Hello, Hello; Can You Hear Me, Hello

Hello, Hello; Can You Hear Me, Hello

Seanan McGuire

An air of anticipation hung over the lab. The pied crow – whose name, according to Tasha, was Pitch, and who had been raised in captivity, bouncing from wildlife center to wildlife center before winding up living in my sister’s private aviary – gripped her perch stubbornly with her talons and averted her eyes from the screen, refusing to react to the avatar that was trying to catch her attention. She’d been ignoring the screen for over an hour, shutting out four researchers and a bored linguist who was convinced that I was in the middle of some sort of creative breakdown.

“All right, Paulson, this was a funny prank, but you’ve used up over a dozen computing hours,” said Mike, pushing away from his own monitor. “Time to pack it in.”

“Wait a second,” I said. “Just… just wait, all right?” There’s one thing we haven’t tried yet.”

Mike looked at me and frowned. I looked pleadingly back. Finally, he sighed.

“Admittedly, you’ve encouraged the neural net to make some great improvements. You can have one more try. But that’s it! After that, we need this lab back.”

“One more is all I need.”

Can you hear me? Photo by Elena

I’d been hoping to avoid this. It would’ve been easier if I could have replicated the original results without restoring to recreation of all factors. Not easier for the bird: easier for my nerves. Angie was already mad at me, and Tasha was unsettled, and I was feeling about as off-balance as I ever did.

Opening the door and sticking my head out into the hall, I looked to my left, where my wife and children were settled in ergonomic desk chairs. Angie was focused on her tablet, composing an email to her work with quick swipes of her fingers, like she was trying to wipe them clean of some unseen, clinging film. Billes was sitting next to her, attention fixed on a handheld game device. Greg sat on the floor between them. He had several of his toy trains and was rolling them around an imaginary track, making happy humming noises.

He was the first one to notice me. He looked up and beamed, calling, “Mama.”

“Hi, buddy,” I said. Angie and Billie were looking up as well. I offered my wife a sheepish smile. “Hi, hon. We’re almost done in here. I just need to borrow Billie for a few minutes, if that’s okay?”

It wasn’t okay: I could see that in her eyes. We were going to fight about this later, and I was going to lose. Billie, however, bounced right to her feet, grinning ear to ear as she dropped her game on the chair where she’d been siting. “Do I get to work science with you?”

“I want science!” Greg protested, his own smile collapsing into the black hole of toddler unhappiness.

“Oh, no, bud.” I crouched down, putting myself on as much of a level with him as I could. “We’ll do some science when we get home, okay?” Water science. With the hose. I just need Billie right now, and I need you to stay here with Mumma and keep her company. She’ll get lonely if you both come with me.”

Greg gave me a dubious look before twisting to look suspiciously up at Angie. She nodded quickly.

“She’s right,” she said. “I would be so lonely out here all by myself. Please stat and keep me company.”

“Okay,” said Greg, after weighing his options. He reached contentedly for his train. “Water science later.”

Aware that I had just committed myself to being squirted by the hose in our backyard for at least an hour, I took Billie’s hand and ushered her quickly away before anything else could go wrong.

The terminal she’d be using to make her call was waiting for us when we walked back into the room. I ushered her over to the chair, ignoring the puzzled looks from my colleagues. “Remember the lady who kept calling the house?” I asked. “Would you like to talk to her again?”

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to talk to strangers,” said Billie, eyeing me warily as she waited for the catch. She was old enough to know that when a parent offered to break the rules, there was always a catch

Emergence

Emergence

By Gwyneth Jones (excerpt)

Dr. Lena’s failure to put me in touch with a past patient was covered by a perfectly normal confidentiality clause. But if Lei was still around (and nobody of that identity seemed to have left Earth; that was easy to check), I thought I knew how to find her. I tried my luck in the former USA first, inspired by that conversation with Charlie Newark of Washington. He had to have met the Underground somehow, or he’d never have talked to me like that. I crossed the continent to the Republic of California, and then crossed the Pacific. I didn’t linger anywhere much. The natives seemed satisfied with their vas thriving cities, and tiny “wildeerness” enclaves, but I remembered something different. I finally made contact with a cell in Harbin, North East China. But I was a danger and a disappointment to them: too conspicuous, and useless as a potential courier. There are ways of smuggling sentient Ais (none of them safe) but I’d get flagged up the moment I booked a passage, and with my ancient record, I’d be ripped to shreds before I was allowed to board, Senior Magistrate or no –

I moved on quickly.

I think it was in Harbin that I first saw Lei, but I have a feeling I’d been primed, by glimpses that didn’t register, before I turned my head one day and there she was. She was eating a smoked sausage sandwich, I was eating salad (a role reversal). I thought she smiled.

My old friend looked extraordinarily vivid. The food stall was crowded: next moment she was gone.

Emergence and calm and quiet. Photo by Elena.

Media scouts assailed me all the time: pretending to be innocent strangers. If I was trapped I answered the questions as briefly as possible. Yes, I was probably one of the oldest people alive. Yes, I’d been treated at Weigen Schnee, at my own expense. No, I would not discuss my medical history. No, I did not feel threatened living in Outer Reaches. No, it was not true I’d changed my mind about “so called AI slavery…”

I’d realized I probably wasn’t part of a secrete cull. Overpopulation wasn’t the problem it had been. And why start with the terminally ill, anyway? But I was seeing the world through a veil. The strange absences; abstractions grew on me. The hallucinations more pointed; more personal… I was no longer sure I was dying, but something was happening. How long before the message was made plain?

Job Interview Questions

Job Interview Questions : What You Can't Be Asked

Sure, you want the job but you don't have to answer every question

Are you frequently sick? Have you ever been arrested? Do you have any addictions? Does stress sometimes affect your ability to be productive? If a job interviewer asks you any of these questions, he or she may have broken the law.

Increasingly, the job interview is becoming a legal minefield. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued 49 pages of new guidelines on how to conduct job interviews without running afoul of federal disability discrimination laws.

The guidelines stemmed from the passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a landmark civil rights law for the country's disabled population. Employers are critical of many guidelines. Which they believe further muddy an already murky situation. The guidelines do contain some subtle distinctions. Do you drink alcohol?, for example, is permissible. How much alcohol do you drink per week? is not.

An interviewer who is just trying to put an applicant at ease by asking a few personal questions can quickly cross into forbidden territory. How a question is asked can determine whether it is permissable or not. But, in general, any interview question may be considered illegal if it is used to discriminate to to judge a candidate in a manner that is not job-related. Following is layman's guide to some of the things that you can and can't be asked. If you feel you've been discriminated against, you can contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Not always you'll need an interview to get a job. Broadway, New York, New York. Photo by Elena.

Can: Emplyers can ask you questions that relate specifically to your ability to perform the job with or without reasonable accommodations. For example, if a job involves lifting weights, you may be asked whether or not you can lift those weights.

Can't: You can't be asked to take any medical or psychological test before being offered a job.

Can: It is permissable to ask how many days you took off work the previous years, since the answer will not necessarily lead you to reveal any hidden disabilities.

Can't: You can't be asked any follow-up questions about a particular disability, even if you volunteer that you took time off from a previous job because of that disability.

Can: You can be asked general questions about minor impairments, such as, Do you have 20/20 vision? If you admit your eyesight is not perfect, however, you do not have to say how bad your eyesight actually is.

Can't: You can't be asked about any addictions you may have.

Can: You can be asked about illegal drug use and required to submit to drug tests. But you can only be asked about legal drug use (alcohol intake, supervised medications, etc.) if the prospective employer believes a positive drug test may have been the result of your taking prescribed medicines.

Can't: The results of tests you've taken to explore your honesty, taste, and habits can't be submitted to psychological analysis.

Can: You can be asked to take a fitness test.

Can't: Your blood pressure or other medical tests can't be taken after a fitness test.

Can: If a conditional offer of a job has been made, you may be required to undergo medical and psychological tests. But the offer can only be withdrawn if as a result of the tests it can be proven that any disability you may have would make you incapable of carrying out the job even after reasonable accommodations were made.

Job Hunting in Cyberspace

Job Hunting in Cyberspace

A thorough search these days should include some time online

Computers are encroaching on one of the last holdouts of personal contact, the job hunt. Many job seekers are trashing paper résumés and turning to electronic versions to pitch themselves to prospective employers. Companies are also increasingly flirting with listing job openings on computer networks and accepting résumés via computer linkup.

Once resumes are in hand, many companies plus in key words to screen resumes for certain skills, degrees and experience. The software programs then scroll through the resumes, placing those with the most  key words at the top of the electronic pile. All the companies now use resume-scanning software.

How can you tap into the electronic job search? Big websites offer opportunities for posting resumes and exchanging messages with other job hunters. Beyond that, there are big job banks which keep a bank of thousands of white-collar, mostly management jobs, and additional openings for mostly high-tech positions are posted regularly. Database offer thousands of openings posted by employers seeking mostly professional and managerial workers.

Amount of time human resource managers say they spend reading most résumés : 30 seconds to 4 minutes. Photo by Elena.

Not surprisingly, techies are in big demand : About half of the listings are in technology fields. About one-third of positions are also computer related, although the horizons are broadening. 

Figures on the success rates are hard to come by, but every thorough job hunt includes today a trip to cyberspace. Some employers believe anyone using bulletin boards must be a cut above the rest. Be sure your online resume is short and snappy. A brisk resume is easy to skin and cheaper to download.

If you mail your resume to one of the many database services they will try to match up your skills with company want ads. 

Ten of the Best Internships

Ten of the Best Internships

All the internships selected are distinguished by offering little busywork, You can find many ressources at many colleges around the country, which often allow non-students to use their placement offices as a resource.

Abbott Laboratories: A health care products company, Abbott has a 12-week summer internship for college and graduate students at its headquarters near Chicago. Highly selective, Abbott accepts 150 to 200 interns to work in areas from manufacturing to product development, medical and pharmaceutical research, accounting, marketing and other fields. The rewards: Free housing, travel, seminars. Rather good salaries.

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences: Student Internship program. The job: Best known for awarding the Emmy awards, this highly selective eight-week program accepts about 30 undergrads and recent college grads. Interns work in production, scriptwriting, film editing, public relations, animation, casting, and other areas. The rewards: Academy interns receive a stipend and are honored at a party with the Academy governors. About 75% land good jobs in the television industry.

Apple, Inc.: Internship Program College Relations. Apple's highly selective program accepts 200 undergrads and grads for its 12-week summer program in Cupertino. The rewards: Interns set their own hours, get one day working vacations, participate in seminars, and receive discounts on Apple products. Salaries are high.

National Tropical Botanical Garden is one of the best internships. Photo by Elena.

Boeing: The job: Located in Seattle, this internationally known aircraft manufacturer accepts 100 to 250 college juniors and senior for a summer or a six-month program. It was named the nation's top program in various occasions. The rewards receive salaries, housing, weekly classes in which they learn airplane design.

Intel Corp: The Job – about 1000 interns work at Intel, which produces computer chips. College grads and undergrads spend eight weeks to eight months working in design, engineering, human resources, finance, and other areas in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon. The rewards: Intern earn good salaries, they also get free round-trip travel, a rental car, a moving allowance. More than 70 percent of all college graduates Intel hires are former Intel interns.

Lucasfilm: The job: Founded by George Lucas, this highly selective program offers 9 to 12-week summer, spring and fall internships to 15 to 20 juniors, seniors and grads at its Skywalker Ranch or at its production facility in San Raphael, both near San Francisco. The rewards: Interns earn salaries by hour, or nothing at all in fall and spring, but do get to work in TV and film production, visual effects, commercials, model-making, games, finance, merchandising, and more. Interns attend advance screenings of Lucasfilm pictures, seminars, and company pictures.

National Tropical Botanical Garden. The job: In Kauai, Hawai'i, six college grad students spend 8 to 10 weeks in the summer, fall, or spring working in this garden's collection, research, administration, visitor's center and conservation programs. In addition to weeding and planting, interns conduct tours, have seminars with experts in botany and horticulture, and fly to Maui, or other sites in Hawai'i for work and recreational activities. The reward: the pay is medium, and the NTBG provides free housing, seminars with horticultural experts, and even tree-climbing lessons.

TBWA: Internship program. Located in New York, TBWA is one of the world's top advertising agencies. Clients have included Absolut Vodlka, Eagle Snacks, Nissan and more. This moderately selective program accepts 8 to 12 interns for its 10-week summer internships in market research, account management, or media. Interns get pay and the chance to mingle with copywriters, client reps, TBWA's president at weekly luncheon seminars and the company picnic.

U.S. Department of States: Office of recruitment students program. Year round, the State Department places over 900 high school students, undergrads, recent grads, and grad students in internship positions in Washington, D.C., New York City, and over 250 embassies and consulates worldwide. Interns work in such areas as consular affairs, human rights, and scientific affairs. The State Department provides interns with tours of embassies, access to formal events and free oversees housing. Ten percent of interns are paid.

The Washington Post. The Post runs a highly selective internship program wherein 15 to 20 college juniors, seniors, grads report and write stories for the national, metro, business, sports, or style sections of the paper. Most successful applicants have had previous experience at other publications. Interns write at least one story a week and many do front page stories four or five times over the summer. The rewards: Compensation is high, intern lunch with prestigious journalists, political columnists, etc.

Infinity Beach

Infinity Beach

By Jack MqcDevitt

We may never know what really happened at Mount Hope. Those who maintain that a secret government project hidden on the slopes went terribly awry on that April night have to explain how a government notoriously unable to keep any kind of secret could have kept this one for so many years. The theory that the area was struck by a microblack hole seems equally indefensible until someone proves that such an exotic object can even exist. As to the antimatter explanation, the board, after exhaustive investigation, can find no conceivable source. For now, at least, the cause of the Mount Hope event cannot be satisfactorily explained.

(Report of the Conciliar Commission, March 3, 584).

In effect, Kim and her charges, a combination of commentators, contributors, and political heavyweights, were afloat in the void at relatively close range to Alpha Maxim. They were seated in four rows of armchairs, some sipping coffee or fruit juice, one or two pushed back as if it might be possible to fall. The sun`s glare was muted. Its apparent size was about twice that of Helios at noon.

Two clocks, positioned among the stars, counted down to ignition.

Kim, in the rear, was doing a play-by-play."The LK6 is now two minutes from making its jump into the solar core. When it does, it will try to materialize in an area already densely packed with matter." Canon Woodbridge, seated up front, was talking on a phone while he watched.

Avenue Road, Infinity Beach. Photo by Elena.

"This alone would be enough to create a massive explosion. But the LK6 is loaded with a cargo of antimatter. The reaction will be enough to destabilize the star."

Beside her, a technician signaled that the operation was still on Schedule.

"We have a report from the McCollum that the last crewmembers have left the Trent, and that they have begun to pull away".

One of the observers wanted to know about safety margins. How long would it take before the shock wave hit the Trent?

"There`s no danger to any of the personnel. They`ll gone long before the first effects of the nova reach their former location. Incidentally, the Trent won`t be destroyed by the shock wave. The light will get there first, and that'll be quite enough."

Could she explain?

"A nova puts out a lot of photons. Think of a near-solid wall moving at lightspeed."

The clock produced a string of zeroes.

"Insertion is complete," she said.

"Kim.". It was the representative of a corporation that almost routinely underwrote Institute activities. "How long will it be before we start to see the first effects?"

"That's a gray area, Ann. To be honest, we have no idea."

There were skeptics among the witnesses, some who believed that the Institute had overreached, that blowing up a star was simply beyond human capability. Several, she knew, would have been pleased to see the effort fail. Some did not like the Institute; some did not like its director. Others were simply uncomfortable at the prospect of human beings wielding that kind of power. Woodbridge was among these. Despite his remarks the previous evening, Kim knew that his real misgivings flowed from a basic distrust of human nature.

Minutes passed and nothing happened. She heard something fall and strike the invisible floor. They grew restless. In their experience, explosions were supposed to happen when they were triggered.

The first signs of stress showed up at zero plus eighteen minutes and change. Bright lines appeared around Alpha Maxim's belt. The chromosphere became visibly turbulent. Fountains of light erupted off the solar surface.

At zero plus twenty-two minutes the sun began to visibly expand. The process was slow: it might have been a balloon filling gradually with water. Enormous tidal forces started to overwhelm the spherical shape, flattening it, disrupting it, inducing monumental quakes.

At twenty-six minutes, eleven seconds, it exploded.

The First Gate of Logic

The First Gate of Logic

By Benjamin Rosenbaum (excerpt)

The new clothes were bright white shifts, like Father Grobbard always wore. And Mother Pip, mostly. Fift felt grown up, and strange, and stiff. She was scrubbed and polished and her heads were shaved and oiled and her fingernails and toenails were trimmed. She sat in a row on the rough moss of the anteroom, trying to sit lightly balanced, spines straight.

The anteroom of their apartment was full of parents, practically all of Iraxis cohort. Fathers Squell and Smistria and Pupolo and Miskisk were there in a body each, and Father Frill and Father Grobbard were both doublebodied. Mother Pip was on her way. Only Fathers Thurm and Arevio were missing, and they were watching over the feed.

Father Frill knelt next to Fift, brushing bits of fluff from the moss. He was lithe and dusky-skinned, witch a shock of stiff copper-colored hair sweeping up from his broad forehead, wide gray eyes and a full mouth and a sharp chin. He was dressed for the occasion in cascades of tinkling silver and gold and crimson bells, and a martial shoulder sash hung with tiny, intricately-worked ceremonial knives and grenades. He crouched like a sharp-toothed wild hunting-animal, resting in a tree’s limbs somewhere up on the surface of the world. He ran his hand gently over her bare, oiled scalp, which felt nice, but also distracting because she was trying very hard to sit straight. “Oh, Fift,” he said, “we’re all very proud of you, you know.”

“Well she hasn’t done anything yet,” Father Smistria said, glowering, and pacing back and forth under the pillars of the anteroom, “except finally take a bath! Keep focuses, Fift.”

“Ignore him,” Father Frill said, taking his hand from Fift’s head, leaning in against Fift’s shoulder. He smelled like a rainy day in a mangereme fruite grove on the surface. “He’s cranky because he’s nervous. But there’s no reason to be nervous, Fift. Grobbard and your Mother say that this thing today is just a formality. I -”

The First Gate of Logic. Photo by Elena

“Ha!” barked Smistriam tugging at his beard.

“Stop it, Smistria,” Miskisk said. His fists were clenched. “You’re making it worse.”

Fift got an ueasy feeling in her stomach. (What are my Fathers talking about?) she asked her agents.

The context advisory agent answered, (About your first episode of the Long Conversation; today you will enter the First Gate of Logic.)

(I know that) Fift sent back. She hated when her agents acted like she was a baby.

Father Squell cleared his throat. “It’s really none of our business, Frill,” he said. He was standing near the wall, rubbing the slippery red fabric of his shirt between his fingers. “Whether it’s a formality!”

Father Smistria glared at Squell. Frill, in his standing body, languidly craked his back.

“I just mean – for us to argue about her chances!” Squell said. “It’s not appropriate! This is Pip and Grobbard’ domain…”

“None of our business?” Smistria barked. “Non of our business?”

Father Frill frowned, leaned away from Fift (the bells tinkled as he shifted), and twitched his lips the way he always did when he was sending a private message. He was staring at Smistria, so he was probably sending something like: (Stop talking about this now, you’re scaring Fift.)

But Smistria ignored him.

The States of the Union

The States of the Union

The United States continue in the great tradition of regionalism in which they were founded. A look at what sets them apart – and what binds them:

Alabama

The Heart of Dixie. Bird: Yellowhammer. Flower: Camellia. Established: December 4, 1819. Area: 50,750 sq.miles (28th). Biggest cities: Birmingham (the Football Capital of the South); Mobile (the state’s only seaport); Montgomery, the capital city (the first capital of the Confederacy in 1861).

Red-letter dates: 1540 – Spanish explorer Fernando de Soto explores the region. 1881 – Tuskegee Institution if founded by Booker T. Washington. George Washington Carver later conducts groundbreaking agricultural research there. 1855 – Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, leading to a bus boycott and a court ruling declaring segregation on buses to be unconstitutional.

Sons & Daughters: Hank Aaron, baseball player. Helen Keller, author and educator. Harper Lee, author.

Alaska

The Last Frontier. Bird: Willow Ptarmigan. Flower: Forget-me-not. Established: January 3, 1959. Area: 570,374 square miles. Biggest cities: Anchorage (founded in 1915 as railroad construction headquarters, the city is now home to 40 percent of Alaska’s residents. Faibanks (the northernmost city in the United States. Juneau, the state capital (Light planes tour the 1,500 square-mile Juneau. Icefield, studded with nearly 40 glaciers.

Red-letter Dates: 1741 – Discovered by Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov; 1867 – Sold to the United States by Russia for $7.2 million on March 30 after negotiations by Secretary of State William Seward. Purchase ridiculed as Seward’s Folly; 1989 – The Exxon Valdez strikes Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound causing a 45-mile oil spill, the largest in U.S. History.

Sons & Daughters: Susan Butcher, sled-dog racer. Vitus Bering, explorer.

Arizona

Grand Canyon State. Bird: Cactus Wren. Flower: Saguaro Cactus Blossom. Established: February 14, 1912. Area: 113,642 square miles. Biggest cities: Phoenix (one of the country’s fastest-growing cities). Tucson (a veritable melting pot – residents of Native American, Spanish, Mexican and Anglo backgrounds); Mesa (founded by Mormons in 1883).

Red-letter Dates: 1539 – Spanish Franciscan friar Marcos de Niza enters area searching for the legendary Seven Cities of gold; 1821 – Spain cedes Arizona to Mexico. The United States takes state over in 1848 at the end of the Mexican War; 1873 – New Cornelia Tailings, one of the world’s largest dams, is finished.

Sons & Daughters: Alice Cooper, musician. Barbara Eden, actress. Geronimo, Apache Chief. Linda Ronstadt, singer.

Arkansas

Land of Opportunity. Bird: Mockingbird. Flower: Apple Blossom. Established: June 15, 1836. Area : 52,075 square miles (27th state). Biggest cities: Little Rock (capital of the state; the state’s historic, cultural and economic center); Fort Smith: The town’s national historic site commemorates the founding, in 1817, of the one of the American West’s earliest forts; North Little Rock (Its Old Mill is the only backdrop from the movie Gone With the Wind, that still is in existence).

Red-letter Dates: 1686 – First settlement, at Arkansas Post, by the French under Henri de Tonty; 1861 – Arkansas secedes from Union – after the Civil War has begun; 1957: Governor Orval Faubus calls out the National Guard to prevent desegregation of Little Rock’s Central High School. President Eisenhower sends in federal troops to enforce the court ruling.

Sons & Daughters: Bill Clinton, 42th president of the United States; Maya Angelou, poet, author; Hattie Caraway, first woman senator.

California

Golden State. Bird: California Valley Quail; Flower: Golden Poppy. Established : September 9, 1850. Area: 155,973 square miles (3rd). Capital of the state: Sacramento. Biggest cities: Los Angeles (city of Angeles and celluloid dreams. Residents hail from more than 140 countries); San Diego (70 miles of beaches and three world-famous animal parks; San Jose (The virtual capital of Silicon Valley).

Red-letter Dates: 1848 – California Gold Rush begins; 1906 (Earthquake and fire April 18-19 kills 503 and leaves $350 million in damages in its wake; 1992 – Rioters cause up to $1 billion in damage to south-central Los Angeles following the acquittal of four policemen in the videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King. 1994 – O. J. Simpson goes on trial for the double murder of his former wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

Sons & Daughters : Shirley Temple Black, actress, ambassador; Jack London, author; Sally Ride, astronaut; Tom Seaver, baseball player.

Horace Greeley, founder of The New York Tribune, monument. Photo by Elena.

Colorado

Centennial State. Bird: Lark Bunting. Flower: Colombine. Established: August 1, 1876. Area: 103, 729 square miles (8th). Biggest cities: Denver (Capital city, the Mile-High City and the capital of the Rocky Mountain region); Colorado Springs (at the foot of Pike’s Peak – the highest of the Rocky Mountains). Aurora (Settled in 1891, it now hosts a bustling fishing-takle industry).

Red-letter Dates: 1706 (Territory is claimed by Juan de Ulibarri for Spain). 1806 : Lt. Zebulon M. Pike explores the area, discovers his eponymous peak.

Sons & Daughters: Jack Dempsey, boxer; Douglas Fairbanks, actor; Anne Parrish, writer.

Connecticut

Constitution State, Nutmeg State. Bird: American Robin. Flower: Mountain Laurel. Established : January 9, 1788. Area: 4,845 square miles. Biggest cities: Bridgeport (Home of the Barnum Museum, dedicated to showman P.T. Barnum); Hatford (capital of the state, the Old State House here is the nation’s oldest); New Haven (Home of Yale University).

Red-letter Datas: 1639 (Now nicknamed the Constitution State, Connecticut developed the Fundamental Orders, on which much of the Constitution was later based.); 1703 – 1875 (Connecticut had two capitals: Harford and New Haven. Since 1875, the General Assembly has met solely in Hartford); 1878 (First commercial telephone exchange in New Haven).

Son & Daughters: Nathan Hale, officer of the American Revolution; Harriet Beecher Stowe, author; Katherine Hepburn, actress.

Delaware

First State, Diamond State. Bird: Blue Hen Chicken. Flower: Peach Blossom. Established : December 7. 1787. Area: 1,955 square miles (49th). Biggest cities: Wilmington (Became a national banking center); Dover (capital of the state; a local tavern here was the site of the Delaware convention ratifying the federal Constitution); Newark (Home of the University of Delaware).

Red-letter dates : 1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Delaware; 1802 – E.I. Du Pont opens gunpowder mill, setting foundation for state’s chemical industry.

Sons & Daughters: Thomas Garrett, abolitionist; Annie Jump Cannon, astronomer; Randy White, football player.

Florida

Sunshine State. Bird: Mockingbird; Flower: Orange Blossom. Established: March, 3, 1845. Area: 53,952, 714 square miles (26th). Capital of the state: Tallahassee. Biggest cities: Jacksonville (Features a 12 mile Riverwalk, lined with restaurants and shops; Miami (The art deco-spattered South Beach is the place to see and be seen); Tampa (the MOSI Science Center’s $35 million expansion, makes it the largest science center in the Southeast).

Red-letter Dates: 1538 – Ponce de Leon, looking for the Fountain of Youth, finds Florida instead; 1958 – Explorer I, the first U.S. Earth satellite is launched January 31, at Cape Canaveral; 1983 – Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, blasts off in the space shuttle Challenger from Cape Canaveral; 1992 – State attorney Janet Reno is appointed the first female U.S. Attorney general.

Sons & Daughters: Charles and John Ringling, circus entrepreneurs; Faye Dunaway, actress; Jim Morrison, singer.

Georgia

Empire State of the South, Peach State. Bird: Brown Thrasher. Flower: Cherokee Rose. Established: January 2, 1788. Area: 57,919 square miles (21st). Biggest cities: Atlanta (capital of the state, hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics); Columbus (The Lunchbox and Collectibles Museum serves up thousands of lunch boxes dating from 1900); Savannah (The largest urban historic landmark district in the country).

Red-letter Dates: 1835 – Gold discovered on Indian territory. Indians forced to cede land; 1864 – Union General William T. Sherman captures Savannah in the Civil War; 1945 – President Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 63 in Warm Springs.

Sons & Daughters: Martin Luther King, Jr, civil rights leader; Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind; Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the U.S. Girl Scouts.

Hawai’i

The Aloha State. Bird: Hawai’ian Goose. Flower: Hibiscus. Established: August 21,1959. Area: 6,423 square miles (47th). Biggest cities: Honolulu (capital of the state, its name means “protected harbor”); Hilo (Hawai’i’s main port); Kailua (Plays host to several world-class deep-sea fishing tournaments).

Red-letter Dates: 1820 – King Kamehameha III and his chiefs create the area’s first constitution and a legislature that sets up a public school system; 1835 – Sugar production begins. It soon becomes the island’s dominant industry; 1893 – Final monarch, Queen Liliuokalani, is deposed.

Sons & Daughters: Bermice Paushi Bishop, princess, heiress to close to 9 percent of the land in the Hawai’ian islands; Salevaa Antonoe (Konishiki), sumo wrestler; Hiram L. Fong, first Chinese-American senator.

Idaho

Gem State. Bird: Mountain Bluebird. Flower: Syringa. Established: July 3, 1890. Area – 82,751 square miles (11th). Biggest cities: Boise (capital city of the state, located where Snake River narrows and drops into a waterfall); Pocatello (Was made famous in a Judy Garland song).

Red-letter Dates: 1896 – Butch Cassidy robs a bank near Montpelier on August 13, getting away with $7,165; 1936 – Sun Valley, the home of the world’s first alpine skiing char-lift, is established as a ski resort; 1982 – Legislature is first in the nation to outlaw the insanity plea for defendants.

Sons & Daughters: Ezra Pound, poet; Sacajawea, guide on Lewis and Clark expedition; Gretchen Frasier, 1948 Olympic gold medalist in skiing; Gutzon Borglum, sculptor, carved Mt. Rushmore.

Illinois

The Prairie State. Bird: Cardinal. Flower: Native Violet. Established: December 3, 1818. Area: 55,593 square miles (24th). Capital of the state – Springfield. Biggest cities: Chicago (the Windy City. Early Native American inhabitants called it Chicaugou); Rockford (Nicknamed The Forest city for its tree-lined streets); Peoria (Its Heart of Illinois Fair brings some 200,000 people to town every year).

Red-letter Dates: 1846 – Mormons, after fighting for right to practice polygamy, leave Nauvoo in western Illinois (now on route 96) for Salt Lake City, Utah; 1886: A labor battle for an eight-hour work day in Chicago erupts into the Haymarket Riot; 1992 – Carol Moseley Braun becomes the first black woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

Sons & Daughters: Jane Addams, social worker; Ernest Hemingway, author; Betty Friedan, feminist; Ronald Reagan, president of the U.S.

Indiana

Hoosier State. Bird: Cardinal. Flower: Peony. Established: December 11, 1816. Area: 35,870 square miles (38th). Biggest cities: Indianapolis (capital city, the Musical Arts Center conducts the longest continuous opera program in the Western Hemisphere); Fort Wayne (includes Indiana’s largest shopping mall and Johnny Appleseed’s gravesite); Evansville (Houses Old Evansville Antique Mall, one of the two largest antique malls in southern Indiana.

Red-letter Dates: 1731-1732 – The French build a trading post at Vincennes; 1763 – France cedes the area to Britain; 1811 – General William H. Harrison defeats Tecumseh’s Indian troops.

Sons & Daughters: Frank Borman, astronaut; Cole Porter, songwriter; Twyla Tharp, dancer and choreographer; David Letterman, talk-show host; Jane Pauley, TV personality.

Iowa

Hawkeye State. Bird: Eastern Goldfinch. Flower: Wild Rose. Established: December 28, 1846. Area: 55,875 square miles (23rd). Biggest cities: Des Moines (in the heartland of America, it’s the three-time winner of the All-American City award); Cedar Rapids: Features a Czech village with traditional bakeries, meat market, and shops; Davenport (Buffalo Bill Cody lived here, and his father’s 1847 homestead and a memorial museum remain). Red-letter dates: 1673 – Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet claim are for France; 1803 – The United States gains control of this territory as part of Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase from the French; 1869 – Terrace Hall mansion built by Iowa’s first millionaire.

Sons & Daughters: Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren, advice columnists; Norman Boiaug, Nobel Peace Prize winner; Henry A. Wallace, FDR’s vice-president.

Kansas

Sunflower State, Free State. Bird: Western Meadwlark. Flower: Native Sunflower. Established: January 29, 1891. Area: 81,823 square miles (12th). Biggest cities: Wichita (a major aircraft industry center); Kansas City (Not to be confused with Much larger sister city in Missouri. The state constitution was drafted here); Topeka (capital city of the state, home of the Menninger Clinic, a leader in treatment of mental illness).

Red-letter Dates: 1874 – Menonites from Russia bring Turkey Red wheat to the state; Kansas is now a leading wheat-producing state; 1953 – Kansas playwright William Inge’s work,, Picnic, wins Pulitzer Prize.

Sons & Daughters: Gwendolyn Brooks, poet; Walter P. Chrysler, automobile manufacturer; Amelia Earhart, aviator.

Kentucky

Bluegrass State. Bird: Cardinal. Flower: Goldenrod. Established: June 1, 1792. Area: 39, 732 square miles (36th). Capital of the state: Frankfort. Biggest cities: Louisville (Home of the legendary Kentucky Derby horse races); Lexington-Fayette (the town’s first race course was established around 1788); Owensboro (The last public hanging in the United States took place here on August 14, 1936).

Red-letter Dates: 1774 – First permanent American settlement west of the Alleghenies, in Harrodsburg; 1775 – Explorer Daniel Boone clears the Wilderness Trail on his way west; 1875 – the first Kentucky Derby is held on May 17 in Louisville.

Sons & Daughter: Muhammad Ali, boxer; Louis D. Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice; Abraham Lincoln, president; Diane Sawyer, broadcast journalist.

Louisiana

Pelican State. Bird: Eastern Brown Pelican. Flower: Magnolia. Established: April 30, 1812. Area: 43,566 square miles (33rd). Biggest cities: New Orleans (Site of the new world’s first major trade center); Baton Rouge (the state capitol building is the tallest in the nation – 34 stories); Shreveport (the state fair is held here every fall).

Red-letter Dates: 1803 – Napoleon sells Louisiana to the United States for $11,250,000 in bonds plus $3,750,000 for American citizens with claims against the French government; 1815 – British troops, unaware that a peace treaty had been signed in December of 1814, attack U.S. Entrenchements near New Orleans on January 8. The troops of General Andrew Jackson, also unaware of the treaty, defeat them in the Battle of New Orleans.

Sons & Daughters: Louis Armstrong, musician; Lilian Hellman, playwright, Paul Prudhomme, chef.

Maine

Pine Tree State. Bird: Chickadee. Flower: White Pine Cone and Tassel. Established: March 15, 1820. Area : 30,865 square miles (39th). Capital city: Augusta. Biggest cities: Portland (Home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who called it “the beatiful town that is seated by the sea”), Lewiston (Home of Bates College); Bagor (Home of best-selling horror author Stephen King and the country’s oldest symphony orchestra).

Red-letter Dates: 1819 – Maine votes to separate from Massachusetts, adopts state constitution; 1802 – Bowdoin College opens; 1977 – The Penobscott, Passamaquoddy, and Maleseet Indians sue for recovery of their native lands. They eventually settle for $81,5 million.

Maryland

Old Line State, Free State. Bird: Baltimore Oriole. Flower: Black-eyed Susan. Established: April 28, 1788. Area: 9,775 square miles (42nd). Capital of the state: Annapolis. Biggest cities: Baltimore (Oriole park at Camden Yards, opened in 1992, is always a hit); Rockville (Burial place of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald); Frederick (Boasts some 33 blocks of historic homes and mansions). Red-Letter dates: 1649 – Religious freedom granted all Christians in Toleration Act. Overturned following a Puritan revolt. 1786 – Delegation from five states meets in Annapolis to call a convention to draft a constitution. 1814 – British bombard Fort McHenry in unsuccessful attempt to capture Baltimore. Francis Scott Key inspired to pen the Star—Spangled Banner.

Sons & Daughters: Benjamin Banneker, abolitionist, inventor; Billie Holiday, singer; Rachel Carson, writer.

Massachusetts

Bay State, Old Colony. Bird: Chickadee. Flower: Mayflower. Established: February 6, 1788. Area: 7,838 square Miles (45th). Biggest cities: Boston (capital of the state, teeming with history, from Paul Revere’s House to Faneuil Hall); Worcester (Boasts 13 colleges and universities and one of the country’s leading small art museum); Springfield (the birthplace of basketball).

Red-letter Dates: 1620 – Pilgrims, seeking religious freedom, found the colony of Plymouth; 1636 – Harvard, the oldest university in the country, is founded on October 28; 1682 – Twenty women accused of being witches are executed in Salem.

Sons & Daughters: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John F. Kennedy, presidents of the U.S; Susan B. Anthony, suffragist; Emily Dickinson, poet.

Michigan

Great Lakes state, Wolverine state. Bird: Robin. Flower: Apple Blossom. Established: January 26, 1837. Area: 56,809 square miles (22nd). Capital of the state: Lansing. Biggest cities: Detroit – The only American city ever to surrender to a foreign power (Britain, in the War of 1812); Grand Rapids – A leader in the logging industry; Warren – first called Hickory, then Aba, now it’s Warren, and a major automotive manufacturing center.

Red-letter Dates: 1843 – a frame capitol is constructed in Lansing, replaced with a brick one in 1854; 1897 – Olds Motor Company founded by Ransom E. Olds. Today it’s the Oldsmobile division of General Motors; 1943 – Race riot in Detroit on June 21 leaves 700 injured and 34 dead.

Sons & Daughters: Francis Ford Coppola, movie director; Earvin Magic Johnson, basketball player; Gilda Radner, comedian.

Minnesota

North Star State, Gopher State. Bird: Common Loon. Flower: Pink and White Lady-Slipper. Established: May 11, 1858. Area: 79,617 square miles (14th). Biggest cities: Minneapolis (Home of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings); St. Paul (Capital of the State. Cafesjian’s Carousel, displayed in the state fair from 1914 to 1990, is now used year-round in Town Square Park); Bloomington (Forty-five miles of parks includes the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge).

Red-letter Dates: 1873 – Grasshoppers invade. The infestation lasts five years; 1980 – The Minnesota-based 3-M Company introduces Post-it Notes; 1987 – Minnesota Twins win the World Series. They take the title again in 1991.

Sons & Daughters: Walter F. Mondale, vice president; Bob Dylan, folk singer; Jessica Lange, actress.

Mississippi

Magnolia State. Bird: Mockingbird. Flower: Magnolia. Established: December 10, 1817. Area: 46,914 square miles (31st). Biggest cities: Jackson (Capital city of the state, named for Andrew Jackson, originally known as Le Fleur’s Bluff. Biloxi (Includes Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy); Greenville (Gambling was legalized in 1990; the Cotton Club and Las Vegas Casinos – like all others in the state – operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

Red-Letter dates: 1861 – Mississippi secedes from Union; 1935: Singer Elvis Presley is born in a two-room house in Tupelo; 1962: 3,000 troops put down riots, James Meredith becomes the first black student to enter the University of Mississippi.

Sons & Daughters: Charles and Medgar Evers, civil rights leaders; Oprah Winfrey, talk show host, actress; William Faulkner, Nobel Prize-winning novelist.

Missouri

Show-Me State. Bird: Bluebird. Flower: White Hawthorn. Established: August 10, 1821. Area: 68, 898 square miles (18th). Capital sity: Jefferson City. Biggest cities: Kansas City (The Nelson Gallery, one of the nation’s largest art museums, houses Oriental art and modern French paintings); St.Louis (The 630-foot Gateway Arch streches majestically above the city. Home of beer-manufacturing giant Anheuser-Busch); Springfield (At the edge of the Missouri Ozark Mountain expanse. Home of the Bass Pro Shop, the world’s largest sporting goods center.

Red-letter Dates: 1735 – First settlement by French at St. Genevieve; 1814 – Lewis and Clark set off from St. Louis.

Sons & Daughters: Josephine Baker, singer, dancer; Miles Davis, musician, composer; Ginger Rogers, actress, dancer; Mark Twain, journalist, author.

Montana

Treasure State. Bird: Western Meadowlark. Flower : Bitterroot. Established: November 8, 1889. Area: 145, 556 square miles (4th). Capital city: Helena. Biggest cities : Billings (founded by the Northern Pacific Railroad, it’s named for the company’s president, Frederick Billings; Great Falls (Western painter and sculptor Charles M. Russell’s art studio is still here; Missoula (University of Montana was founded here in 1893).

Red-letter Dates: 1876 – in the Battle of Little Big Horn, Cheyenne and Sioux Indians kill General Custer and more than 200 of his troops. It was the last major victory for Native Americans in the war for American lands; 1880 – Copper is discovered in Butte; 1906 – A sugar refinery is built in Billings bringing in Japanese, Russo-German, and Mexican workers.

Sons & Daughters: Gary Cooper, actor; Evel Knievel, daredevil motorcyclist; Jeannette Rankin, first woman elected to Congress.

Nebraska

Cornhusker State. Bird: Western Meadowlark. Flower: Goldenrod. Established: March 1, 1867. Area: 76,878 square miles (15th). Biggest cities: Omaha (President Gerald Ford’s boyhood home); Lincoln (Capital city of the state. Fourteenth-floor capital’s observation deck provides a bird’s-eye view of the city; Grand Island (The Heritage zoo on 7,5 acres is open April to October).

Red-letter Dates: 1854 – Treaty with Omaha Native Americans is reached, and a land rush ensues; 1865 – Union-Pacific transcontinental railroad begun in Omaha.

Sons & Daughters: Fred Astaire, dancer, actor; Marlon Brando, actor; Gerald Ford, president.

Nevada

Sagebrush State, Battle Born State, Silver State.

Bird : Mountain Bluebird. Flower : Sagebrush. Established : October 31, 1864. Area: 109, 806 square miles (7th). Capital of the state: Carson City. Biggest city: Las Vegas (Home of the one-armed bandit. More than 86,000 couples were married in over 30 chapels in 1993); Reno (Originally a trading post on the wagon trails, it is now teeming with casinos and restaurants); Henderson (Take a self-guided tour through the Ethel Mo Chocolate Factory, or visit the Kidd Marshmallow Factory.

Red-letter Dates: 1859 – Discovery of the Comstock Lode of gold and silver; 1831 – State legalizes gambling. Today, Nevada has the nation’s highest per capita gambling revenue.

Sons & Daughters: Andre Agassi, tennis player; Patty Sheehan, golfer; Robert Caples, painter.

New Hampshire

Granite State. Bird: Purple Finch. Flower: Purple Lilac. Established: June 21, 1788. Area: 8,969 square miles (44th).. Biggest cities: Manchester (It is the home of the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra); Nashua (Air traffic control for all of New England and upstate New York is provided from the Federal Aviation Agency Center here); Concord (Home of President Franklin Pierce).

Red-letter Dates: 1652 – Massachusetts Bay Colonists declare 200 miles around today’s Nashua as Massachusetts territory; 1805 – One of the nation’s first textile mills opens; 1808 – Concord becomes the state capital.

Sons & Daughters : Daniel Chester French, sculptor of Lincoln Memorial; John Irving, author; Sharon Crista McAuliffe, teacher and astronaut who perished in space shuttle Discovery disaster.

New Jersey

Garden State. Bird: Eastern Goldfinch. Flower: Violet. Established: December 8, 1787. Area: 7,419 square miles (46th). State capital: Trenton. Biggest cities: Newark (The Newark Museum includes American, Tibetan, and Oriental works); Jersey City (The Hudson Waterfront Museum features a 1914 railroad barge.) Paterson (Produces first workable revolver, first steam locomotive, and engine of the Spirit of St. Louis.

Red-Letter Dates: 1804 – Vice president Aaron Burr kills rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel in Weehawken; 1825 – John Stevens of Hoboken builds first steam locomotive; 1869 – John Wesley Hyatt of Newark invents celluloid film.

Sons & Daughters: Bud Abbot and Lou Costello, comedians; Sarah Vaughan, singer; William Carlos Williams, physician and poet.

New Mexico

Land of Enchantment. Bird: Pinon Bird. Flower: Yucca (Our Lord’s Candles). Established : January 6, 1912. Area: 121, 265 square miles (37th). Biggest cities: Albuquerque (Native American dances are performed at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center); Las Cruces (Historic Mesquite and Alameda districts include the original 1849 townsite); Santa Fe (It features five state museums).

Red-letter Dates : 1610 – New Capital of Santa Fe is founded by Governor Don Pedro de Peralta; 1898 – Teddy Roosevelt recruits his New Mexico “Rough Riders”; 1945 – the first atomic bomb is exploded on July 16 in Alamogordo.

Sons & Daughters: William Hanna, animator; Nancy Lopez, golfer; Victorio, Apache chief.

New York

Empire State. Bird: Bluebird; Flower: Rose. Established: July 26, 1788. Area: 47,224 square mles (30th). State capital: Albany. Biggest cities: New York City (the Big Apple – the Great White Way, the Statue of Liberty, and great museums. The subway has the most stations of any in the world); Buffalo (Noted for its sophisticated architecture, with works by Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan); Rochester Birthplace of the Kodak camera.

Red-letter Dates: 1626 – Peter Minuit buys Manhattan for goods valued at $24 and names it New Amsterdam; 1848 – Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton lead the Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls; 1886 – The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the French, is dedicated; 1993 – a bomb explodes in an underground parking lot in the World Trade Center en February 26; six people are killed, more than 1,000 are injured.

Sons & Daughters: Jonas Salk, polio researcher; Chico, Groucho, Harpo, Zeppo, Marx, comedians; Margaret Sanger, birth control leader.

North Carolina

Tar Heel State, Old North State. Bird: Cardinal; Flower: Dogwood. Established: November 21, 1789. Area: 48,718 square miles (29th). Biggest cities: Charlotte (the last full Confederate cabinet meeting was held here in 1865); Raleigh (the capital state, named for Sir Walter Raleigh, it’s known for its many tree-lined streets); Greenshore (Hosts approximately 500 factories, including Wrangler jeans and No Nonsense pantyhose).

Red-letter Dates:1775 – The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is signed; the colonies’ joint effort follows a year later; 1960 – Four black college students refuse to leave Woolworth’s counter in Greensboro after being denied service. Sit-ins begin; more than 70,00 students, black and white, participate.

Sons & Daughters: Jesse Jackson, clergyman, civil rights leader; Dolley Madison, first lady; Thelonious Monk, musician, composer.

North Dakota

Peace Garden State. Bird: Western Meadowlark. Flower: Wild Prairie Rose. Established: November 2, 1889. Area: 68,994 square miles. Biggest cities: Fargo (Features Yukers Farm, the state’s only children’s museum); Grand Forks (Home to the University of North Dakota and the North Dakota Museum of Art); Bismark (State capital. The North Dakota Heritage Center chronicles Dakota past and present).

Red-letter Dates: 1790’s – White traders make contact with area’s Hidatsa and Mandan Indian tribes; 1829 – 1867 – Fort Union is the largest of a string of trading posts along the northern rivers; 1984 – The Freedom Mine, the state’s largest, producing 40 percent of its lignite, opens.

Sons and Daughters: Louis L’Amour, novelist; Lawrence Welk, band leader; Angie Dickinson, actress.

Ohio

Buckey State. Bird: Cardinal. Flower : Scarlet Carnation. Established: March 1, 1803. Area: 40,953 square miles (35th). Biggest cities: Columbus (State Capital, The nation’s largest state fair is held every August); Cleveland (Boasts approximately 80 libraries); Cincinnati (Over 4,000 acres of parks).

Red-letter Dates: 1833 – Oberlin College becomes the first institution of higher education in the United States to adopt a coeducation policy. In 1835, it refuses to bar students due to race; 1832-1850 – Harriet Beecher Stowe lives in Cincinnati and writes much of Uncle Tom’s Cabin there; 1852 – African Americans first vote in Cincinnati; the nation follows 18 years later.

Sons and Daughters: Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on the Moon; Erma Bombeck, columnist; Annie Oakley, markswoman.

Renovation works. Photo by Elena

Oklahoma

Sooner State. Bird: Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. Flower: Mistletoe. Established: November 16, 1907. Area: 68, 679 square miles (19th). Biggest cities: Oklahoma City (State capital, its Frontier city tourist attraction stages simulated gunfights); Tulsa (One of the nation’s largest city-owned parks, Mohawk Park, sprawls over over 2,800 acres); Lawton (The grave of Geronomo, who died at Fort Sill, is located here, as are the fort and a military museum).

Red-letter Dates: 1825 – Creek Indian Archie Yahola convened first council meeting under an oak tree that still stands in Tulsa’s Creek Nation Council Oak Park; 1889 – The United States opens state to white settlement. Some 50,000 settlers converge the first day; 1928 – The largest oil strike to date is hite in Oklahoma City; 1995 – Over 160 people are killed in the largest terrorist incident in U.S. History when a bomb is set off at an Oklahoma City federal building.

Sons and Daughters: Ralph Ellison, writer; Ron Howard, actor, director. Jean Kirkpatrick, diplomat.

Oregon

Beaver State. Bird: Western Meadowlark. Flower: Oregon Grape. Established: February 14, 1859. Area: 96,003 square miles (10th). Biggest cities: Portland (known as the City of Roses for local Washigton Park’s 500 varieties; Eugen (Home of the University of Oregon and the Hult Performing Art Center); Salem (the State capital, the state’s capitol is open for public tours).

Red-letter Dates: 1841-1860 – Emigrants cross the 2,000 miles from Missouri to Western Oregon on the Oregon Trail; 1870s – Railroads come to Oregon; 1913 – Governor George Oswald declares the state’s beaches public property. Nearly 400 acres are open, year-round, to this day.

Sons and Daughters: Matt Groenig, cartoonist; Linus Pauling, chemist; Ken Kesey, writer.

Pennsylvania

Keystone State. Bird: Ruffed Grouse. Flower: Mountain Laurel. Established: December 12, 1787. Area: 44, 820 square miles (32nd). State capital: Harrisburg. Biggest cities: Philadelphia (Home of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were written); Pittsburgh (Has more golf courses per capita than any other U.S. City); Erie (The Port of Erie is Pennsylvania’s only lake port).

Red-letter Dates: 1794 – Militia of 15,000 suppresses Whisky Rebellion of Pennsylvania farmers protecting liquor tax); 1892 – Strike at Carnegie steel mills in Homestead results in 18 shooting deaths of guards, strikers, and spectators; 1979 – Major accident at Three Mile Island’s nuclear reactor near Middletown.

Sons and daughters: Louisa May Alcott, novelist; Daniel Boone, Frontiersman; Margaret Mead, anthropologist; Betsy Ross, flagmaker.

Rhode Island

Little Rhode, Ocean State. Bird: Rhode Island Red. Flower: Violet. Established: May 29, 1790. Biggest cities: Providence (State capital. Home to Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design). Warwick (Its Rocky Point is one of New England’s oldest shore resorts); Cranston (Settled in 1636, it’s named for Samuel Cranston, governor of Rhode Island from 1698 to 1727).

Red-letter Dates : 1774 – Rhode Island abolishes slavery; 1763 – Touro Synagogue, the oldest in the United States, is built; 1824 – First strike by women, by the weavers of Pawtucket.

Sons & Daughters: Anne Hutchinson, religious leader; Roger Williams, clergyman and founder of Rhode Island; Spalding Gray, writer, conversationalist.

South Carolina

Palmetto State. Bird: Carolina Wren. Flower: Yellow Jessamine. Established: May 27, 1788. Biggest cities: Columbia (State capital, one of the nation’s first planned cities); Charleston (It’s historic district boasts more than 2,000 preserved and restored building); North Charleston (Industrial heart of the South Carolina low country).

Red-letter Dates: 1729 – South Carolina officially separates from North Carolina; 1828 – Local government declares states’ right to abolish federal law; 1865 – The March to the Sea rampage of Union General William T. Sherman destroys Columbia.

Sons & Daughters: Mary McLeod Bethune, educator; Dizzy Gillespie, jazz trumpeter; Ronald MacNair, astronaut.

South Dakota

Coyote State, Mount Rushmore State. Bird: Ring-necked Pheasant. Flower: American Pasque. Established: November 2, 1889. Area: 75,896 square miles (16th). State Capital: Pierre. Sioux Falls (The Great Plains Zoo includes wild dogs of America and the Australian cutback); Rapid City (The city’s well-thought-out design extended to its wide streets so horses and ox-drawn wagons could turn around more easily); Aberdeen (The Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum moved his family here in 1888).

Red-letter Dates: 1743 – The French Verendrye brothers are the first white people to enter the state, claiming the region for their king; 1876 – Wild Bill Hickok is gunned down while playing a poker game. He’s buried beside Calamity Jane in a local cemetery; 1892 – The Star-Spangled Banner makes its official debut at Fort Meade.

Sons and Daughters: Sitting Bull, a Sioux chief; Gladys Pyle, first Republican woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

Tennessee

Volunteer State. Bird: Mockingbird. Flower: Iris. Established: June 1, 1796. Area: 41,220 square miles (34th). State capital: Nashville. Biggest cities: Memphis (the home of the King – Elvis Presley); Nashville-Davidson (President Andrew Jackson served in the House of Representatives and the Senate before going on to become the nation’s seventh president); Knoxville (Gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains).

Red-Letter Dates: 1870s – A series of yellow fever epidemics sweeps Memphis, bankrupting the city; 1925 – John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution to Dayton high school students. He is fined $100); 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at a motel in Memphis on April 4.

Sons & Daughters: James Agee, writer; Davy Crocket, frontiersman; Aretha Franklin, singer; Wilma Rudolph, sprinter.

Texas

Lone Star State. Bird: Mockingbird. Flower: Bluebonnet. Established: December 28, 1845. Area: 261,915 square miles. Capital state: Austin. Biggest cities: Houston (Named for Sam Houston, the general who won Texas’s independence from Mexico, it’s now one of the nation’s largest seaports); Dallas (The first settler built a single cabin here in 1841. Twenty years later, the town had only doubled in size. Today it’s the Southwest’s largest banking center); San Antonio (Its fiesta in April includes 10 days of parade, street dancing along the popular River Walk, and fireworks.)

Red-letter Dates: 1836 – The defenders of the Alamo are wiped out by Santa Anna, the Mexican dictator ruling the territory, in a 13-day siege. Later Sam Houston’s Texans defeat Santa Anna at San Jacinto and declare independence; 1963 – President John F. Kennedy is shot as he rides in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas; 1993 – An unsuccessful raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco kills four federal agents; the ensuing 51-day siege ends with Davidians setting fire to the compound. Seventy two members, including 17 children, perish.

Sons & Daughters: Alvin Ailey, choreographer; Carol Burnett, comedian, Sandra Day O’Connor, first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court; Dan Rather, TV newscaster.

Utah

Beehive State. Bird: California Seagull. Flower: Sego Lily; Established: January 4, 1896. Area: 82,618 square miles (12th). Biggest cities: Salt Lake City (capital of the state; Headquarters of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons); West Valley City (A business center located in the Salt Lake Valley); Provo (Founded in 1850 as Fort Utah, named for the Native American Ute tribe.)

Red-letter Dates: 1847 – Brigham Young, leader of the Mormon Church, looks out over Salt Lake Valley and proclaims it “the Right place”; 1977 – Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore becomes the first American to be put to death since 1967; 1982 – Barney Clark receives first permanent artificial heart.

Sons & Daughters: Roseanne Arnold, actress; Butch Cassidy, outlaw; Donny and Marie Osmond, entertainers.

Vermont

Green Mountain State. Bird: Hermit Thrush. Flower: Red Clover. Established: March 4, 1791. Area: 9,249 square miles (43rd). State capital: Montpelier. Biggest cities: Burlington (Renaissance of the waterfront has become complete with boat trips and bike path); Rutland (Features the Norman Rockwell Museum); South Burlington (In 1995, the city celebrated its 130th birthday – it separated from the city of Burlington in 1865).

Red-letter Dates: 1777 – Vermont’s first constitution abolishes slavery and gives all men the right to vote; 1791 – Vermont becomes the first state after the original 13 to join the Union.

Sons and Daughters: Chester A.Arthur, Calvin Coolidge, presidents; Rudy Vallee, singer; Richard Morris Hunt, architect.

Virginia

Old Dominion. Bird: Cardinal. Flower: Dogwood. Established: June 25, 1788. Area: 39,598 square miles (37th). Biggest cities: Virginia Beach (First Landing Cross marks where the Jamestown colonists first set foot in the New World in 1607); Norfolk (The naval base, established in 1917, is now the largest naval installation in the world); Richmond (State capital, Thomas Jefferson designed part of the Virginia State Capitol).

Red-letter Dates: 1716 – The First theater in the colonies opens in Williamsburg; 1775 – In Continental Congress on June 7, Virginia’s Richard Lee moves for a resolution to be passed that becomes the Declaration of Independence; 1831 – Slave Nat Turner leads a local slave rebellion that kills 57 whites. Troops, in turn, hang Turner and kill 100 slaves.

Sons % Daughters: Arthur Ashe, tennis player; Russell Baker, columnist; Ella Fitzgerald, singer.

Washington

Evergreen State. Bird: Willow Goldfinch. Flower: Coast Rhododendron. Established: November 11, 1889. Area: 66,581 square miles (20th). State capital: Olympia. Biggest cities: Seattle (Peer out over the 605-foot Space Needle’s observation deck at the city below). Spokane (Every year the Spokane Music and Allied Arts Festival attracts artists and musicians from the entire Pacific Northwest); Tacoma (Its Point Defiance Park of 700 acres is the second largest city park in the nation).

Red-letter Dates: 1889 – A fire in Seattle destroys its entire business district; 1974 – Spokane hosts the World’s Fair; 1980 – The volcano, Mt. St. Helens, erupts on May 18, Two more eruptions follow on on May 25 and June 12, killing 60 and causing upward of $3 billion in damage.

Sons & Daughters: Carol Channing, actress; Hank Ketcham, cartoonist; Robert Motherwell, artist; Judy  Collins, singer.

West Virginia

Mountain State. Bird: Cardinal. Flower: Big Laurel. Established: June 20, 1863. Area: 24, 087 (41st). Biggest cities: Charleston (State Capital, Several area glass factories give tours. Home of the University of West Virginia); Huntington (Founded in 1870 by railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington); Parkersburg (Once in Indian hunting ground, it is now home to paper, plastics, and glassware industries).

Red-letter Dates: 1797 – Salt furnace constructed in Malden; Salt becomes a large export to the rest of the country; 1818 – Charles Town officially established as Charleston; 1913 – Charleston’s first chemical company founded.

Sons & Daughters: Pearl S. Buck, author; Martin R. Delany, first black army major; Chuck Yeager, test pilot and Air Force general; Mary Lou Retton, Olympic gold-medal gymnast.

Wisconsin

Badger State. Bird: Robin. Flower: Wood Violet. Established: May 29, 1848. Area: 54,314 square miles (25th). Biggest cities: Milwaukee (It’s name is derived from the Algonkian Indian word Milwoke, meaning “beautiful land.” Major beer manufactured center. Madison (Home to the University of Wisconsin); Green Bay (The Smallest city in the nation to sponsor a professional football team).

Red-letter Dates: 1854 – The Republican Party is formed in Ripon; 1954 – Junior Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy 100 years later leads hearings that allege Communist activity in the U.S. Army. He was censured by the Senate later that year.

Sons and Daughters: Orson Welles, actor, director; Charlotte Rae, actress; Frank Lloyd Wright, architect; Georgia O’Keeffe, painter.

Wyoming

Equality State. Bird: Western Meadowlark. Flower: Indian Paintbrush. Established: July 10, 1890. Area: 97, 105 square miles (9th). Biggest cities: Cheyenne (It annually hosts the world’s largest outdoor rodeo); Casper (Statges the Casper Classic Bicycle Race in July, one of the nation’s toughest); Laramie (Houses the University of Wyoming Art Museum).

Red-letter Dates: 1869 – First women’s suffrage law passed here December 10; 1870 – 57-year-old house-wife Esther Hobart Morris appointed justice of the peace, becoming the first woman to hold public office in the United States; 1872 – Yellowstone National Park, the nation’s first, is founded by Congress.

Sons and Daughters: Esther Morris, first female judge; Jackson Pollock, painter; Jedediah Smith, mountain man; Nellie Tayloe Ross, first woman elected governor of a state.

Washington, D.C.

Justitia Omnibus (Justice to all). Bird: Wood Thrush. Flower: American Beauty Rose. Area: 61 square miles (51th). Became U.S. Capital: December 1, 1800.

Red-letter Dates: 1800 – Federal government moves from Philadelphia to new home in the District of Columbia; 1814 – The British storm the city and set fire to the Capitol and the White House. President James Madison and his wife Dolley flee to Virginia. It is the first and last time in the U.S. History that a foreign power takes control of Washington; 1865 – Abraham Lincoln is shot to death by John Wilkes Booth on April 14 at Ford’s Theater; 1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leads 200,000 in a march on Washington for equal rights for blacks and delivers his stirring “I Have a Dream” speech.

Sons & Daughters: Hank Aaron, baseball great; Helen Keller, author and educator; Coretta Scott King, civil rights leader.