The Soviet satellite Sputnik IV fell out of orbit in 1962 and while most of it burned up on re-entry, a 20-pound piece of debris crashed to the ground in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The original piece of Sputnik was returned to the Soviets but the Rahr-West Art Museum has a replica of it on display, and Manitowoc celebrates Sputnikfest each September.

Alaska has the lowest population density in the nation at approximately one person per square mile. If Manhattan, New York had the same population density as Alaska, only 22 people would be living on the island.

Born in 1896 near Chugwater, Wyoming, Steamboat was widely considered among the best bucking broncos in rodeo history. Nicknamed "the horse that couldn't be ridden", the black gelding was christened Steamboat after a nose injury caused him to make a whistling sound whenever he bucked. Steamboat died in 1914 and was later immortalized with the legendary bucking horse and rider symbol.

The smallest state in the country has the longest official name: State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Colorado might be among the most popular destinations for skiers, but Sun Valley, Idaho will go down in history as the home of America's first ski resort. Older than Vail, Jackson Hole, Aspen or Lake Tahoe, Sun Valley was America's very first winter resort, hosting celebrities, families and skiing fanatics since 1936.

"The Golden State" has long been a popular designation for California and was made the official state nickname in 1968. It is particularly appropriate since California's modern development can be traced back to the discovery of gold in 1848 and fields of golden poppies can be seen each spring throughout the state.

Pennsylvania founder William Penn proposed and led a mass immigration of English Quakers fleeing religious persecution. In colonial times, Pennsylvania was known officially as the Quaker Province, in recognition of Penn's First Frame of Government constitution that guaranteed liberty of conscience.

In 1829, gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains leading to the Georgia Gold Rush. The resulting influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to take land from the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, sending many Native American nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgia's tribes. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren, dispatched federal troops to gather the tribes and deport them west of the Mississippi. This forced relocation, known as the Trail of Tears, led to the death of more than four thousand Cherokees.

Residents of the Upper Peninsula are sometimes referred to as "Yoopers", a name derived from the abbreviation of the region, the "U.P." Residents of the Lower Peninsula are called Trolls (see the Norwegian fairy tale of the "Three Billy Goats Gruff") because they live below the Mackinac Bridge which connects the two peninsulas.

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 rigid airship and marked the abrupt end of the airship era.