States, Statehood, Capitals, Flowers, and Trees—plus Canada!

Statehood of the original 13 colonies: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia—1776

Fourteenth State: Vermont, March 4, 1791

Forty-ninth and Fiftieth States: Alaska, January 3, 1959; Hawaii, August 21, 1959

Union States in the American Civil War: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky*, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri*, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin

(^*Missouri and Kentucky did not secede, but a rival government, or rump group, proclaimed secession within both of these states)

Confederate States in the American Civil War: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee

National Plant: Rose (Official since October 7, 1986)

National Tree: Oak

National Bird: Bald Eagle

SEVEN THINGS YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT CANADA

1. A Canadian invented basketball. (James Naismith, a physical education instructor from Almonte, Ontario, came up with the game in 1891 while working at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.)

2. Parts of Canada are located further to the south than parts of the US. (Toronto is further south than much of New England and the northern Midwest.)

3. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October, not in November.

4. Canadians do not have $1 and $2 bills. Instead, they use coins, known unabashedly as Loonies ($1) and Toonies ($2).

5. America actually invaded Canada twice, in 1775 and 1812, and was rebuffed both times.

6. Canada has 10 provinces and three territories. The provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. The three territories are the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon. Nunavut was the last territory to be added, in 1999.

7. The languages most spoken in Canada are English, French, and Chinese. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province (English and French), and in Quebec, French is the official governmental language.