|
- The city of Kingston served as Tennessee's state capital
for one day (September 21, 1807) as a result of treaties
negotiated with the Cherokee Indians. The two-hour
legislative session passed two resolutions and adjourned
back to Knoxville.
- Andrew Johnson held every elective office at the local,
state, and federal level, including President of the United
States. He was elected alderman, mayor, state
representative, and state senator from Greeneville. He
served as governor and military governor of Tennessee and
United States congressman, senator, and vice president,
becoming President of the United States following the
assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
- Iroquois, bred at Nashville's Belle Meade Plantation,
was the first American winner of the English Derby in 1881.
Such modern thoroughbreds as Secretariat trace their
bloodlines to Iroquois.
- Actress-singer Polly Bergen, from Knoxville, is the
first woman to serve on the Board of Directors of the Singer
Sewing Machine Company.
- Tennessee won its nickname as The Volunteer State during
the War of 1812 when volunteer soldiers from Tennessee
displayed marked valor in the Battle of New Orleans.
- The Copper Basin is so different from the surrounding
area it has been seen and is recognizable by American
astronauts. The stark landscape was caused by 19th-century
mining practices.
- There were more National Guard soldiers deployed from
the state for the Gulf War effort than any other state.
- There are more horses per capita in Shelby County than
any other county in the United States.
- The only person in American history to be both an
Admiral in the Navy and a General in the Army was Samuel
Powhatan Carter who was born in Elizabethton.
- Greeneville has the only monument in the United States
honoring both the Union and Confederate armies. It is
located on the lawn of the Green County Courthouse.
- The city of Murfreesboro lies in the exact geographical
center of the state.
- Grinders Switch, entertainer Minnie Pearl's fictitious
hometown, is now an entertainment complex in her real
hometown of Centerville.
- Conifer forests similar to those in Canada are found in
the higher elevations of the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park.
- Hattie Caraway (1878-1950) born in Bakersville became
the first woman United States Senator.
- Davy Crockett was not born on a mountaintop in
Tennessee, as the song says. He was born on the banks of
Limestone Creek near Greeneville, where a replica of the
Crockett's log cabin stands today.
- The Tennessee Aquarium is the largest facility of its
kind to focus on fresh water habitat. It features 7,000
animals and 300 species of fish, birds, reptiles,
amphibians, and mammals.
- The largest earthquake in American history, the New
Madrid Earthquake occurred in the winter of 1811-12 in
northwestern Tennessee. Reelfoot Lake located in Obion and
Lake Counties was formed during this earthquake.
- Reputed "Turtle Capital of the World," Reelfoot Lake
also features thousands of sliders, stinkpots, mud and map
turtles.
- Nashville's Grand Ole Opry is the longest continuously
running live radio program in the world. It has broadcast
every Friday and Saturday night since 1925.
- The legendary railroad engineer Casey Jones, who was
killed when his train crashed on April 30, 1900, lived in
Jackson.
- Oak Ridge was instrumental in the development of the
atomic bomb. Today, because of constant energy research, it
is known as the Energy Capital of the World.
- Tennessee has more than 3,100% documented caves.
- The Alex Haley boyhood home in Henning is the first
state-owned historic site devoted to African Americans in
Tennessee.
- Bristol is known as the Birthplace of Country Music.
- The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most
visited national park in the United States. The park was
named for the smoke-like bluish haze that often envelops
these fabled mountains.
- Elvis Presley's home called Graceland is located in
Memphis. Graceland is the second most visited house in the
country.
- Knoxville was home to the 1982 World's Fair. Attendance
was recorded at 11,127,786 visitors.
- Tennessee was the last state to secede from the Union
during the Civil War and the first state to be readmitted
after the war.
- The nation's oldest African-American architectural firm,
McKissack and McKissack, is located in Nashville.
- The nation's oldest African-American financial
institution, Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company, is
located in Nashville.
- Robert R. Church, Sr. of Memphis is purported to be the
South's first African-American millionaire.
- The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is at the
Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was slain
in 1968. The museum preserves the motel and tells the
history of the American Civil Rights Movement.
- A replica of The Parthenon, the famous ancient Greek
building in Athens, Greece, stands in Nashville's Centennial
Park.
- The "Guinness Book of World Records" lists the Lost Sea
in Sweetwater as the largest underground lake in the United
States.
- The Cherokee silversmith, Sequoyah, was the only known
man in the history of the world to single-handedly develop
an alphabet. His syllabus for the Cherokee Nation resulted
in the first written language for a Native American people.
The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore tells his story and
is dedicated to the history and culture of Native Americans.
- The Watauga Association at Sycamore Shoals near
Elizabethton drafted the first constitution ever written by
white men in America in 1772. It was patterned after the
constitution of the Iroquois League of Nations, a federal
system of government developed 200 years earlier for five
eastern Native American tribes.
- Gary Cooper won the Oscar for Best Actor for his
portrayal of Tennessee war hero Alvin York in the 1941 hit
movie, Sergeant York. World War I hero Sgt. Alvin C. York
was born in Pall Mall.
- When Tennessee became a state in 1796, the total
population was 77,000.
- The capitol building was designed by noted architect
William Strickland, who died during its construction and is
buried within its walls.
- Tennessee ranks number one among other states in the
total number of soldiers who fought in the War Between the
States.
- Tennesseeans are sometimes referred to as Butternuts, a
tag which was first applied to Tennessee soldiers during the
Civil War because of the tan color of their uniforms.
- The Ocoee River in southeastern Tennessee is rated among
the top white water recreational rivers in the nation and
was the site for the Olympic white water canoe/kayak
competition in the 1996 Olympics.
- The name "Tennessee" originated from the old Yuchi
Indian word, "Tana-see," meaning "The Meeting Place."
- Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Nashville
introduced to the world the plaintive beauty and tradition
of the Negro spiritual, which became the basis for other
genres of African-American music. It was because of their
successful tours to raise funds for the university during
the 1870s that Nashville first became known for its music.
- Tennessee ties with Missouri as the most neighborly
state in the union. It is bordered by 8 states.
- Dolly Parton is a native of Sevierville. A major
highway, the Dolly Parton Parkway, takes visitors traveling
to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
- The world's largest artificial skiing surface is located
at the Ober Gatlinburg Ski Resort in Gatlinburg. There a
5-acre artificial ski surface permits skiing in any type of
weather.
- Coca-Cola was first bottle in 1899 at a plant on Patten
Parkway in downtown Chattanooga after two local attorneys
purchased the bottling rights to the drink for $l.00.
- Cumberland University, located in Lebanon, lost a
football game to Georgia Tech on October 7, 1916 by a score
of 222 to 0. The Georgia Tech coach was George Heisman for
whom the Heisman Trophy is named.
- Cotton made Memphis a major port on the Mississippi
River. The Memphis Cotton Exchange still handles
approximately one-third of the entire American cotton crop
each year.
Thanks to:
Webfacts, Cindy, Gabbatha, Gordon Waters, Johnny Wang
|
|