tof

Forget The Blues or the fact that most NASA rocket engines are tested here. There are some much more important contributions from the Magnolia State.

-Shoes sold in pairs. Back in the day, all shoes were the same. The idea of a left and right shoe is generally credited to a Pennsylvania man. But the first store to sell shoes in R and L pairs was in Vicksburg, MS.
-Vicksburg is also the first place where Coca Cola was bottled. It was invented in Atlanta, but was first bottled in Mississippi in 1894, back when it still contained cocaine and was mainly consumed as a medicinal tonic.
-Speaking of soft drinks, Barq's was invented by Edward Barq in Biloxi.
-Jackson hosts the US International Ballet Competition. Yes, it's a thing and dancers from around the world compete.
-Teddy Rooseverl famously refused to shoot a bear tied to a tree by his party, and thus the Teddy Bear was born (sort of), in Sharkey County, MS where the hunt took place.
-The soft toilet seat was invented and patented by David Harrison of Columbus, Mississippi. You're welcome, America.

So what oddities has your state contributed to America?

SheDrivesIt

Jackson Mississippi is also the setting for the well loved ballad Uneasy Rider

Scooterboy

Ohio

President William Henry Harrison
President Ulysses S. Grant
President Rutherford B. Hayes
President James A. Garfield
President Benjamin Harrison
President William McKinley
President William Howard Taft
President Warren G. Harding
We, Ohio are sorry for the above!

The Cuyahoga River fire.
US EPA (from the burning river).
Ralph Perk (Cleveland mayor) hair fire.
The Michigan/Ohio war.

tof

^^^

poorshoeless

You forgot one-The Ohio State Buckeyes

Scooterboy

They weren't national champs. If you aren't first you are last!

buckeyesue

How about President Warren Gamaliel Harding?

Wasn't he born in Ohio?

(Or, does he not count? Maybe, he is not an oddity?)

boltonblue

How about a molasses flood?

dlq04

Michigan is often called the Wolverine State but there are no longer wolverines in the state.
Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1846 for all crimes other than treason, becoming not only the first state but the first English-speaking government in the world to do so (you decide how that has worked out).
Colon is home to the world's largest manufacture of magic supplies.
Detroit is known as the car capital of the world (you can decide on that as well).
A one-mile stretch of Detroit road was paved with concrete in 1908, making it the world's first concrete-paved road (you saw on my prior post where MI ranks in roads).
The original name of the University of Michigan, which was founded in 1817, was Catholepistemiad. Yeah, try chanting that at a football game.

boltonblue

Salem Witch trials? source of the original "Witch Hunt"
The Duryea Motor Wagon Company, established in 1895 in Springfield, Massachusetts
The first textile Mill in America in Lowell.
The first labor unions. see bread and roses.