Know it All

In 1859, Braille was first introduced in the Western Hemisphere at the Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis.

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The majority of the counties in Montana are "frontier counties." Of the 56 counties in the state, 46 are "frontier counties" because they have an average population of six or fewer people per square mile.

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Can you name all of the states that start with the letter N? If you can also name their state capitals give yourself a pat on the back. See answer at end.

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Eight U.S. presidents hail from Ohio, earning the state the nickname "the mother of presidents." The presidents from Ohio are William Harrison (ninth president), Ulysses S. Grant (18th), Rutherford Hayes (19th), James Garfield (20th), Benjamin Harrison (23rd), William McKinley (25th), William Taft (27th) and Warren Harding (29th).

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Carl Magee of Oklahoma City filed a patent for a "coin controlled parking meter" on May 13, 1935. The world's first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City on July 16, 1935.

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Tabitha Moffatt Brown (1780-1858) is known as the "Mother of Oregon." At 66 she moved from Missouri to Oregon and started a boarding school for orphans. The school later became Pacific University.

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Pennsylvania had the first license plates in the world that featured a Web site address. The state's Web site, www.state.pa.us, is on the license plate.

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George M. Cohan was born in Providence, R.I. in 1878. Cohan wrote over 500 songs including "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Over There." The 1942 film "Yankee Doodle Dandy," starring James Cagney, was a biography of Cohan's life.

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The top agricultural crop in South Carolina is tobacco. The state's next biggest crops are cotton and soybeans.

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South Dakota is the home of the Dakota tribes of Native Americans, which make up the Sioux Nation. The people of the Sioux Nation refer to themselves as Dakota or Lakota, which means friend or ally.

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Webb Pierce was one of the most popular honky-tonk country music singers of the 1950s. He led a flamboyant lifestyle. He owned a pair of convertibles lined with silver dollars and had a guitar-shaped swimming pool at his home in Nashville, Tenn.

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The Dallas Cowboys football team had a streak of 20 consecutive winning seasons from 1966 to 1985.

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The Sundance Film Festival takes place every January in Park City, Utah. Established by Robert Redford in 1981, the festival is a forum for new filmmakers to debut their work.

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Montpelier, Vt. is the only U.S. state capital that does not have a McDonald's restaurant.

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The famous speech "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death," by revolutionary leader Patrick Henry, took place at St. John's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Va. on March 23, 1775.

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The state of Washington is the only state named after a president of the United States.

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On Dec. 6, 1884 construction was completed on the Washington Monument. At the time it was the world's tallest structure. By mandate, the monument, a 555-foot Egyptian obelisk, will remain the tallest structure in Washington, D.C.

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The first federal prison for women in the United States was opened in West Virginia in 1926.

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Answer: There are eight states that start with the letter N. They are: Nebraska (state capital is Lincoln), Nevada (Carson City), New Hampshire (Concord), New Jersey (Trenton), New Mexico (Santa Fe), New York (Albany), North Carolina (Raleigh), and North Dakota (Bismarck).

Know It All is compiled by Kerry McArdle. It runs in the weekend and Wednesday editions of the Daily Journal. Know any trivia or facts you would like to share? E-mail knowitall@smdailyjournal.com or fax 344-5290.