50 Fun Facts About Orlando

Orlando is the county seat of which Florida county?

It is the state's most populous inland city and part of a four-county metro area that also takes in Seminole, Osceola and Lake.

Before it was Orlando, the settlement went by what name, after the cattlemen who first settled it?

Aaron and Isaac Jernigan came from Georgia in 1843; a post office opened at Jernigan in 1850 and moved to 'Orlando' in 1857.

Which Second Seminole War outpost, built in 1838, is the origin of the Orlando area?

It was named for an army physician killed in the Dade battle of 1835 and sat within 250 yards of a Council Oak where Native Americans traditionally met.

What do historians say about Orlando Reeves, the man Orlando is legendarily named after?

Reviews of military records in the 1970s and 80s found no trace of him; rival theories credit sugar planter Orlando Savage Rees or Shakespeare's As You Like It.

Which Shakespeare play, whose hero is named Orlando, is one of the leading theories for the city's name?

Judge James Speer, who pushed the name through, reportedly loved the play; downtown's Rosalind Avenue shares its heroine's name.

Orlando was incorporated as a town on 31 July 1875 with how many residents?

Only 22 of them were voters; the town briefly revoked its charter in 1879 and became a city in 1885.

Orlando's 'Golden Era' as hub of Florida's citrus industry ended with what event?

Ruined growers sold out to a few 'citrus barons' who moved operations south to Polk County.

Which aerospace and defence company opened a plant in Orlando in 1956, seeding its high-tech economy?

Now Lockheed Martin, it still runs a large missile and aeronautics facility in the city.

Orlando International Airport's code is MCO. Where does it come from?

The base was renamed in 1958 for Colonel Michael McCoy, killed in a B-47 crash; U-2s flew from it during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In what year did Walt Disney World open, transforming Orlando's economy?

Walt had announced the plan in 1965 but died in 1966; the Magic Kingdom opened on 1 October 1971 to a deliberately modest crowd of about 10,000.

One major reason Walt Disney chose Orlando over Miami and Tampa was what?

Disney also liked the coming Interstate 4 and Florida's Turnpike, and the airfield at McCoy.

Disney bought its Florida land through dummy corporations with joking names, including one called what?

The pun on I-4 sat alongside the Latin-American Development and Management Corporation and the Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation; some 27,443 acres were assembled from 1964.

Walt Disney World is not in Orlando. In which municipality does it actually sit?

Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista are the two Disney-controlled cities inside the former Reedy Creek Improvement District.

Which is the only major theme-park resort located inside the city limits proper?

Universal Studios Florida opened in 1990; Islands of Adventure followed in 1999 and Epic Universe in May 2025.

The third theme park at the resort at I-Drive's north end, Epic Universe, opened on what date?

It sits at the northern end of International Drive near the outlet mall.

Islands of Adventure opened in May 1999 with how many themed 'islands'?

Port of Entry, Seuss Landing, The Lost Continent, Jurassic Park, Toon Lagoon and Marvel Super Hero Island; the Wizarding World of Harry Potter came later.

SeaWorld Orlando opened in December 1973 as which park in the SeaWorld chain?

It arrived two years after the Magic Kingdom, making Central Florida a multi-park destination; the nation's first water coaster, Journey to Atlantis, followed in 1998.

What did EPCOT originally stand for?

Walt imagined a real futuristic city; after his death the company built a 'permanent world's fair' instead, opening 1 October 1982.

Because of Florida's high water table, Magic Kingdom's service tunnels, the utilidors, were built how?

Dirt dug from the Seven Seas Lagoon was piled around them, giving the park an elevation of 108 feet.

Lake Eola, the centrepiece of downtown Orlando, is actually what?

It is about 80 feet deep near the fountain; the lake was named by Judge Robert Summerlin after his fiancée, who died weeks before their wedding.

Lake Eola's famous fountain, replaced in 1957, was renamed in 1966 after whom?

The 1957 replacement cost $350,000, up from the $10,000 original of 1912; the park itself dates to 1892 and once had a zoo and a race track.

Which 11-mile tourist strip in southwest Orlando is often compared to the Las Vegas Strip?

I-Drive runs from Universal at its north end past the convention centre, SeaWorld and ICON Park's giant wheel.

The county's I-Drive convention center is the second-largest in the US, behind which venue?

It opened in 1983 and now offers over two million square feet of exhibition space.

Which name was NOT a finalist in the 1986 newspaper contest that named Orlando's NBA team?

'Magic' was submitted by 11 people and chosen after Pat Williams's seven-year-old daughter visited and called Orlando magic; 'Heat' went to Miami.

The Orlando Magic reached the NBA Finals in 1995 and 2009, losing to which two teams?

The 1995 team had Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway; the 2009 side was built around Dwight Howard.

Which former Brazil star became Orlando City SC's first MLS signing and Designated Player in 2014?

The club had begun as a USL side founded by Stoke City board member Phil Rawlins in 2010 and debuted in MLS in 2015.

Which team became the first from the city to win a major championship, taking the 2024 NWSL title?

They also won the NWSL Shield that season, and share Inter&Co Stadium with Orlando City.

Under what plain name did the WPA-built venue that hosts the Citrus Bowl open in 1936?

A WPA project, it later carried the Tangerine Bowl and Citrus Bowl names, hosted 1994 World Cup matches and five Pro Bowls.

UCF opened its first classes in 1968 under what name?

It was created to supply engineers for the space programme at Cape Canaveral; today its 70,000-plus students make it one of the largest campuses in the country.

What is the mascot of the UCF Knights?

Pegasus is on the university seal, and the Citronaut, a citrus-headed astronaut, was an early mascot; the teams now play in the Big 12.

Gatorland, the 'Alligator Capital of the World' south of Orlando, was founded in 1949 by whom?

The 110-acre park is still owned by his family and is famous for its giant gator-jaw entrance and leucistic white alligators.

Which entrepreneur opened Orlando's Church Street Station complex with Rosie O'Grady's Good Time Emporium?

Its Cheyenne Saloon hosted The Nashville Network every Friday for seven years, with Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson appearing before they were famous.

Orlando's old City Hall was imploded in 1992 as a scene in which film?

That same year local boy Wesley Snipes shot Passenger 57 in his hometown; the mid-1990s city was nicknamed 'Hollywood East'.

Which Disney animated features were made at the Florida studio inside Disney's Hollywood Studios, closed in 2004?

It also began Brother Bear; the studio shut when Disney pivoted to computer animation.

Which 1999 indie horror hit put Orlando's independent film scene on the map?

Haxan Films made it; four years later Charlize Theron won an Oscar for Monster, partly shot in the Orlando area.

Which 1990s children's network taped its green-slime game shows at the movie-studio theme park on I-Drive?

It produced hundreds of hours of GAK-filled shows before leaving; Soundstage 21 later became home to TNA Wrestling.

Which ABC sitcom, set in 1990s Orlando, prominently featured the city?

The Huang family runs a steakhouse there; the novel Paper Towns is also set in Orlando, though its film was shot in North Carolina.

Orlando's population at the 2020 census was roughly what?

The metro area is far larger at about 2.67 million; a checkerboard of unincorporated county pockets keeps the city itself relatively small.

Orlando ranks where among the most visited cities in the US?

Only New York, Miami and Los Angeles draw more; the area has seven of North America's ten most visited theme parks.

Orlando's near-daily summer thunderstorms are caused by what?

They bring spectacular lightning and inches of rain in an hour; the record high is only 103 °F thanks to the constant humidity.

Florida's famous 1981 sinkhole swallowed part of which city just north of downtown Orlando?

Central Florida's porous limestone bedrock makes the area prone to sinkholes; Lake Eola itself is one.

Which restaurant company, parent of Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, is headquartered in Orlando?

It is the world's largest casual-dining operator by revenue; its former subsidiary Red Lobster is based downtown.

Which video-game studio in nearby Maitland, acquired by EA in 1998, makes the Madden NFL series?

Full Sail University in Winter Park feeds the local games industry; Orlando is also the hub of US military simulation.

Orlando's Central Florida Research Park is the national hub of what industry?

It is the seventh-largest research park in the US, and the convention centre hosts the world's largest modelling and simulation conference each year.

Orlando has the largest and fastest-growing mainland community of people from which US territory?

The city's Hispanic share rose from 4.1% in 1980 to 25.4% in 2010; there is also a large Brazilian population along I-Drive.

Eatonville, six miles north of Orlando and incorporated in 1887, is notable as what?

It was the childhood home of author Zora Neale Hurston, and founded a museum in her name in 1990.

How many victims were killed in the 12 June 2016 attack on Orlando's Pulse nightclub?

The city bought the site in 2023; the permanent memorial is due in late 2027.

The nearby city of Kissimmee was originally named what, after a Confederate steamboat major?

It took its present name at incorporation in 1883 and is the seat of Osceola County.

Which former military installation, closed in 1999, was redeveloped into the Baldwin Park neighbourhood?

It had housed one of the Navy's two Nuclear Power Schools; McCoy AFB, by contrast, became the international airport.

Orlando's Lake Ivanhoe takes its name from what?

Rosalind Avenue and Lake Eola show the city's fondness for literary and romantic names.