Ohio officially became a state March 1, 1803 which makes March 1, 2025 Ohio’s 222nd birthday!
What makes Ohio so great?
With a state slogan of “Ohio, The Heart of it All” and Ohio roughly being the shape of a heart, what’s not to love?
Ohio has greatly contributed to the world of music, art, engineering, astronautics, aviation, politics, inventions and so much more!
Many notorious people were born in Ohio, see how many you can recognize! (answers slightly below)
**Bonus Points: 2 faces seen here were actually born elsewhere but were raised/got their start here in Ohio. **
Left to right: Sammy Kaye, Annie Oakley, Margaret Hamilton, Paul Newman, Tim Conway, Phyllis Diller, Clark Gable, Frankie Yankovic
one row below Sammy: Halle Berry, Dorothy Dandridge, Drew Carey, Doris Day, Dean Martin, Bob Hope, General Custer, Jim Bakus, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Steven Spielberg
The two not born in Ohio are Bob Hope (England) but moved to Cleveland when he was 4 and Frankie Yankovic (West Virigina) but grew up in the Collinwood Neighborhood.
25 Ohioans have been into space! Sunita Williams (from Euclid) is currently in space.
“Mother of Presidents” 8 presidents are from Ohio
William Henry Harrison was technically born in Virginia but moved to Ohio as an adult and is often counted as being from Ohio. That makes Ohio tied with Virginia for most presidents. There is some debate it seems as what counts as “being from Ohio” to the final tally.
Ohio, A State of Ingenuity.
Ziggy, Calvin and Hobbes, Cheez-it, Chef Boyardee, Play-Doh, Lifesavers candy, first portable vacuum, pull tab on pop, Stouffer’s, Etch-A-Sketch, Easy-Bake Oven and Klondike bars were all invented here!
It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s…from Cleveland?
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who met at Glenville High School in 1932, created Superman together. The S on Superman’s costume stands not only for Superman but for Siegel and Shuster.
Birthplace of Aviation vs. First in Flight
You’ve probably seen on your license plate “Birthplace of Aviation” and on North Carolina’s “First in Flight.” While yes, Orville and Wilbur Wright first achieved the first powered flight in history on December 17, 1903 at 10:53 A.M. in Kittyhawk, they grew up in Dayton and developed their inventions in Ohio. They worked on 200 different designs before their success in Kittyhawk with the plane being in the air for 12 seconds.
You Saw It Here First Folks!
Garrett Morgan (top left) invented the first traffic light in 1914. He also invented a smoke hood/gas mask and many hair care products. On July 25, 1916, Garrett made national news for using his gas mask to rescue men trapped after an explosion in an underground tunnel located 250 feet under Lake Erie. He is quoted as saying, “I had but a little schooling, but I am a graduate from the school of hard knocks and cruel treatment. I have personally saved nine lives.”
1879, inventor Charles F. Brush (bottom left) installed 12 arc lamps around Public Square, making it the first outdoor public space in the world to be fully illuminated by electricity.
William DeHart Hubbard (next to Garrett Morgan’s photo) of Cincinnati was the first African American to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event. He won for the running long jump at the 1924 Paris Summer Games with a distance of 25 feet.
Oberlin College (next to Hubbard’s photo) was the first college in America to adopt a policy to admit black students (1835) and the first to grant bachelor’s degrees to women (1841).
Jerrie Mock (next to Oberlin photo) of Newark, OH was the first woman to fly solo around the world.
John Mercer Langston was the first African American ever elected to public office. This was in 1855 and his position was township clerk in Brownhelm, Ohio.
Carl B. Stokes (next to Langston photo) was the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city when he was elected Mayor of Cleveland in 1967. He also was elected to be the first black Democrat to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1962.
Grandma Gatewood of Merceville, OH was the first woman to hike the entire 2,050 mile Appalachian trail and the first woman to do it three times. She hiked the trail for the first time at 67 years old! It took her 146 days and she had minimal gear. The media coverage surrounding her feats was credited for generating interest in maintaining the A.T. and in hiking generally. Read more about her in “Grandma Gatewood’s walk: the inspiring story of the woman who saved the Appalachian Trail” which is in our collection.
Paul Laurence Dunbar was an American poet who became one of the first African-American writers to establish an international reputation. In addition to his poems, short stories, and novels, he also wrote the lyrics for the musical comedy In Dahomey, the first all-African-American musical produced on Broadway in New York. Below is a poem he wrote that later inspired the title for Maya Angelou’s memoir, “I Know Why The Cage Bird Sings.”
Cleveland Rocks!
Well, we all know Cleveland rocks but did you know that the term “rock n’ roll” was started here?
Leo Mintz of Cleveland was the owner of the store Record Rendezvous, one of Cleveland’s largest record stores, and he had noticed young white kids buying what had been considered exclusively black music a few years earlier. Mintz convinced legendary DJ Alan Freed to play rhythm and blues on Cleveland’s WJW-AM and even lent him the records to do so. Freed turned to Mintz and said, “Leo, this music is so exciting, we’ve got to call it something.” Mintz replied, “Alan, you are rolling tonight…you’re rocking and rolling…call it ‘rock and roll.'” Mintz also sponsored Freed’s Moondog Coronation Ball in March 1952, often considered the first ever rock n’ roll concert.
With all there is to see and do in Ohio, no wonder Ohio is called the heart of it all!
Happy birthday Ohio!
