Tennessee |
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| State nickname: Volunteer State | |
| Other U.S. States | |
| Capital | Nashville |
| Largest city | Memphis (largest metropolitan area is Nashville) |
| Governor | Phil Bredesen |
| Official languages | English |
| Area | 109,247 kmē (36th) |
| - Land | 106,846 kmē |
| - Water | 2,400 kmē (2.2%) |
| Population (2000) | |
| - Population | 5,689,283 (16th) |
| - Density | 53.29 /kmē (19th) |
| Admission into Union | |
| - Date | June 1, 1796 |
| - Order | 16th |
| Time zone | Eastern: UTC-5/-4 (eastern counties) Central: UTC-6/-5 (central and western) |
| Latitude | 35°N to 36°41'N |
| Longitude | 81°37'W to 90°28'W |
| Width | 195 km |
| Length | 710 km |
| Elevation | |
| - Highest | 2,025 m |
| - Mean | 275 m |
| - Lowest | 54 m |
| Abbreviations | |
| - USPS | TN |
| - ISO 3166-2 | US-TN |
| Web site | www.tennessee.gov |
Tennessee is a Southern state of the United States.
The earliest variant of the name that became Tennessee was first recorded by Captain Juan Pardo, the Spanish explorer, when he and his men passed through a Native American village named "Tanasqui" in 1567 while travelling inland from South Carolina. European settlers later encountered a Cherokee town named Tanasi (or "Tanase") in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee. The town was located on a river of the same name (now known as the Little Tennessee River).
The meaning and origin of the word are uncertain. Some accounts suggest it is a Cherokee modification of an earlier Yuchi or possibly Creek word. It has been said to mean "meeting place", "winding river", or "river of the great bend".[1] (http://www.state.tn.us/sos/statelib/pubsvs/faq.htm#01)[2] (http://www.tngenweb.org/campbell/hist-bogan/tennessee.html)
The modern spelling, Tennessee, is attributed to James Glen, the Governor of South Carolina, who used this spelling in his official correspondence during the 1750s. In 1788, North Carolina named the third county to be established in what is now Middle Tennessee "Tennessee County". When a constitutional convention met in 1796 to organize a new state out of the Southwest Territory, it adopted "Tennessee" as the name of the state.
The area now known as Tennessee was first settled by Paleo-Indians nearly 11,000 years ago. The names of the cultural groups that inhabited the area between first settlement and the time of European contact are unknown, but several distinct cultural phases have been named by archaeologists, including Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian whose chiefdoms were the cultural predecessors of the Muscogee people who inhabited the Tennessee River Valley prior to Cherokee migration into the river's headwaters.
When Spanish explorers first visited the area, led by Hernando de Soto in 1539-43, it was inhabited by tribes of Muscogee and Yuchi people. For unknown reasons, possibly due to expanding European settlement in the north, the Cherokee, an Iroquoian tribe, moved south from the area now called Virginia. As European colonists spread into the area, the native populations were forcibly displaced to the south and west, including all Muscogee and Yuchi peoples, including the Chickasaw and Choctaw. From 1838 to 1839, nearly 17,000 Cherokees were forced to march from Eastern Tennessee to Indian Territory west of Arkansas. This came to be known as the Trail of Tears, as an estimated 4,000 Cherokees died along the way.1
Tennessee was admitted to the Union in 1796 as the 16th state, and was created by taking the north and south borders of North Carolina and extending them with only one small deviation to the Mississippi River, Tennessee's western boundary. Tennessee was the last Confederate state to secede from the Union when it did so on June 8, 1861. After the American Civil War, Tennessee adopted a new constitution that abolished slavery (February 22, 1865), ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on July 18, 1866, and was the first state readmitted to the Union (July 24 of the same year).
Tennessee was the only state that seceded from the Union that did not have a military governor after the American Civil War, mostly due to the influence of President Andrew Johnson, a native of the state, who was Lincoln's vice president and succeeded him as president, due to the assassination.
In 1897, the state celebrated its centennial of statehood (albeit one year late) with a great exposition.
The need to create work for the unemployed during the Depression, the desire for rural electrification, and the desire to control the annual spring floods on the Tennessee River drove the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest public utility, in 1933.
During World War II, Oak Ridge was selected as a US Department of Energy national laboratory, one of the principal sites for the Manhattan Project's production and isolation of weapons-grade fissile material.
Tennessee celebrated its bicentennial in 1996 after a yearlong statewide celebration entitled "Tennessee 200" by opening a new state park (Bicentennial Mall) at the foot of Capitol Hill in Nashville.
Tennessee's governor holds office for a four year term and may serve any number of terms, but not more than two in a row. The speaker of the state Senate has the title of lieutenant governor. See:List of Tennessee Governors.
The General Assembly (the state's legislature) consists of the 33-member Senate and the 99-member House of Representatives. Senators serve four year terms, and House members serve two year terms.
The highest court in Tennessee is the state Supreme Court. It has a chief justice and four associate justices. The Court of Appeals has 12 judges. The Court of Criminal Appeals has nine judges.
Tennessee's current state constitution was adopted in 1870. The state had two earlier constitutions. The first was adopted in 1796, the year Tennessee joined the union, and the second was adopted in 1834.
See also: List of Tennessee counties, List of Tennessee state parks
Tennessee lies adjacent to 8 other states, matched only by Missouri which also borders 8 states. Tennessee is bordered on the north by Kentucky and Virginia, on the east by North Carolina, on the south by Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and on the west by Arkansas and Missouri. The state is trisected by the Tennessee River. The highest point in the state is the peak of Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet (2,025 meters), which lies on Tennesee's eastern border.
The state of Tennessee is traditionally divided by its people into three grand divisions - East, Middle, and West Tennessee. The Tennessee River is generally considered the dividing line between Middle and West Tennessee. The Cumberland Plateau is generally considered the dividing line between East and Middle Tennessee.
Tennessee features six principal geographic regions. Roughly from west to east, these are:
According to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2003 Tennessee's Gross State Product was $199,786,000,000, 1.8% of the total Gross Domestic Product.
In 2003, the per capita personal income was $28,641, 36th in the nation, and only 91% of the national per capita personal income of $31,472. Total earnings were $167,414,793,000.(BEARFACTS)
State sales tax is 7%, while the counties charge an additional 2.25% for a total of 9.25% across Tennessee. Some cities charge additional taxes, leading to some of the highest sales taxes in the United States. The overall state tax rate is relatively low, however, as Tennessee does not tax wage and salary income (although it does tax unearned income).
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2003, Tennessee's population was estimated at 5,841,748 people.
The racial makeup of the state is:
The 5 largest ancestry groups in Tennessee are American (17.5%), African American (16.4%), Irish (9.3%), English (9.1%), German (8.3%).
6.6% of Tennessee's population were reported as under 5, 24.6% under 18, and 12.4% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51.3% of the population.
The religious affiliations of the citizens of Tennessee are:
The three largest Protestant denominations in Tennessee are: Baptist (43% of the total state population), Methodist (11%), Churches of Christ (5%).
The capital is Nashville. Memphis has the largest population of any city in the state, but Nashville has a slightly larger metropolitan area. Chattanooga and Knoxville, both in the eastern part of the state near the Great Smoky Mountains, have approximately a third of Memphis or Nashville's population. The three towns of Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City make up a fifth significant population center, often called the "Tri-Cities", in the far northeast of the state. As of 2000, the population is 5,689,283.
Tennessee cities' claims to fame are:
See the List of famous Tennesseans and the List of Governors of Tennessee.
See: Tennessee State Flag
See: Music of Tennessee
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See: Music of Tennessee. Wizards games are announced by Steve Buckhantz and
Phil Chenier. See: Tennessee State Flag. All Wizards regular season games can be seen on Comcast
SportsNet which is available in the Washington, DC area and other
local areas. See the List of famous Tennesseans and the List of Governors of Tennessee. Injured Reserve. Tennessee cities' claims to fame are:. Starters Memphis has the largest population of any city in the state, but Nashville has a slightly larger metropolitan area. In Game 3 of the first round against the Chicago Bulls, the Wizards won their first playoff game since 1988. The capital is Nashville. The 2004-2005 season marked the first time the franchise had ever made the playoffs as the Wizards; the last time the team had made the postseason was in 1996-1997, when it was still known as the Bullets. The three largest Protestant denominations in Tennessee are: Baptist (43% of the total state population), Methodist (11%), Churches of Christ (5%). The MCI Center is also home to the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League and the Washington Mystics of the WNBA. The religious affiliations of the citizens of Tennessee are:. Also that year the Wizards moved to the MCI Center located at 601 F Street in Northwest Washington, DC. Females made up approximately 51.3% of the population. The names Seadogs, Express, and Monuments were also considered but rejected. 6.6% of Tennessee's population were reported as under 5, 24.6% under 18, and 12.4% were 65 or older. They had changed it because the name Bullets carried a violent overtone. The 5 largest ancestry groups in Tennessee are American (17.5%), African American (16.4%), Irish (9.3%), English (9.1%), German (8.3%). On May 15, 1997, the Bullets officially unveiled their new name and logo. The racial makeup of the state is:. During the transition, the Bullets also played home games at Cole Field House, the home of the University of Maryland Terrapins, while waiting for the completion of their new arena in Landover, the Capital Centre (later known as the USAir/US Airways Arena.) Through the mid-1990s, the Bullets still played a few games per season in Baltimore. Census Bureau, as of 2003, Tennessee's population was estimated at 5,841,748 people. In 1973, the team moved to Landover, Maryland and became the Capital Bullets, and they changed their name to the Washington Bullets the next season. According to the U.S. And the season after that, they moved to Baltimore, Maryland and became the Baltimore Bullets, no relation to the 1940s Bullets franchise. The overall state tax rate is relatively low, however, as Tennessee does not tax wage and salary income (although it does tax unearned income). The next season, they changed their name to the Zephyrs. Some cities charge additional taxes, leading to some of the highest sales taxes in the United States. The team now known as the Wizards started as the Chicago Packers in the 1961-62 season. State sales tax is 7%, while the counties charge an additional 2.25% for a
total of 9.25% across Tennessee. The Washington Wizards are a National Basketball Association team based in Washington, D.C.. Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2003 Tennessee's Gross State Product was $199,786,000,000, 1.8% of the total Gross Domestic Product. F/C - #36 Etan Thomas (Syracuse). According to U.S. PF - #51 Michael Ruffin (Tulsa). Roughly from west to east, these are:. G/F - #7 Laron Profit (Maryland). Tennessee features six principal geographic regions. SG - #8 Anthony Peeler (Missouri). The Cumberland Plateau is generally considered the dividing line between East and Middle Tennessee. G - #3 Juan Dixon (Maryland). The Tennessee River is generally considered the dividing line between Middle and West Tennessee. F/C - #5 Kwame Brown (Glynn Academy, Brunswick, Georgia). The state of Tennessee is traditionally divided by its people into three grand divisions - East, Middle, and West Tennessee. PG - #2 Steve Blake (Maryland). The highest point in the state is the peak of Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet (2,025 meters), which lies on Tennesee's eastern border. SG - #20 Larry Hughes (Saint Louis). The state is trisected by the Tennessee River. PG - #0 Gilbert Arenas (Arizona). Tennessee is bordered on the north by Kentucky and Virginia, on the east by North Carolina, on the south by Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and on the west by Arkansas and Missouri. C - #33 Brendan Haywood (North Carolina). Tennessee lies adjacent to 8 other states, matched only by Missouri which also borders 8 states. SF - #1 Jared Jeffries (Indiana). See also: List of Tennessee counties, List of Tennessee state parks. PF - #4 Antawn Jamison (North Carolina). The first was adopted in 1796, the year Tennessee joined the union, and the second was adopted in 1834. 41 - Wes Unseld. The state had two earlier constitutions. 25 - Gus Johnson. Tennessee's current state constitution was adopted in 1870. 11 - Elvin Hayes. The Court of Criminal Appeals has nine judges. Don Nelson. The Court of Appeals has 12 judges. Chris Webber. It has a chief justice and four associate justices. Rasheed Wallace. The highest court in Tennessee is the state Supreme Court. Ben Wallace. The General Assembly (the state's legislature) consists of the 33-member Senate and the 99-member House of Representatives. Senators serve four year terms, and House members serve two year terms. Rod Strickland. See:List of Tennessee Governors. Brent Price. The speaker of the state Senate has the title of lieutenant governor. Robert Pack. Tennessee's governor holds office for a four year term and may serve any number of terms, but not more than two in a row. Gheorghe Muresan. Tennessee celebrated its bicentennial in 1996 after a yearlong statewide celebration entitled "Tennessee 200" by opening a new state park (Bicentennial Mall) at the foot of Capitol Hill in Nashville. Bernard King. During World War II, Oak Ridge was selected as a US Department of Energy national laboratory, one of the principal sites for the Manhattan Project's production and isolation of weapons-grade fissile material. Michael Jordan. The need to create work for the unemployed during the Depression, the desire for rural electrification, and the desire to control the annual spring floods on the Tennessee River drove the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest public utility, in 1933. Gus Johnson. In 1897, the state celebrated its centennial of statehood (albeit one year late) with a great exposition. Juwan Howard. Tennessee was the only state that seceded from the Union that did not have a military governor after the American Civil War, mostly due to the influence of President Andrew Johnson, a native of the state, who was Lincoln's vice president and succeeded him as president, due to the assassination. Bob Dandridge. After the American Civil War, Tennessee adopted a new constitution that abolished slavery (February 22, 1865), ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on July 18, 1866, and was the first state readmitted to the Union (July 24 of the same year). Phil Chenier. Tennessee was the last Confederate state to secede from the Union when it did so on June 8, 1861. Manute Bol. Tennessee was admitted to the Union in 1796 as the 16th state, and was created by taking the north and south borders of North Carolina and extending them with only one small deviation to the Mississippi River, Tennessee's western boundary. Michael Adams. This came to be known as the Trail of Tears, as an estimated 4,000 Cherokees died along the way.1. Wes Unseld. From 1838 to 1839, nearly 17,000 Cherokees were forced to march from Eastern Tennessee to Indian Territory west of Arkansas. Earl "The Pearl" Monroe. As European colonists spread into the area, the native populations were forcibly displaced to the south and west, including all Muscogee and Yuchi peoples, including the Chickasaw and Choctaw. Elvin Hayes. For unknown reasons, possibly due to expanding European settlement in the north, the Cherokee, an Iroquoian tribe, moved south from the area now called Virginia. Walt Bellamy. When Spanish explorers first visited the area, led by Hernando de Soto in 1539-43, it was inhabited by tribes of Muscogee and Yuchi people. The names of the cultural groups that inhabited the area between first settlement and the time of European contact are unknown, but several distinct cultural phases have been named by archaeologists, including Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian whose chiefdoms were the cultural predecessors of the Muscogee people who inhabited the Tennessee River Valley prior to Cherokee migration into the river's headwaters. The area now known as Tennessee was first settled by Paleo-Indians nearly 11,000 years ago. When a constitutional convention met in 1796 to organize a new state out of the Southwest Territory, it adopted "Tennessee" as the name of the state. In 1788, North Carolina named the third county to be established in what is now Middle Tennessee "Tennessee County". The modern spelling, Tennessee, is attributed to James Glen, the Governor of South Carolina, who used this spelling in his official correspondence during the 1750s. It has been said to mean "meeting place", "winding river", or "river of the great bend".[1] (http://www.state.tn.us/sos/statelib/pubsvs/faq.htm#01)[2] (http://www.tngenweb.org/campbell/hist-bogan/tennessee.html). Some accounts suggest it is a Cherokee modification of an earlier Yuchi or possibly Creek word. The meaning and origin of the word are uncertain. The town was located on a river of the same name (now known as the Little Tennessee River). European settlers later encountered a Cherokee town named Tanasi (or "Tanase") in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee. The earliest variant of the name that became Tennessee was first recorded by Captain Juan Pardo, the Spanish explorer, when he and his men passed through a Native American village named "Tanasqui" in 1567 while travelling inland from South Carolina. Tennessee is a Southern state of the United States. ISBN 0870492853. Knoville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1979. Tennessee's Indian Peoples. 1 Satz, Ronald. The USS Tennessee was named in honor of this state. Constitution, allowing women the right to vote. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee become the thirty-sixth and clinching state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. The Tennessee Valley Authority is based in Knoxville. State song: Tennessee (http://www.50states.com/songs/tenn6.htm). Cleveland Majic. Nashville Rhythm. Minor League basketball teams
Johnson City Cardinals. Kingsport Mets. Greeneville Astros. Elizabethton Twins. Tennessee Smokies (Sevierville). West Tenn Diamond Jaxx (Jackson). Chattanooga Lookouts. Nashville Sounds. Memphis Redbirds. Minor League baseball teams
Knoxville Ice Bears. Southern Professional Hockey League
Memphis Grizzlies. National Basketball Association
Gatlinburg - tourist destination, gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Pigeon Forge - tourist destination, home to Dollywood amusement park. Lebanon - home to Cracker Barrel restaurant chain and site of first location, home of Nashville Superspeedway. Murfreesboro - home of Middle Tennessee State University; geographic center of Tennessee; home of famous American Civil War Battle of Stones River (also known as the Battle of Murfreesboro); site of second state capital of Tennessee. Cleveland - Church Of God (Cleveland) headquarters. Fort Campbell - home of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division (though the base headquarters and address lie in Kentucky, the majority of the base is located in Tennessee). Clarksville - main campus of Austin Peay State University. Lawrenceburg - home of legendary pioneer Davy Crockett. Carthage - home of recent Vice President and Presidential candidate Al Gore. Spring Hill - like Smyrna, major automotive manufacturing center, only for Saturn automobiles. Smyrna - site of very large Nissan production facility. Lynchburg - home of Jack Daniels distillery. Bristol - site of major NASCAR track. Oak Ridge - major scientific/research center, Manhattan Project. Chattanooga - major railroad hub, financial center, major Civil War battleground. Knoxville - main campus of University of Tennessee, proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains, site of original capital of Tennessee, Tennessee Valley Authority headquarters, site of the 1982 World's Fair and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Nashville - State capital, world center of country music industry, Southern Baptist Convention headquarters, Home of Vanderbilt University and Tennessee State University among many other small private colleges and universities, home of Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators professional sports teams. Memphis - blues music center, birthplace of rock and roll, assassination of Martin Luther King, home of Elvis Presley, home of Memphis Grizzlies NBA team, home of University of Memphis (formerly Memphis State University), home to worldwide shipping giant FedEx, one of the centers of 60s and 70s soul music (Stax, Hi). Non-Religious – 6%. Other Religions – 1%. Other Christian – 1%. Roman Catholic – 5%. Protestant – 85%. 1.1% mixed race. 1.0% Asian. 0.3% American Indian. 2.2% Hispanic. 16.4% Black. 79.2% White. state taxes. Major industries/products. State income. Blue Ridge Mountains - including the Great Smoky Mountains. Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. Cumberland Plateau - also called the Appalachian Plateau. Highland Rim - this is continuous with the region in Kentucky termed the Pennyroyal Plateau. Nashville Basin. Gulf Coastal Plain - including the Mississippi embayment. |