The common meadow violet (Viola sororia) has historically been used for food and medicine. The Cherokee used it to treat colds and headaches. The leaves are high in vitamins A and C, and the flowers have been made into jelly and candy.

The first Miss America pageant was held on the Atlantic City boardwalk in September of 1921. It was judged on 50 percent audience applause and 50 percent judges' decision. The winner was 16-year-old Margaret Gorman of Washington D.C., who took home a $100 prize and a Golden Mermaid trophy.

With more than 500 diners in the state, New Jersey has rightly earned the title of "diner capital of the world".

On May 6, 1937, the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg burst into flames while attempting to dock with its mooring mast at a Naval Air Station near Trenton, New Jersey. The disaster was the subject of newsreel coverage, photographs, and Herbert Morrison's recorded radio eyewitness reports from the landing field. The event shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger-carrying airship and marked the abrupt end of the airship era.

Trenton is one of two state capitals that border another state, the other being Carson City, Nevada. It is also one of the seven state capitals located within the Piedmont Plateau.

Only two of Jersey Shore's eight cast members were actually from New Jersey (the rest were from New York and Rhode Island). In September 2011, Governor Chris Christie vetoed a $420,000 tax incentive awarded to the show by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, stating: "As chief executive, I am duty-bound to ensure that taxpayers are not footing a $420,000 bill for a project which does nothing more than perpetuate misconceptions about the state and its citizens." Cast member Snooki fired back a characteristically nonsensical rebuttal: "It's the Jersey Shore, we're not trying to represent Jersey."

The New York Metropolitan Area's two National Football League teams, the New York Giants and the New York Jets, both play at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford's Meadowlands Sports Complex. And Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls play in Red Bull Arena, located in Harrison, New Jersey.

New Jersey designated the eastern goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) as the official state bird in 1935. Also known as a wild canary, it eats primarily seeds from dandelions, sunflowers, ragweed, and evening primrose.

The state seashell is the knobbed whelk (Busycon carica), a large, predatory sea snail probably better known for its meat, which is served in New Jersey restaurants as the Italian dish called scungilli.

It was in his Menlo Park laboratory that Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and developed a commercially viable incandescent light bulb filament.