79 Fun Facts About Ohio

By what nickname is Ohio commonly known?

Buckeye State: the nickname comes from the Ohio buckeye, the official state tree since 1953, and Ohio State University's teams are the Buckeyes.

Which city is both Ohio's capital and its most populous?

Columbus became Ohio's capital in 1816, chosen for its central location, and has been the state's most populous city since the 1990 census, well ahead of Cleveland.

Ohio's state flag, designed for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, is unique among the 50 US state flags for what reason?

It is not rectangular: the swallowtail 'burgee' was designed by John Eisenmann for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition and became law in 1902.

How many stars appear on Ohio's state flag, marking its place in the order of statehood?

17 stars: thirteen ring the circle for the original colonies and four more sit at the triangle's point, totalling 17 for Ohio, the 17th state admitted.

Which bird has been Ohio's official state bird since 1933?

Six other states also chose the cardinal, making it the most popular state bird in the country.

What is Ohio's official state flower?

The red (scarlet) carnation was adopted in 1904 in memory of President William McKinley, an Ohioan assassinated in 1901 who habitually wore one on his lapel.

Since 1965, what has been Ohio's official state beverage?

Tomato juice became Ohio's state beverage in 1965, honouring Reynoldsburg, where Alexander Livingston bred the Paragon, the first commercially successful tomato variety, in 1870.

Which creature is Ohio's official state insect?

It was adopted in 1975; the ladybug is a farmer's friend because it eats aphids.

Ohio's official state fossil, Isotelus maximus, is what kind of ancient animal?

Isotelus maximus is a trilobite, a marine arthropod that lived about 450 million years ago when Ohio lay under a shallow tropical sea; it became the state fossil in 1985.

What is Ohio's official state mammal?

The white-tailed deer became Ohio's state animal in 1988; it is also the state animal of neighbouring Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Ohio's name comes from a Seneca word meaning what?

Good river: Ohio comes from the Seneca (Iroquoian) word ohi:yo', usually rendered 'good river' or 'great river', the native name of the Ohio River.

Ohio joined the Union as the 17th state in which year?

1803: Jefferson signed the act recognising Ohio's constitution and boundaries on 19 February 1803, and 1 March 1803, when the first state legislature met, is the official statehood date.

What did Congress do about Ohio's statehood in 1953?

Preparations for the state's 150th birthday revealed Congress had never formally admitted Ohio, so a bill fixed the oversight retroactively.

Ohio was the first state carved out of which federal domain, governed under a famous 1787 ordinance?

Northwest Territory: the 1787 Northwest Ordinance set the rules for turning the land north of the Ohio River into states, and Ohio, admitted in 1803, was the first of them.

Ohio is called the 'Mother of Presidents' because how many US presidents were born there?

Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, McKinley, Taft and Harding were all Ohio-born; only Virginia has produced more.

Which Cincinnati-born president is the only person to have also been chief justice?

William Howard Taft, born in Cincinnati in 1857, was president 1909-13 and chief justice 1921-30, the only person to hold both offices; he said he much preferred the Court.

Before they built airplanes, Orville and Wilbur Wright ran what kind of business in Dayton?

The Wright Cycle Company opened as a repair shop in 1892 and was making its own bicycles by 1896; the profits funded the flying experiments.

Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon, grew up in which small Ohio town?

Wapakoneta: Armstrong was born there in 1930 and earned his pilot's licence there at 16, before a driver's licence; the Armstrong Air & Space Museum opened in the town in 1972.

Ohio-born astronaut John Glenn became the first American to do what, in 1962?

Friendship 7 circled the planet three times; Glenn later served 24 years as a US senator from Ohio.

How old was John Glenn when he flew aboard shuttle Discovery in 1998?

77: Glenn flew on shuttle mission STS-95 in October 1998 at age 77, the oldest person to reach orbit at the time and the only Mercury astronaut to fly on the Space Shuttle.

Which Cleveland DJ, credited with popularising the term 'rock and roll', helped the city land the Rock Hall?

Alan Freed, a DJ at Cleveland's WJW from 1951, popularised the term 'rock and roll' and staged the 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball there, often called the first major rock concert, the basis of Cleveland's Rock Hall bid.

Which architect designed Cleveland's glass-pyramid Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, opened in 1995?

Pei admitted he knew little about rock music when hired, so the museum's founders took him to concerts to educate him.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame stands in which Ohio city, where the NFL was founded in 1920?

Canton: the league that became the NFL was founded there on 17 September 1920 in Ralph Hay's Hupmobile showroom, and the Canton Bulldogs won back-to-back titles in 1922 and 1923.

Cedar Point, 'America's Roller Coast', sits on a Lake Erie peninsula in which Ohio city?

Sandusky: Cedar Point occupies a Lake Erie peninsula in the city and is famous for its roller coasters, including Millennium Force, the first coaster to top 300 feet.

Cedar Point, the second-oldest operating amusement park in the US, opened in which year?

1870: Cedar Point opened in 1870 as a bathing beach and beer garden; only Lake Compounce in Connecticut, opened in 1846, is an older operating US amusement park.

What is the annual Ohio State vs Michigan football rivalry match known as?

The Game: Ohio State and Michigan first met in 1897 and traditionally close the regular season against each other; the rivalry is known simply as The Game.

Which Ohio State running back is the only player ever to win the Heisman Trophy twice?

Archie Griffin won the Heisman in 1974 and 1975 under Woody Hayes, who won 205 games and five national titles at Ohio State; no other player has won the trophy twice.

What is the name of Ohio State University's buckeye-nut mascot?

Brutus Buckeye, a costumed buckeye nut with a big grin, debuted as Ohio State's mascot in 1965 at a home game against Minnesota.

Which magazine's story on the burning Cuyahoga River, which 'oozes rather than flows', spurred the green movement?

Time magazine's 1 August 1969 story said the Cuyahoga 'oozes rather than flows'; the river had burned at least a dozen times before, and the coverage helped drive the 1970 creation of the EPA.

The Ohio River begins at Pittsburgh where which two rivers meet?

The Allegheny and Monongahela meet at Pittsburgh's Point to form the Ohio, which runs 981 miles to the Mississippi and carries more water than any other tributary of that river.

The Ohio River ends by pouring into the Mississippi at which Illinois town?

Cairo, Illinois, sits at the state's southern tip where the Ohio meets the Mississippi; the Ohio is the third-largest US river by discharge and supplies drinking water to about five million people.

Lake Erie, which gives Ohio 312 miles of coastline, is the smallest of the Great Lakes by which measure?

Volume: Lake Erie holds about 116 cubic miles of water, the least of the five, because it is the shallowest (average depth 62 feet); Ontario is the smallest by surface area.

Which US commodore won the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie, fought near Put-in-Bay during the War of 1812?

Oliver Hazard Perry won the Battle of Lake Erie on 10 September 1813 and reported 'We have met the enemy and they are ours'; the victory gave the US control of the lake for the rest of the war.

The 352-foot Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial towers over Put-in-Bay on which Lake Erie landmass?

South Bass Island: the 352-foot Doric column, completed in 1915, stands in the village of Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island and commemorates Perry's 1813 victory and the lasting peace with Britain and Canada.

The Great Serpent Mound, a snake-shaped earthwork about 1,348 feet long, lies in which Ohio county?

Adams County, near Peebles: who built Serpent Mound is debated, with some radiocarbon dates pointing to the Adena around 300 BCE and others to the Fort Ancient culture around 1070 CE.

In 2023 the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks became Ohio's first what?

UNESCO World Heritage Site: the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, eight sites built between about 1 and 400 CE including Newark's Great Circle, nearly 1,200 feet across, were inscribed in September 2023 as Ohio's first.

Cuyahoga Valley, Ohio's only national park, was upgraded from a national recreation area in which year?

2000: the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area, created in 1974, was redesignated a national park on 11 October 2000; its Brandywine Falls drops about 65 feet.

What did Michigan get for giving up the Toledo Strip after the 1835 'Toledo War'?

Most of the Upper Peninsula: to enter the Union in 1837 Michigan accepted the western three-quarters of the Upper Peninsula in place of the strip; the 'worthless' land proved rich in copper and iron.

Thanks to Libbey, Owens-Illinois and Owens Corning, what nickname did Toledo earn?

The Glass City: Edward Libbey moved his glass works to Toledo in 1888, and Owens-Illinois and Owens Corning followed; the Toledo Museum of Art holds one of the world's great glass collections.

Which vehicle brand traces its roots to the Willys military model built in Toledo during WWII?

Jeep: Willys-Overland built the wartime Willys MB in Toledo from 1941, and the city's Toledo Assembly Complex later built the Wrangler and Gladiator.

Home to Goodyear, Firestone, General Tire and B.F. Goodrich, Akron was nicknamed what?

Rubber Capital of the World: Goodyear (founded 1898), B.F. Goodrich, Firestone and General Tire all grew up in Akron; the city's name comes from the Greek word for 'summit'.

Which self-help fellowship was founded in Akron in 1935, marked yearly on Founders' Day?

Alcoholics Anonymous: Bill Wilson and Akron surgeon Dr. Bob Smith founded AA in the city on 10 June 1935, the date of Dr. Bob's last drink; Akron's Founders' Day gathering marks it each June.

LeBron James was born in 1984 in which Ohio city, home of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School?

Akron: James was born there on 30 December 1984, starred at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, and opened his I PROMISE School in the city in 2018.

Which team did the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers beat to become the first to win the NBA Finals from 3-1 down?

Beating the Golden State Warriors gave Cleveland its first major sports title since 1964, ending what fans called the Cleveland sports curse.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who met at Cleveland's Glenville High School in 1932, created which comic-book hero?

Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1 on 18 April 1938, and the pair famously sold the rights for $130.

The Underground Railroad's main northern route crossed which anti-slavery region of northeastern Ohio?

The Western Reserve, land Connecticut kept when it ceded its western claims in 1786, was settled by New Englanders and became an abolitionist stronghold; Cleveland was founded inside it in 1796.

At a Cincinnati chili parlour such as Skyline, a 'three-way' is chili and shredded cheddar served over what?

Spaghetti is the base; add onions or beans for a four-way and both for a five-way, with Skyline and Gold Star the big chains.

Which warm spice, unusual in Texas-style chili, gives Cincinnati chili its Mediterranean flavour?

Cinnamon: the recipe, created by Macedonian immigrants Tom and John Kiradjieff at Empress Chili in 1922, seasons a Greek-style meat sauce with cinnamon, allspice and cloves rather than Texas-style heat.

Ohio's 'buckeye' candy, named for the state tree's nut, is a ball of what dipped in chocolate with one circle left bare?

Peanut butter: a ball of peanut-butter fudge is dipped in chocolate leaving a tan circle bare, mimicking the nut of the Ohio buckeye, the state tree since 1953.

Ohio's state tree is named because its nut resembles the eye of which animal?

A deer: the nut's dark shell with a pale spot looks like a buck's eye; the seeds are poisonous to people and cattle unless the tannin is boiled out, as Native Americans did.

Holmes County, Ohio, has the world's highest concentration of which religious community?

Amish: over 40 percent of Holmes County's residents are Amish, the highest share anywhere, and the Holmes County settlement rivals Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as the largest Amish settlement in the world.

Which group recorded the protest song 'Ohio' after the Kent State shootings in May 1970?

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young recorded Neil Young's 'Ohio' within weeks of the 4 May 1970 Kent State shootings, in which National Guardsmen killed four students; it was released as a single that June.

Unlike most US state capitols, the Greek Revival Ohio Statehouse has no what?

Dome: the Statehouse, completed in 1861, is capped by a low conical cupola instead of a dome; Abraham Lincoln's body lay in state in its rotunda on 29 April 1865.

Dave Thomas founded which restaurant chain in Ohio in 1969, naming it after his daughter?

Wendy's: Dave Thomas opened the first restaurant in Columbus on 15 November 1969 and named it after his daughter Melinda, nicknamed Wendy; the chain's headquarters moved to nearby Dublin, Ohio, in 2006.

William Procter, a candlemaker, and James Gamble, a soapmaker, founded P&G in Cincinnati in 1837; how were they related?

Brothers-in-law: they married sisters Olivia and Elizabeth Norris, and their shared father-in-law nudged them into partnership.

Which inventor was born in Milan, Ohio, in 1847?

Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, on 11 February 1847; his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, in 1854, when he was seven, so both states claim him.

Jesse Owens, Ohio State's 'Buckeye Bullet', won four gold medals in sprints, relay and long jump at which Olympics?

1936 Berlin came a year after a Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor where Owens set five world records and tied a sixth in 45 minutes.

Which distinction does Marblehead Light, on Lake Erie's Marblehead Peninsula, hold?

Oldest working beacon on the US Great Lakes: Marblehead Light has operated continuously since 1822; its limestone tower, raised to 65 feet in 1897, shows a green flash every six seconds.

Old Man's Cave, Ash Cave and Cedar Falls are the star attractions of which Ohio state park?

Hocking Hills State Park, near Logan, has recess caves and gorges carved by water out of Black Hand sandstone; Old Man's Cave is named for hermit Richard Rowe, who lived there in the 1800s.

In 1985 the Ohio legislature named which 1965 hit by The McCoys the official state rock song?

Hang On Sloopy: The McCoys' 1965 number one became Ohio's official rock song in 1985, and the Ohio State marching band has played it at games since 1965, usually before the fourth quarter.

The 1995 Dayton Agreement, negotiated at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, ended a war in which country?

Bosnia and Herzegovina: the Dayton Agreement, negotiated at Wright-Patterson in November 1995 and signed in Paris that December, ended the Bosnian War of 1992-95.

Which president was sworn in aboard SAM 26000, the jet preserved at Dayton's Air Force museum?

Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath aboard SAM 26000 at Dallas Love Field on 22 November 1963, hours after Kennedy's assassination; the aircraft is displayed at the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton.

Cincinnati's name honours a society of officers named for a farmer-general of which ancient civilisation?

Rome: the Society of the Cincinnati, founded in 1783 by Continental Army officers, took its name from Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the Roman who gave up dictatorial power to return to his plough; Arthur St. Clair named the city in 1790.

What nickname did Cincinnati's 19th-century pork-packing trade earn it?

Porkopolis: by the 1830s Cincinnati was the leading pork-packing city in the United States, with herds of hogs driven through its streets to slaughterhouses along the river.

Fiona, the premature hippo born at Cincinnati Zoo in 2017, is named after a character from which film?

Shrek: Fiona is named after Princess Fiona from the Shrek films; born six weeks early in January 2017 at 29 pounds, against a normal 55 to 120, she was kept alive with help from Cincinnati Children's Hospital staff.

What world first was installed at Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland in 1914?

The red-and-green signal was built by the American Traffic Signal Company and had a buzzer to warn drivers the light was about to change.

Cleveland Clinic ranked as America's best hospital in which specialty each year 1995-2024?

US News placed it No. 1 in cardiology and heart surgery every year from 1995; it also opened hospitals in Florida, Nevada, Abu Dhabi, Toronto and London.

Which of these states does NOT share a border with Ohio?

Wisconsin: Ohio borders Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana, and faces Ontario across Lake Erie; Wisconsin lies two states to the northwest.

Where did Ohio rank among US states by population in the 2020 census?

7th: the 2020 census counted 11,799,448 Ohioans, seventh behind California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois; by area Ohio ranks only 34th.

What is Ohio's official state motto?

'With God, all things are possible', adopted in 1959, comes from Matthew 19:26; the full Sixth Circuit upheld it against an ACLU challenge in 2001.

Which city was Ohio's first capital, from 1803 to 1810?

Chillicothe was Ohio's first capital from 1803 to 1810; Zanesville held the seat for two years as a legislative compromise before it returned to Chillicothe, and the capital moved permanently to Columbus in 1816.

Which Revolutionary War veteran, who led the settlement of Marietta, is called the 'father of Ohio'?

Rufus Putnam, a Revolutionary War general, led the Ohio Company settlers who founded Marietta on 7 April 1788, served as surveyor general of the United States, and helped found Ohio University in 1804.

Morgan's Raid of July 1863 ended with which battle in far eastern Ohio?

Salineville: Union cavalry defeated John Hunt Morgan's exhausted raiders at Salineville, Columbiana County, on 26 July 1863, and Morgan surrendered near West Point that afternoon.

Ohio's record high of 113 °F was set in 1934 near which town on the Ohio River?

Gallipolis: Ohio's record high of 113 °F was recorded near Gallipolis on 21 July 1934; the record low of −39 °F came at Milligan during the Great Blizzard of February 1899.

The 1913 Great Dayton Flood, Ohio's worst weather disaster, led to the creation of what?

The Miami Conservancy District, created in 1915 under Ohio's new Conservancy Act, built five dry dams across the Great Miami watershed under engineer Arthur Morgan, the first watershed-wide flood-control system in the US.

What is the 'Polish Boy', described as the signature sandwich of Cleveland, Ohio?

Kielbasa with coleslaw, fries and barbecue sauce on a bun is Cleveland's pride; Columbus answers with Johnny Marzetti, a casserole of noodles, ground beef, tomatoes and cheese.

Which Ohio college became the first in the US to admit women, in 1837?

Oberlin admitted four women to its bachelor's degree programme in 1837, making it the first coeducational college in the US; it had opened its doors to African American students in 1835.

Which pioneering coast-to-coast road, chosen in 1913, passed through Mansfield, Wooster and Lima?

The Lincoln Highway, dedicated in 1913 as the first transcontinental automobile road, linked New York City and San Francisco and crossed Ohio via Canton, Wooster, Mansfield and Lima.

Hopewell Furnace, Ohio's first iron blast furnace, was built near which city?

Youngstown: the Heaton brothers' Hopewell Furnace on Yellow Creek, a few miles from Youngstown, was Ohio's first iron blast furnace and the seed of the Mahoning Valley's later steel industry.