150 Fun Facts About American

The 13 stripes on the flag of the United States stand for what?

The thirteen original colonies gave the flag its stripes; a 1794 law raised the count to 15 after two more states joined, but Congress went back to 13 in 1818 and added only stars from then on.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from the people of which country?

France's people paid for the statue itself, but Americans had to fund the pedestal; Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper appeal drew more than 100,000 donors, most of them giving a dollar or less.

Which ruler sold Louisiana to America in 1803?

Napoleon Bonaparte offered the whole territory for $15 million when American envoys had been sent to buy little more than the port of New Orleans, a deal that roughly doubled the country's size.

Who was the first president to live in the White House?

John Adams moved into the still unfinished White House on 1 November 1800; George Washington had chosen the site but left office before it was ready and never lived there.

Francis Scott Key wrote the national anthem in 1814 after the British bombarded which Baltimore fort?

Fort McHenry held out through some 25 hours of shelling on 13-14 September 1814; Key watched from a truce ship, kept offshore by the enemy fleet after he helped negotiate a prisoner's release.

Which was the first national park in the United States, created in 1872?

Yellowstone was signed into being by Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, but it got almost no money or staff, and poachers went largely unchecked until the US Army took over in 1886.

The Golden Gate Bridge spans a one-mile strait between the Pacific Ocean and which bay?

San Francisco Bay's bridge opened in 1937 with a record 4,200-foot main span; a safety net slung beneath the deck during construction caught 19 falling workers, who called themselves the Half Way to Hell Club.

Which amendment to the US Constitution, adopted in 1920, bars denying the vote on account of sex?

The Nineteenth Amendment cleared its last hurdle in Tennessee by a single vote: young legislator Harry Burn cast the deciding yes after a letter from his mother urged him to back it.

Mount Rushmore carries the faces of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and which fourth president?

Theodore Roosevelt was the sculptor's pick to represent the nation's development: he had pushed through the Panama Canal and taken on the big business trusts.

The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 at Promontory Summit, in which territory?

Utah Territory's Promontory Summit hosted the last-spike ceremony on 10 May 1869; an iron spike and hammer were wired to the telegraph so the country could hear the blows, and Leland Stanford's swing missed.

When it first went up in 1923, the Hollywood Sign spelled out which word?

HOLLYWOODLAND was put up in 1923 as a temporary advertisement for a hillside housing development; the sign outlived the sales drive, and its last four letters were taken down in 1949.

Who proposed the Twenty-seventh Amendment alongside the Bill of Rights?

James Madison's amendment on congressional pay was largely forgotten until 1982, when student Gregory Watson, given a C for a paper arguing it could still pass, began the letter campaign that got it ratified in 1992.

In which city can visitors see the Liberty Bell?

Philadelphia's State House bell had no special name until abolitionists adopted it as a symbol in the 1830s and began calling it the Liberty Bell.

The trophy handed to the Super Bowl champions is named after which coach?

Vince Lombardi coached the Green Bay Packers to victory in the first two Super Bowls; the trophy was renamed in his memory after he died in September 1970.

The United States bought Alaska in 1867 from which country?

Russia sold Alaska for $7.2 million under a treaty signed on 30 March 1867; Tsar Alexander II had sought a buyer after the Crimean War showed the territory could not be defended.

How many states make up the United States?

The last two, Alaska and Hawaii, both joined in 1959; the 48 'contiguous' states are the ones on the mainland between Canada and Mexico.

Which state, along with Maryland, gave up land to create the federal District of Columbia?

Virginia's share, including the town of Alexandria, was handed back in the 1840s, which is why the district today lies entirely on the Maryland side of the Potomac.

Which flower was named the national floral emblem of the United States in 1986?

The rose became the national floral emblem when Ronald Reagan signed a joint resolution of Congress and proclaimed it on 20 November 1986, in a White House Rose Garden ceremony.

Which bird is the national bird of the United States?

The bald eagle has appeared on the Great Seal since 1782, but it was only an unofficial national bird until Congress passed a law making the title official in December 2024.

On which date in 1776 did Congress vote for independence?

July 2 was the day one future president wrote home that Americans would celebrate for ever; the holiday instead follows July 4, the date printed on the Declaration.

What is the street address of the White House?

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW has not always been habitable: the mansion was burned in 1814, during the War of 1812, and presidents lived elsewhere for three years while it was rebuilt.

Which president had the first telephone installed in the White House, in 1877?

Rutherford B. Hayes had the first telephone installed in the White House in 1877, the year after Alexander Graham Bell patented the device.

What is the title of the US national anthem?

The Star-Spangled Banner sets Francis Scott Key's 1814 poem to the tune of 'To Anacreon in Heaven', a song written for a London gentlemen's music club.

Which president signed the 1931 act making America's national anthem official?

Herbert Hoover signed the act in March 1931, some 117 years after the song was written; until then it had been official only for military use.

What does the motto on the scroll in the Great Seal eagle's beak mean?

Out of many, one translates E pluribus unum, which served as the nation's unofficial motto until Congress adopted a different one in 1956.

The Great Seal's eagle clutches arrows and what else?

An olive branch fills the eagle's other talon; the seal's designer explained that the branch and the arrows together stand for the power of peace and war.

On which day of November is Thanksgiving celebrated?

The fourth Thursday was fixed by Congress in 1941, after Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday a week earlier in 1939 to lengthen the Christmas shopping season and many states refused to go along.

The Pilgrims shared their famous 1621 harvest feast at Plymouth with men of which Native nation?

Wampanoag men, about 90 led by Massasoit, outnumbered the 50 or so colonists and added venison to a feast that lasted three days.

Which national symbol is traditionally traced to a Troy meat-packer who supplied army beef in the War of 1812?

Uncle Sam is said to come from the 'U.S.' stamped on Samuel Wilson's beef barrels, which soldiers linked to 'Uncle Sam' Wilson; the origin is disputed, but Congress endorsed the story in 1961.

Which phrase was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954?

Under God was added in 1954, during the Cold War, after a campaign by religious groups; the original 1892 pledge, written by Baptist minister Francis Bellamy, had no religious reference.

Whose portrait is on the US $100 bill?

Benjamin Franklin's portrait is on the $100, which is why the note is nicknamed a 'Benjamin'; Franklin and Alexander Hamilton are the only non-presidents on the seven denominations printed since 1946.

What is the largest denomination of US paper money printed since 1946?

The $100 is the largest because the $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 notes were last printed in 1945 and discontinued in 1969 for lack of use; surviving ones are still legal tender.

Route 66 ran from Chicago to which West Coast city?

US 66 ran about 2,400 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica; established in 1926 and nicknamed the Mother Road by Steinbeck, it was removed from the highway system in 1985.

Which sculptor led the carving of Mount Rushmore from 1927 to 1941?

Gutzon Borglum called it the Shrine of Democracy; his son Lincoln finished the job after he died in March 1941.

In which state is Mount Rushmore?

South Dakota's state historian, Doane Robinson, proposed the carving in 1923 and pictured Old West figures such as Lewis and Clark; the sculptor chose presidents instead.

What is inscribed on the tablet the Statue of Liberty holds?

JULY IV MDCCLXXVI is the Declaration's date in Roman numerals; at her feet, half hidden by the robes, lie a broken shackle and chain, there to mark the end of slavery.

Which famous engineer built the metal framework inside the Statue of Liberty?

Gustave Eiffel took over after the statue's first engineer died in 1879 and gave it a flexible iron skeleton, so the thin copper skin could move with the wind and the heat.

Which colony, chartered in 1732, was the last founded of those that became the first US states?

Georgia was chartered in 1732 and first settled at Savannah under James Oglethorpe; its trustees banned rum and slavery at first, then dropped both bans by 1751.

Which building sits at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C.?

The US Capitol: Congress first met there in November 1800; the British burned it in 1814 and the great dome was finished around 1866.

What shape is the 555-foot monument to the first president that towers over the National Mall?

An obelisk of marble, the Washington Monument changes colour about a third of the way up: work stopped in 1854 for more than twenty years and resumed with stone from a different quarry.

Which waterway carved the Grand Canyon?

The Colorado River cut the mile-deep gorge over millions of years; today so much of its water is diverted to farms and cities that it often runs dry before reaching the sea.

Which sport was being called the American 'national pastime' as early as the 1850s?

Baseball got its best-known song in 1908, when Jack Norworth wrote the words of 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' while riding a train.

Which US city is nicknamed the Windy City?

Chicago is the Windy City; the nickname was in print by the 1870s, and its origin is debated between the lakefront winds and the city's boastful politicians.

The Gateway Arch, the world's tallest arch, stands in which US city?

St. Louis waited a long time for its arch: Eero Saarinen's design won a national contest in 1948, but construction began only in 1963, two years after the architect's death.

Which 20,310-foot peak, North America's highest, was renamed Mount McKinley in 2025?

Denali had been Alaska's official name since 1975; the Interior Department followed suit in 2015, and a 2025 federal order restored McKinley.

Hoover Dam straddles the boundary between Nevada and which other state?

Arizona shares the dam with Nevada; Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated it in 1935, when his administration was calling it Boulder Dam, and Congress restored the Hoover name in 1947.

Which 1931 skyscraper was long the world's tallest?

Empire State Building: it went up in just over 13 months, but so much office space sat unrented during the Depression that it was nicknamed the 'Empty State Building'.

Where was the 134 °F air temperature of July 1913, a world record, measured?

Death Valley, California, set the mark at Furnace Creek on July 10, 1913; it was reinstated as the world record in 2012, when a 1922 reading of 136 °F from Libya was ruled unreliable.

The Mississippi River traditionally begins at Lake Itasca in which state?

Minnesota's Lake Itasca was identified as the river's headwaters in 1832 by Henry Schoolcraft, who twelve years earlier had been on an expedition that settled on a different lake downstream.

Which of the Great Lakes is the world's largest body of fresh water by surface area?

Superior was named by French explorers, who called it 'lac supérieur', the upper lake, because it lies above Lake Huron.

Which US state is the smallest by area?

Rhode Island, the smallest state, is mostly not an island at all: it takes its name from one island in Narragansett Bay, while nearly all of its land lies on the mainland.

Which state has had a one-chamber legislature since 1937?

Nebraska voters approved the one-house plan in 1934 after Senator George Norris campaigned for it, calling a second chamber unnecessary; the new body first met in 1937.

Which state earned the nickname 'The First State' by ratifying the Constitution before any other?

Delaware ratified the Constitution on 7 December 1787, five days ahead of Pennsylvania; it was slower later, not formally ratifying the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments until 1901.

Which river, nicknamed the Big Muddy, rises in Montana and flows more than 2,300 miles across the Great Plains?

The Missouri earned the name Big Muddy from the silt it carries down to the Mississippi; Lewis and Clark followed it upstream in 1804-05 on their way to the Pacific.

Coins stamped with a 'D' mint mark come from the US Mint branch in which city?

Denver has struck coins since 1906; the 'D' first belonged to the Dahlonega mint, built for a Southern gold rush and shut down when the Civil War began in 1861.

The US gold bullion depository at Fort Knox is in which state?

The depository stands beside the Fort Knox army post in Kentucky; during the Second World War it also sheltered the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution, from December 1941 until 1944.

Which phrase became the official national motto in 1956?

In God We Trust first appeared on the two-cent coin in 1864, during the Civil War; Congress made it the motto in 1956, at a time of Cold War rivalry with officially atheist states.

Which animal was declared the national mammal of the United States in 2016?

The American bison earned the title in 2016 after a comeback: hunted from tens of millions down to a few hundred animals by the late 1800s, the species was rebuilt from a handful of surviving herds.

Which island became the main US immigration station in 1892?

Ellis Island's first station, built of wood, burned to the ground in 1897 after only five years; about 12 million immigrants passed through the island before it closed in 1954.

Who is the only US president to have resigned from office?

Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, facing near-certain impeachment and removal over Watergate; no other president has left office by resignation.

Which territory passed the first US law explicitly giving women the vote, in 1869?

Wyoming Territory gave women the vote in 1869 and kept the right when it became a state in 1890, which is why it is nicknamed the Equality State.

Churchill Downs hosts which famous horse race on the first Saturday in May?

The Kentucky Derby has been run at Churchill Downs since 1875; the track is named for John and Henry Churchill, who provided the land, and the race is billed as 'the most exciting two minutes in sports'.

Area 51, the highly classified Air Force facility, is in which state?

Nevada's Groom Lake site was chosen in 1955 for testing the U-2 spy plane; the CIA did not officially acknowledge that Area 51 existed until 2013.

Which Washington volcano erupted on May 18, 1980?

Mount St. Helens lost its top when the north face slid away in the largest landslide ever recorded; the sideways blast that followed killed 57 people and flattened forest for miles around.

Which lake is the deepest in the United States?

Crater Lake fills the hole left when Oregon's Mount Mazama collapsed about 7,700 years ago; no rivers run in or out, so rain and snow alone keep it full.

Which national park protects the world's longest known underground passage system?

Mammoth Cave has more than 420 miles of surveyed passages; Stephen Bishop, an enslaved guide who explored them from 1838, drew a map of the cave from memory in 1842 that was published under his name.

The General Sherman Tree, the largest tree on Earth by volume, is what species?

General Sherman is a giant sequoia in California's Sequoia National Park; it is neither the tallest tree (a coast redwood called Hyperion) nor the oldest, but its trunk holds more wood than any other, about 52,500 cubic feet.

Which mail service lasted only 18 months before the telegraph made it obsolete?

The Pony Express carried letters between the Midwest and California in about ten days using relays of riders, then shut down in October 1861, within days of the coast-to-coast telegraph line being joined.

The Erie Canal ran from Albany to which Lake Erie city?

Buffalo was where Governor DeWitt Clinton boarded the first boat in October 1825; the canal went on to cut the cost of shipping goods by about 90 percent.

Barnum marched 21 elephants across which East River bridge in 1884?

Brooklyn Bridge was a year old, and a week after it opened a panic, reportedly over a rumour of collapse, had ended in a deadly crush; Barnum's parade was meant to show the bridge was safe.

The first Times Square ball was lowered in 1907 because the city had banned what?

Fireworks had been launched from the Times tower each New Year's Eve until the city banned them; publisher Adolph Ochs had a 700-pound ball of iron and wood lowered at midnight instead.

What replaced live zoo animals in Macy's parade in 1927?

Giant balloons, beginning with Felix the Cat, took over because the animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo had frightened children along the route.

The Smithsonian's founding donor, James Smithson, was a scientist of which nationality?

James Smithson was a British chemist and mineralogist who never visited America; his 1826 will left his fortune to the United States to found the Smithsonian, which Congress established in 1846.

Which amendment limits a person to being elected president twice?

The Twenty-second Amendment, ratified in 1951, followed Franklin D. Roosevelt's four election wins; before him, Washington and Jefferson had set the two-term tradition voluntarily.

Which body of 538 members formally chooses the US president?

The Electoral College never meets as one body: its 538 electors gather in their own states in December to cast their votes, and 270 are needed to win.

Which state was an independent republic for nine years before the United States annexed it in 1845?

Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836, and its annexation as the 28th state led within months to the Mexican-American War.

Which president championed the Federal-Aid Highway Act that created the Interstate system?

Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act in June 1956; as a young officer he had joined the Army's 1919 transcontinental convoy, which showed how badly military vehicles coped with the nation's roads.

A small Alabama phone company placed America's first 911 call in 1968, beating which communications giant to it?

AT&T had announced 911 as the national emergency number earlier that year; Alabama Telephone rushed a system into the town of Haleyville and made the first call on 16 February 1968, two weeks ahead of the giant.

Cooperstown, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, is in which state?

Cooperstown is in upstate New York; the town was chosen on the strength of the myth that Abner Doubleday invented baseball there in 1839, and the Hall opened in 1939.

The Wright brothers' first powered flight in 1903 took place near Kitty Hawk, in which state?

North Carolina's Kitty Hawk gets the credit, but the 1903 flights took off about four miles to the south, from the dunes at what is now the town of Kill Devil Hills.

Which Washington memorial has 36 columns, one per state in the Union when its subject died?

Lincoln Memorial: its 36 columns count the states of 1865, and a century after the Emancipation Proclamation Martin Luther King Jr. gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech from its steps.

Which architect designed the black granite wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial?

Maya Lin, then a 21-year-old Yale student, won the 1981 competition with entry number 1026; the backlash produced a compromise that added a flagstaff and Frederick Hart's realist Three Servicemen statue.

The cherry trees around Washington's Tidal Basin were a gift from which Japanese city?

Tokyo's mayor Yukio Ozaki gave the trees; First Lady Helen Taft and the Japanese ambassador's wife planted the first two on March 27, 1912, and the US sent flowering dogwoods back in 1915.

Which Spanish explorer named Florida after landing there in 1513?

Juan Ponce de León is said to have named the land La Florida for the Easter season, which Spaniards called Pascua Florida, or 'flowering Easter'.

Juneteenth marks the 1865 day freedom was announced in which Texas city?

Galveston heard General Gordon Granger's order on 19 June 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect; the day became a federal holiday in 2021.

Which skyscraper stands a symbolic 1,776 feet tall?

One World Trade Center reached 1,776 feet when its spire was bolted on in May 2013, a height chosen to echo the year the United States declared independence.

Which state capital has no road connecting it to the rest of its state?

Juneau is hemmed in by steep mountains and the Juneau Icefield, so the only way to drive out of Alaska's capital is to put the car on a ferry.

Which Florida city, founded in 1565, is the continental US's oldest continuously occupied European settlement?

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine on September 8, 1565; Pensacola's 1559 colony was abandoned within two years, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, is older, dating from 1521.

Which US state capital sits highest, at about 7,000 feet above sea level?

Santa Fe stands well above 'Mile High' Denver; Spain founded it in 1610, and Pueblo peoples held the town for twelve years after their 1680 revolt drove the colonists out.

The geographic center of the contiguous 48 states lies near Lebanon, a town in which state?

Kansas marks the spot near Lebanon, but it is no exact science: the US Geological Survey says there is no fully satisfactory way to find a geographic centre, so other methods give other answers.

Which state is the only one that borders just a single other US state?

Maine touches only New Hampshire, yet until 1820 it was part of Massachusetts, a state it has never shared a border with.

Which national park drew the most visitors in 2024, more than 12 million?

Great Smoky Mountains logged more than 12 million visits in 2024, helped by easy road access and by the fact that, unlike most famous parks, it charges no entrance fee.

Arlington National Cemetery occupies an estate seized from the family of which Confederate general?

The estate belonged to Robert E. Lee's wife, Mary Custis Lee; the government seized it in 1864 over a tax dispute, and the mansion had been built by her father, Martha Washington's grandson, as a memorial to George Washington.

Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, appears on the back of which US coin?

Monticello has been on the reverse of the nickel since 1938, apart from 2004 and 2005, when the Westward Journey designs marking the Lewis and Clark expedition took its place.

Which gangster was sent to newly opened Alcatraz in 1934?

Al Capone arrived in August 1934; the prison closed in 1963 because the crumbling island cost nearly three times as much to run as any other federal prison.

Until 2009, Chicago's tallest skyscraper was named after which retailer?

Sears, then the world's largest retailer, built the tower to gather its scattered staff under one roof and opened it in 1973 as the world's tallest building; the name changed in 2009.

Tabasco sauce has been made since 1868 on Avery Island, in which state?

Louisiana's Avery Island is where Edmund McIlhenny first made the sauce in 1868, selling it in small cologne-style bottles fitted with sprinkler tops.

Badwater Basin, North America's lowest point, lies near which peak, the highest in the contiguous United States?

Mount Whitney is close enough that each July runners in the Badwater 135 race set off from the basin and finish 135 miles later at the trailhead on Whitney's slopes.

Which Florida city is one of the largest in the United States by area?

Jacksonville merged with most of Duval County in 1968, a consolidation that made it one of the largest cities by area in the country.

The Land Rush of April 22, 1889, opened the 'Unassigned Lands' of which future state to settlers?

The Unassigned Lands lay in the middle of what became Oklahoma; the rush began at high noon, and settlers who sneaked in early to grab the best homesteads became known as 'Sooners'.

Which federal agency was created after the Civil War to fight counterfeit currency?

The Secret Service was formally given the job of protecting presidents only after William McKinley was assassinated in 1901. Until 2003 the agency sat inside the Treasury Department.

Which state was a sovereign kingdom until its monarchy was overthrown in 1893?

Hawaii is the only state that has never recorded a subzero Fahrenheit temperature. It was annexed by the United States in 1898, five years after businessmen toppled the monarchy.

Which soft drink was first sold for five cents a glass at an Atlanta pharmacy in 1886?

Coca-Cola was invented by John Pemberton, a wounded Civil War veteran seeking a substitute for morphine. He sold the rights in 1888, before the drink conquered the world.

Which garment did tailor Jacob Davis and a merchant patent in 1873, its pockets strengthened with copper rivets?

Blue jeans were workwear for miners until Marlon Brando and James Dean made them a symbol of teenage rebellion in 1950s films. Davis's partner in the patent was Levi Strauss.

Which Continental Congress president signed the Declaration so boldly that his name became slang for a signature?

John Hancock's famous signature was not written on Independence Day: the handwritten parchment was signed on August 2, 1776, by the delegates then present.

What call sign, coined in the 1950s, do flight controllers use for the Boeing 747 carrying the US president?

Air Force One is a call sign, not a plane: any Air Force aircraft with the president aboard takes it. It was created after a presidential flight shared a flight number with an airliner in the same airspace.

Which sport did James Naismith invent in 1891 at a YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts?

Basketball was first played with a soccer ball and peach baskets whose bottoms were left intact, so someone had to fetch the ball after every score.

Which speech did Martin Luther King Jr. deliver to 250,000 marchers from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial?

I Have a Dream owes its refrain to improvisation: King left his prepared text near the end, after a gospel singer behind him called out, 'Tell 'em about the dream, Martin!'

Which Ohio-born astronaut spoke the words 'one giant leap for mankind' to 530 million viewers watching live in 1969?

Neil Armstrong commanded Apollo 11 and was the first person to walk on the Moon. He took flying lessons as a schoolboy at the airfield in Wapakoneta, his hometown.

Which cookie is Ruth Wakefield credited with inventing in the 1930s at her Toll House Inn in Massachusetts?

Chocolate chip cookies were sent to American soldiers during World War II, when baking them was promoted as a patriotic act. Wakefield ran the inn in Whitman with her husband Kenneth.

Which Underground Railroad conductor, nicknamed 'Moses', guided a Civil War raid that freed over 700 enslaved people?

Harriet Tubman said she 'never lost a passenger' on her night journeys north. She is widely credited as the first woman to lead an armed military operation in the United States.

Which Civil War nurse, nicknamed the 'Angel of the Battlefield', went on to found the American Red Cross?

Clara Barton had earlier broken ground as a Patent Office clerk, one of only a few women there and the only one in her office paid a salary equal to the men's.

Which suffragist, arrested for voting in 1872, became the first female citizen shown on US coinage, on a 1979 dollar?

Susan B. Anthony cast that 1872 ballot in her hometown of Rochester. The other women who voted with her were arrested too, then released pending the outcome of her trial.

Which teenage interpreter set out west with Lewis and Clark weeks after giving birth to her son Jean Baptiste?

Sacagawea and her son appear together on a dollar coin issued by the United States Mint in 2000. Lewis's journal records that crushed rattlesnake rattles were given to speed the delivery.

Which woman's 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger sparked a 381-day boycott?

Rosa Parks was not the first to refuse: several Black riders had already been arrested, including 15-year-old student Claudette Colvin.

Which aviator disappeared over the Pacific in 1937 while attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world?

Amelia Earhart was already a celebrity: in August 1928 she had become the first woman to fly solo across the North American continent and back.

Which Brooklyn Dodgers rookie broke the major leagues' color line and later had his number 42 retired by every team?

Jackie Robinson was the first professional athlete in any sport to have his number retired across a whole league. Every player on every team now wears it each April 15.

Which Texas-born rancher's daughter, nominated by Ronald Reagan, was the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court?

Sandra Day O'Connor grew up on her family's sprawling cattle ranch and later co-wrote a memoir of that childhood, 'Lazy B'.

Which author took his pen name from a riverboat cry meaning two fathoms deep?

Mark Twain was born just after Halley's Comet appeared in 1835 and predicted he would 'go out with it'. He died in April 1910, the year the comet came back.

Which inventor, working at his Menlo Park laboratory, developed the phonograph and registered 1,093 US patents?

Thomas Edison's Menlo Park complex is now considered the first industrial research laboratory. He is also known for the incandescent light bulb and early motion pictures.

Which ship carried the Pilgrims to Cape Cod in 1620 after its companion vessel Speedwell proved unseaworthy?

Mayflower spent ten weeks at sea, and before going ashore the passengers signed a compact setting up a rudimentary government for the planned settlement.

Which upholsterer did her own grandson credit, a century after the fact, with sewing the first Stars and Stripes?

Betsy Ross is said to have talked George Washington out of six-pointed stars by showing that five-pointed ones were easier and speedier to cut. No earlier document mentions the story.

In which city's harbor did Sons of Liberty disguised as American Indians dump over 300 chests of tea in 1773?

Boston's raiders boarded the merchant ship Dartmouth on the night of December 16, angry at a Tea Act that let the East India Company sell its tea in the colonies on favored terms.

Which Pennsylvania town gave its name to the Civil War's bloodiest battle, which ended with Pickett's Charge?

Gettysburg claimed over 50,000 combined casualties and is widely considered the turning point of the Civil War. The final assault sent about 12,000 Confederates at Cemetery Ridge.

Which Virginia settlement, founded in 1607, was reduced to about 60 colonists in the winter called the Starving Time?

Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. The Virginia Company of London founded it under the name 'James Fort'.

Which Massachusetts town held the 1692 witch trials in which nineteen convicted people were hanged?

Salem's courts found thirty people guilty. Giles Corey died under torture for refusing to enter a plea, and at least five more people died in disease-ridden jails.

Which island stronghold in Charleston Harbor did Confederate guns bombard in April 1861, opening the Civil War?

Fort Sumter saw the war's first military deaths only after the fighting stopped: a pile of cartridges blew up during the garrison's 100-gun surrender salute.

Which frontier town saw Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday trade about 30 shots in 30 seconds near the O.K. Corral?

Tombstone's famous gunfight did not happen in the corral at all: it took place in a narrow lot beside a photography studio, six doors from the corral's rear entrance.

Which wagon route, used by about 400,000 settlers, ended in the Willamette Valley?

The Oregon Trail stretched about 2,170 miles. Fur traders laid it out, and at first it could be crossed only on foot or horseback.

Which Texas city grew up around the Alamo, a Spanish mission whose name means 'cottonwood tree'?

San Antonio's mission fell to Santa Anna's Mexican troops after a 13-day siege. It was founded as Misión San Antonio de Valero, built to convert local tribes to Christianity.

Which president later served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the only person to have held both offices?

William Howard Taft had long sought the chief justiceship, yet he turned down repeated offers of an ordinary Supreme Court seat because he believed his political work mattered more.

Which poet wrote the sonnet 'The New Colossus' to raise money for the Statue of Liberty's pedestal?

Emma Lazarus donated the sonnet to an art auction for the pedestal fund. In 1903 its lines, among them 'Give me your tired, your poor', were cast onto a bronze plaque mounted inside.

Which songwriter wrote 'God Bless America' as an Army soldier in 1918 and revised it into a hit two decades later?

Irving Berlin's revision caught on in 1938, when Kate Smith introduced it as a 'peace song' on an Armistice Day radio broadcast and made it her signature tune.

Which Rocky Mountain summit inspired Katharine Lee Bates's 1893 poem, later sung as 'America the Beautiful'?

Pikes Peak's summit view moved Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, during a summer she spent teaching nearby. Her poem was only paired with its melody later.

Which Cherokee inventor completed a syllabary in 1821 that enabled reading and writing in the Cherokee language?

Sequoyah's feat is among the few times in recorded history that one member of a pre-literate group created an effective writing system. His nation officially adopted it four years later.

Which bandleader composed 'The Stars and Stripes Forever', the official national march, on Christmas Day 1896?

John Philip Sousa composed it aboard the liner Teutonic, sailing home from a European vacation after learning that the manager of his band had died.

Which engineer drew up the 1791 baroque street plan for the new federal capital of the United States?

Pierre L'Enfant produced a design that later inspired plans for other world capitals, including Brasília, New Delhi and Canberra.

Which astronaut flew Friendship 7 in 1962 as the first American to orbit Earth, then spent 24 years as a senator?

John Glenn went back to space in 1998 at age 77 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery, the only person to fly in both the Mercury and Space Shuttle programs.

Which nickname for the American flag began with one sewn in 1824 for sea captain William Driver's first command?

Old Glory went with Driver when he settled in Nashville, where he kept it safe from Confederates who tried to seize it during the Civil War.

According to legend, which Troy meatpacker who supplied Army rations in the War of 1812 inspired the name Uncle Sam?

Samuel Wilson has Uncle Sam memorials in both his Massachusetts birthplace and his longtime home of Troy, although the character's true origin remains obscure.

Which Florida wetland, a slow-moving river 60 miles wide, earned the nickname 'River of Grass'?

The Everglades got the nickname from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, whose 1947 book 'The Everglades: River of Grass' came out a month before the national park there was dedicated.

Which national park, first protected by a grant Abraham Lincoln signed in 1864, is home to El Capitan and Half Dome?

Yosemite became federally preserved land in the middle of the Civil War, after Galen Clark and others lobbied to protect its valley from development.

Which mountain, whose Penobscot name means 'Great Mountain', marks the northern end of the Appalachian Trail?

Mount Katahdin was protected in the 1930s by a governor, Percival Baxter, who spent much of his personal fortune buying the mountain after legislators would not fund the purchase.

Which college football award, created by the Downtown Athletic Club, is a statuette modeled on NYU player Ed Smith?

The Heisman Trophy's model posed for the sculptor, a former high school classmate, and did not realize until 1982 that the sculpture had become the famous prize.

Which presidential retreat in the wooded hills of Maryland's Catoctin Mountain Park was once known as 'Shangri-La'?

Camp David was built by the Works Progress Administration as a retreat for federal agents and their families. A later president renamed it for his young grandson, David.

Which series of 85 essays did Hamilton, Madison and Jay publish as 'Publius' to promote ratifying the Constitution?

The Federalist Papers is a later name: the pieces first appeared simply as The Federalist, under a shared pseudonym that hid three authors.

Which Grant Wood painting of a stern man holding a pitchfork was modeled on his dentist and his sister?

American Gothic began with a real house in Eldon, Iowa: Wood painted it along with 'the kind of people' he fancied should live there.

Which boundary, surveyed in the 1760s for the feuding Penn and Calvert families, came to divide North from South?

The Mason–Dixon line is named for the English surveyors and astronomers Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, hired to help end a border conflict known as Cresap's War.

Which policy, first voiced in an 1823 address to Congress, opposes foreign interference in the Western Hemisphere?

The Monroe Doctrine was first set out in a State of the Union address, but it was not named after the president who delivered it until 1850.

Which river crosses New Mexico from north to south before forming the border between Texas and Mexico?

The Rio Grande runs 1,896 miles in all. The stretch that serves as the international border measures anywhere from 889 to 1,248 miles, depending on how the river is measured.