Thursday, April 26, 2012

Tennessee - #16, June 1, 1796



Tennessee is our next stop on our trip around the country. It is also the second state in a row (following Kentucky last week) that I have not been to, yet.  Tennessee was nearly admitted to the Union in the days following the American Revolution as the State of Franklin, but the admission was turned down by the Continental Congress.  Tennessee is the first state to be admitted to the Union that was territory that was under the direct control of the US Government.

In the Civil War, Tennessee was the last state to join the Confederacy and the first to rejoin the Union after the conflict.  Tennessee gave more soldiers to the Confederate Army and more soldiers to the Union Army than any Southern state.  In 1920, Tennessee became the final state necessary to ratify the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

Tennessee has a significant impact on the industrialization on the United States, with the Tennessee Valley Authority created in 1933 and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which helped to build the nation's first atomic bomb in the 1940s.  The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville cements Tennessee's hold on the home country music in the United States.

Tennessee is credited as the home states of the two Andrew Presidents, Johnson, and Jackson and Manifest Destiny President James K. Polk.  Andrew Jackson also served as the state's first Congressman following its admission to the Union.  President Gore is also from Tennessee . . .  oh wait.  Never mind.


Currently, the Governor of Tennessee is Bill Haslam, a Republican. Both of the Senators from Tennessee are Republicans, Senior Senator Lamar Alexander and the Junior Senator, Bob Corker. There are nine members in the Tennessee House Delegation, 7 Republicans and 2 Democrats.
Facts
  • State Capital - Nashville
  • Largest City - Memphis
  • Date of Admission - June 1, 1796
  • Area - 42,143 sq mi (36th)
  • State Motto - "Agriculture and Commerce"
  • State Nickname - the Volunteer State
  • State bird - mockingbird
  • State flower -iris
  • State tree -tulip poplar
  • State University - the University of Tennessee
  • State Archives - Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Population (2011 est.) - 6,403,353 (17th)
Links

Prominent Tennesseans (here's a few lists to peruse, one, two, and three)

2 comments:

MJM said...

The Governor of Kentucky is Steve Beshear. Belive you have a typo in hear - You mean the Governor of Tennessee.

Brave Astronaut said...

So noted and fixed. Copying and pasting sometimes gets me in trouble.