Nickname: There is no official nickname Date Ratified: August 10, 1821 (24th) Capital: Jefferson City [caption id="attachment_1843" align="aligncenter" width="210" caption="Map of Missouri"] [/caption]

• Despite popular belief, Missouri has no official nickname. One of the unofficial nicknames of the state is, however, 'The Show-Me State'.
• St. Charles is the site of the first interstate highway project (1956).
• A.T. Still University, in Kirksville, was the first osteopathic medical school in the world when it was founded in 1892.
• The tallest monument built in the U.S. is the Gateway Arch in St. Louis; it is 630 feet tall.
• Albert Berry became the first person to successfully jump from a moving airplane in 1912. He landed at Jefferson Barracks, just south of St. Louis.
• St. Louis was home to both the III Olympiad and the World's Fair in 1904. The ice cream cone and iced tea may have been served for the first time at the World's Fair.
• Missouri, along with Tennessee, borders more states than any other; eight.
• The state flag of Missouri was adopted in 1913, and remains unchanged to this day. The three stripes in the background are to recognize the area's status as part of the French Louisiana territory.
[caption id="attachment_1844" align="aligncenter" width="210" caption="Flag of Missouri"]

[/caption]

Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed, or follow EiH on Twitter or you could miss out on your chance to win How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein