The United States is turning 250 this year! In honor of the semiquincentennial, we’ve compiled a list of 25 pieces of U.S. trivia that you can share at your 250th celebrations! (250 seemed like a bit too much, so we went with one for every decade.)
Foundational Trivia
- One of the first liaisons between Native Americans and Pilgrims was Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet Tribe.
- The Native American tribe who celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims was the Wampanoags. The celebration lasted for three days.
- There were 13 colonies before the U.S. declared their independence from Great Britian.
- The first of those colonies was settled in Jamestown, Virigina in 1607.
- The Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia in 1776.
Firsts
- Betsy Ross is thought to have sewed the first American flag.
- The first established university in the U.S. was Harvard. It was founded in 1636.
- The first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court was Thurgood Marshall.
- The first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court was Sandra Day O’Connor.
- The first American astronaut in space was Alan Shepard.
Biggest and Smallest
- The longest U.S. highway is Route 20. It stretches from Massachusetts to Oregon.
- The longest river in the U.S. is the Missouri River.
- The largest lake is Lake Superior. It borders Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Canada.
- The smallest state by land is Rhode Island.
- The smallest state by population is Wyoming.
National Things
- The American Bison is the national mammal of the U.S.
- The bald eagle is the national bird.
- The United States’ motto is, “E pluribus unum.” This translates to, “Out of many, one.”
- The national anthem is “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It is based off of a poem written by Francis Scott Key in 1814.
- The national flower of the U.S. is the rose.
Miscellaneous
- The last time the Liberty Bell was rung was in 1846.
- The first U.S. dollar bill was printed with Salmon P. Chase’s portrait. At the time, he was President Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury. He chose to use his own portrait in 1862 and was replaced by George Washington in 1869.
- The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France. It was originally a reddish-copper color but quickly turned to its famous patina green thanks to oxidization.
- It took over 200 years for the 27th Amendment to be ratified. In 1982, college student Gregory Watson wrote a paper explaining that the bill could still be ratified. He received a C. To prove his professor wrong, he began a campaign to get the bill ratified. It became an amendment in 1992.
- Almost all U.S. presidents have had pets during their time in office. Most have had dogs, cats, birds, horses, and other standard pets. A few notable presidential pets include:
- Thomas Jefferson’s grizzly bear cubs that later moved to a zoo,
- James Buchanan’s Thai elephants, that did not arrive until Lincoln was in office. These, too, were sent to a zoo,
- Tad Lincoln’s turkey, Jack, a would-be Christmas dinner turned pet,
- Dwight Eisenhower’s gifted baby elephant, also sent to a zoo,
- and the many pets of Calvin Coolidge. Some of his most notable pets include two racoons, a donkey, a bobcat, two lion cubs, a pygmy hippopotamus, a wallaby, a duiker (a small type of antelope), a black bear, and pekin ducks. Many of these would also, later, move to zoos.
Happy 250 to the U.S.A.!