to be safe. Now, being an unfinished kit, it was obviously not dangerous at all, unless I decided to use it as a club or huck it at someone, and never would have fired even if you put ammo in it. I eventually gave it to that same ex I mentioned as a birthday gift, because she had an appreciation for historical boom-sticks. What changed me? First person shooters cracked the shell. Obviously at this point in time games weren’t what they are now, were only so realistic, etc, but being able to see the very basic concept of how they worked, seeing how many types there were and how customizable they were, and from there learning how they ACTUALLY WORK and realizing that while yes, they are weapons of violence, they are also true marvels of ingenious engineering…all of which appealed to my intellectual side. I also discovered I had a talent for being a marksman in the games…which when I got into paintball as a test to see if I liked the concept of shooting weapon, and seeing that there is indeed a level of skill involved, and discovering that holy shit, my marksman abilities aren’t just virtual, I have a SKILL, a useful SKILL (I was a kid with no self confidence, no encouragement, so I saw myself as not having anything of value to offer anyone besides my personality, so this was a HUGE boost.) Again, the ex I mentioned had a hand in turning me to a new path: her dad was a full on gun nut (also the best man I’ve ever known, and the father I never had). When I first came to the house, his .308 scoped rifle was leaning against the basement door off the kitchen, and I hadn’t been informed about his gun enthusiasm. ‘Iiiiis there something I should know?’ I asked, thinking this was a play at intimidation. “Oh yeah, don’t piss dad off, he’ll shoot you” she laughed. She was being facetious, but at the same time honest, cuz as I got to know the man, I learned that he was indeed the type who would go after a scumbag boyfriend who hurt his daughter. Thankfully he never had to worry with me XD. Anyway, as we talked, we became BFFs, I started asking about the guns, we both started watching a show that had just started airing-Sons of Guns-and had a weekly ‘Guys Night’ to watch the new episodes, which led to more questions from me…and eventually he started laser drilling gun safety into my head, when he felt I’d learned enough he gave me his FAL and Glock20 with a magazine and 3 dummy rounds for each, said ‘Take em home, practice the motions of loading, unloading, making safe, etc etc. Take as long as you need, when you feel comfy, come back, I’ll quiz you, if I feel you’re good I’ll give you the written test for my range, and if you pass, I’ll get you a guest card under my name and start bringing you.’ Did that, kept the guns and dummy rounds for about 3 weeks, and passed both exams with flying colors. Went to the range and instantly fell in love with the hobby. 5 years later I had a tax refund big enough to buy a historical SKSand do about $800 worth of modernization on itallowing me to swap between a classic historical setup, and a modern tactical one, depending on my mood. This is a HUGE point of pride for me, because it is the first and only huge, personal project in that I did completely on my own, filled with many struggles and learning experiences (for any other gun nuts out there, you’ll know what I mean when I say this thing is milsurp, and had been sitting in a Chinese warehouse caked in 3 inches of cosmoline since about 1960…for non gun nuts, take that as ‘this rifle came out of the box covered in 3 inches of what, acting as a preservative element, is essentially dried molasses that I had to clean from every working external part before disassembly to clean the goop off all the working INTERNALS’), and *accomplished* something, which I haven’t really ever had the satisfaction of feeling in my life, up until this project. I now confuse the hell out of a lot of my fellow liberals, being liberal myself, but now also very, VERY pro gun XD