The Nifty Fifty: Ohio

Ohio is a state in the midwestern region of the United States with the abbreviation of OH. Ohio became the 17th state on March 1, 1803, making the state 222 years old, as of March, 2025. The state of Ohio was named after the river of the same name, whose name came from an Iroquois word meaning beautiful river.

Ohio is the 34th largest state and the 7th most populous; the capital of Ohio is Columbus and its demonym is Ohioan. The state of Ohio is bordered by the states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan as well as the Canadian province of Ontario (over Lake Erie).

The motto of the state of Ohio is With God, All Things Are Possible.

The nickname for the state of Ohio is the Buckeye State, which is partially due to the fact that buckeye trees used to be common on the Ohioan hills and plains.

The landscape of Ohio consists mostly of hills and rolling plains surrounded by Lake Erie to the north and the Ohio River to the south.

Ohio is known for its manufacturing history, the Hocking Hills, for being the home of the Wright brothers, and for being the birthplace of seven presidents. Ohio is also home to many natural resources, such as lead, copper, iron, manganese, gold, and even diamonds.

On December 6, 1920, Dominic Salvatore Gentile was born in Piqua, Miami County, Ohio. Gentile’s father gave him a plane after Gentile expressed much fascination with flying throughout his childhood. In 1941, Gentile attempted to join the US Army Air Corp, by which point he had already logged 300 hours of flying time, but Gentile did not have the 2 years of college that the US military required for becoming a pilot. Gentile then enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and was soon after stationed in the UK as a Pilot Officer. Gentile flew a Supermarine Spitfire Mk V and made his first kills during Operation Jubilee. In September of 1942, Gentile was transferred along with his squadron to the US Army Air Forces where he then flew a P-47, however, Gentile’s squadron was re-equipped with the lighter and more maneuverable P-51 Mustang by early 1944. Gentile made many kills during this time, but in April of 1944, he crashed his Mustang while flying by a group of press reporters, after which he was immediately grounded and sent back to the US to sell war bonds. Gentile claimed to have destroyed 30 aircraft, which would make him the first to beat Eddie Rickenbacker’s record of 26 downed aircraft from World War I, but Gentile was only credited with 19.83 aerial victories, 3 damaged, and 6 ground kills. Gentile stayed in the Air Force as a test pilot after the war. Sadly, Gentile was killed on January 28, 1951, when his Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star crashed in Forestville, Maryland. Gentile left behind his wife of 6 years and two sons.

In the year 1908, Charles F. Kettering invented the electric automobile starter in Dayton, Ohio. Kettering began the mission to invent a reliable electric starter for automobiles that would replace the temperamental hand-crank starters at the request of his friend, Edward Deeds.

From April 28 to May 9, 1813, the Siege of Fort Meigs occurred in what is now Perrysburg, Ohio. The siege was one of the most significant military engagements in Ohio during the War of 1812, during which British regulars under the command of British Brigadier General Henry Procter attempted to capture the fort, which had recently been constructed. Procter did this in an attempt to prevent American Major General and future President Willian Henry Harrison from retaking Detroit and invading Upper Canada. The siege lasted 11 days, and during several skirmishes, over 1,000 Americans were killed, wounded, or captured, while the British only suffered 121 casualties. Despite these heavy loses, Harrison’s men would hold the fort, causing Procter to eventually withdraw.

An interesting fact about Ohio is that the state is home to the city of Sugarcreek, which is known as the little Switzerland of Ohio. One of the things that the city is best known for is that it possesses the world’s largest cuckoo clock.

A strange fact about Ohio is that, while the state was technically admitted into the Union in 1803, Ohio wasn’t officially a state until 1953. In 1803, Congress formally ratified Ohio’s constitution, but Congress failed to pass the final resolution to approve the constitution, therefore technically causing Ohio to remain part of the Northwest Territory while functioning as a state for 150 years. This issue was discovered in 1953, after which Congress quickly passed the resolution and president Eisenhower signed off on it, but backdated the resolution to the original date. This means you could technically call Ohio the 48th state and not the 17th.

What fact about Ohio most interests you?