Ohio (OH).

• Region: Midwest
• Population: 11,756,058 (ranked 7th) (2022 estimate)
• Capital: Columbus (pop. 907,971) (2022 estimate)
• Largest city: Columbus (pop. 907,971) (2022 estimate)
• Number of counties: 88
• State nickname: Buckeye State
• State motto: With God, all things are possible
• State flag: Red and white stripes on a double-pointed pennant with a blue triangle at the staff end bearing a red circle bordered by seventeen stars

Ohio, the Buckeye State, was formed from territory acquired by the Treaty of Paris at the end of the American Revolution. It entered the Union on March 1, 1803, as the seventeenth state. Lake Erie forms Ohio’s northern border. Elsewhere, the state is bordered by Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Ohio was once covered by vast forests, but these have largely disappeared due to the spread of agriculture and heavy industry. The state is known for its farms and industry and for providing the United States with seven presidents.

State Name: The name “Ohio” comes from an Iroquois word “oheo” meaning “great river,” referring to the Ohio River. The state’s nickname, the Buckeye State, is in honor of the state tree. Ohio is also known as the Mother of Presidents, because seven US presidents have been born there.

Capital:Columbus, located in the center of the state, has served as Ohio’s capital since 1816. Prior to that, the capital was at Chillicothe.

Flag: Ohio’s state flag, adopted in 1902, has a swallowtail (“burgee”) shape. On the flag’s hoist side, there is a large blue triangle containing seventeen stars and a large white circle with a red center. The flag also has three red and two white horizontal stripes. The thirteen stars around the circle represent the nation’s thirteen original states. The four stars near the triangle’s point represent Ohio’s entry into the Union as the seventeenth state. The white-and-red circle represents the initial O in Ohio’s name and also resembles the buckeye nuts that give the state its nickname.

Official Symbols

• Flower: Red carnation
• Bird: Cardinal
• Tree: Ohio buckeye
• Song: “Beautiful Ohio” by Ballard MacDonald and Mary Earl

State and National Historic Sites

• Armstrong Air and Space Museum (Wapakoneta)
• Cuyahoga Valley National Park (near Cleveland and Akron)
• Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park (Dayton)
• Fallen Timbers Battlefield (near Maumee, northwestern Ohio)
• First Ladies National Historic Site (Canton)
• George A. Custer Memorial (Hopedale, Harrison County)
• Hopewell Culture National Historical Park (Ross County)
• James A. Garfield National Historic Site (Mentor)
• National Road/Zane Grey Museum (Norwich)
• Newark Earthworks State Memorial (Newark)
• Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center (Fremont)
• Schoenbrunn Village (New Philadelphia, Tuscarawas County)
• Warren G. Harding Home (Marion)

DEMOGRAPHICS

• Population: 11,756,058 (ranked 7th) (2022 estimate)
• Population density: 288.8/sq mi (2020 estimate)
• Urban population: 76.3% (2020 estimate)
• Rural population: 23.7% (2020 estimate)
• Population under 18: 21.8% (2022 estimate)
• Population over 65: 18.4% (2022 estimate)
• White alone: 80.9% (2022 estimate)
• Black or African American alone: 13.3% (2022 estimate)
• Hispanic or Latino: 4.5% (2022 estimate)
• American Indian and Alaska Native alone: 0.3% (2022 estimate)
• Asian alone: 2.7% (2022 estimate)
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone: 0.1% (2022 estimate)
• Two or More Races: 2.7% (2022 estimate)
• Per capita income: $34,526 (ranked 31st; 2021 estimate)
• Unemployment: 4.0% (2022 estimate)

American Indians: Ohio was home to many Algonquian tribes up until the mid-seventeenth century. Around 1650, the Iroquois Confederacy, or Six Nations, began claiming the region as hunting grounds and drove out the other tribes. The Iroquois themselves never really settled the Ohio country, but the other tribes moved farther west to avoid conflict. After the American Revolution, many tribes fought to prevent settlers from taking their land. Local militias and US troops fought a series of wars against American Indians, culminating with General William Henry Harrison’s victories over the Shawnee chief Tecumseh during the War of 1812. The US victories broke the American Indians’ power in Ohio. By the early 1840s, the US government had removed the last of the state’s tribes to reservations.

Into the twenty-first century, Ohio's American Indian population remained small in proportion to total inhabitants. No federally recognized tribes are based in the state.

ENVIRONMENT AND GEOGRAPHY

• Total area: 44,826 sq mi (ranked 34th)
• Land area: 40,861 sq mi (91.2% of total area)
• Water area: 3,965 sq mi (8.8% of total area)
• Shoreline: 312 miles
• National parks: 8
• Highest point: Campbell Hill (1,550 feet)
• Lowest point: Ohio River (455 feet)
• Highest temperature: 113° F (Gallipolis, July 21, 1934)
• Lowest temperature: -39° F (Milligan, February 10, 1899)

Topography: Much of Ohio’s terrain is level or covered with gently rolling hills, the result of prehistoric glacier action. Only southeastern Ohio has high and steep hills, because the Ice Age glaciers did not travel that far south. Much of the state’s geography blends in with that of neighboring states, such as the plains it shares with Indiana. The only natural geographic boundaries are Lake Erie to the north and the Ohio River to the south.

Ohio’s level terrain has greatly helped agriculture. The state has millions of acres of farmland; highway travelers pass mile after mile of fields growing corn, wheat, and other crops. Until the early nineteenth century, Ohio was a region of vast forests. These have largely vanished, however, due to the spread of agriculture and human settlement. By 2020, about 29 percent of the state was forested.

Major Lakes

• Acton Lake
• Alum Creek Reservoir
• Buckeye Lake
• Caesar Creek Lake
• Delaware Reservoir
• Dillon Lake
• Hoover Reservoir
• Knox Lake
• Lake Erie
• Lake Logan
• Leesville Lake

Major Rivers

• Chagrin River
• Grand River
• Kokosing River
• Little Miami River
• Maumee River
• Ohio River
• Olentangy River
• Sandusky River
• Stillwater River
• Upper Cuyahoga River

State and National Parks: Ohio has more than seventy state parks and eight national parks. The state parks include many lakes and dams, such as Alum Creek, Beaver Creek, Buckeye Lake, and Independence Dam. There are also historic sites such as Marblehead Lighthouse, built in 1822; it is the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the Great Lakes.

The eight national parks include the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, which honors the work of aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright as well as their friend Paul Laurence Dunbar, a Black poet; the First Ladies National Historic Site in Canton; the home of President James A. Garfield in Mentor; the home of President William Howard Taft in Cincinnati; and Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, which honors Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s naval victory over the British on Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

Natural Resources: Ohio has important deposits of industrial minerals, such as limestone, dolomite, sand, gravel, shale, gypsum, clay, and peat. It is also an important producer of natural gas, largely due to the Utica Shale deposit, and produces smaller amounts of oil and coal. The state also enjoys rich agricultural resources, both in crops and livestock. Ohio’s lakes and rivers provide plentiful catches for sport fishers, while Lake Erie supports a strong commercial fishing industry.

Plants and Animals: Ohio was once one of the richest hunting grounds in North America, even giving rise to so-called beaver wars between various American Indian tribes. Bison, or American buffalo, were found in Ohio until the early nineteenth century. Larger species such as the beaver and black bear still maintain populations around the state. The population of white-tailed deer, the official Ohio state animal, is controlled by a limited hunting season.

Bird species include the bald eagle, the American robin, the belted kingfisher, and the bobwhite quail. Insects include the cicada, the monarch butterfly, and the carpenter ant. Many species of fish are found in Ohio’s rivers and lakes; these include the lake sturgeon, the northern largemouth bass, and the rainbow trout.

Climate: Ohio has a continental climate, which means there is a wide range of air temperatures and precipitation. The state’s mean annual air temperature ranges from around 49 degrees Fahrenheit in northeastern Ohio to about 57 degrees Fahrenheit in southern Ohio. The lack of mountains in the region means that cold and warm air fronts regularly cross through Ohio, causing storms. Southern Ohio receives an average of twenty to thirty inches of snow each year, while northern Ohio receives between forty and fifty inches. The Lake Erie coast receives up to one hundred inches of snow annually. At the same time, effects of ongoing climate change in the state included more extreme weather events, warmer average temperatures, more severe droughts, and more frequent flooding.

EDUCATION AND CULTURE

Major Colleges and Universities

• Antioch University (Yellow Springs)
• Baldwin Wallace University (Berea)
• Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green)
• Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland)
• Cleveland State University (Cleveland)
• Denison University (Granville)
• Franciscan University of Steubenville (Steubenville)
• Franklin University (Columbus)
• Kent State University (Kent)
• Kenyon College (Gambier)
• Miami University (Oxford)
• Mount St. Joseph University (Cincinnati)
• Oberlin College (Oberlin)
• Ohio State University (Columbus)
• Ohio University (Athens)
• Ohio Wesleyan University (Delaware)
• Union Institute and University (Cincinnati)
• University of Akron (Akron)
• University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati)
• University of Dayton (Dayton)
• University of Toledo (Toledo)
• Wilberforce University (Wilberforce)
• Wright State University (Dayton)
• Xavier University (Cincinnati)

Major Museums

• Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College (Oberlin)
• Campus Martius Museum (Marietta)
• Cincinnati Art Museum (Cincinnati)
• Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland)
• Massillon Museum (Massillon)
• National Museum of Cambridge Glass (Cambridge)
• National Museum of the US Air Force (Dayton)
• Ohio History Center (Columbus)
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (Cleveland)
• Stark County Historical Society Museum (Canton)
• Taft Museum of Art (Cincinnati)
• Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo)

Major Libraries

• Cincinnati History Library and Archives (Cincinnati)
• Cleveland Public Library (Cleveland)
• Ohio History Center (Columbus)
• Ohio State University Library (Columbus)
• Ohioana Library (Columbus)
• Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County (Cincinnati)
• Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Library (Fremont)
• State Library of Ohio (Columbus)
• University of Cincinnati Library (Cincinnati)

Media

Ohioans enjoy a wide selection in mass media, both in print and broadcasting. Major daily newspapers include the Plain Dealer (Cleveland), the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Columbus Dispatch, the Dayton Daily News, the Akron Beacon Journal, and the Blade (Toledo).

The state has numerous television and radio stations, many of which are affiliated with the "Big Three" national networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC. Other broadcast outlets include the Ohio News Network (ONN), which provides statewide radio and TV news coverage; the Athens-based Ohio University Public Radio; and the Ohio Public Radio's Columbus-based Statehouse News Bureau.

ECONOMY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

• Gross domestic product (in millions $USD): 822,669.7 (ranked 7th) (2022 estimate)
• GDP percent change: 1.5%

Major Industries: Ohio's economy has traditionally rested largely on agriculture and heavy industry, including manufacturing and mining. Crop farming includes corn, oats, soybeans, wheat, and fruit. Much of the state's agriculture, however, focuses on dairy and livestock farming. Many livestock farms raise sheep and hogs. The agricultural industry has been increasingly mechanized and consolidated by large firms. Ohio has an array of commercial fishing operations on Lake Erie. They catch species including yellow perch, catfish, white bass, freshwater drum, and carp.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, Ohio has been a national leader in heavy industry. Its production of plastic and rubber products is generally first in the nation, with a value in the billions of dollars. Ohio's largest cities, such as Akron, Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, and Youngstown, have their own manufacturing specialties. Important industries include machine tools, jet engines, machine parts, steel, office machines, and auto parts. Ohio is also a national leader in limestone production.

Other important industries in the state include finance, health care and social assistance, retail trade, and other services.

Tourism: Ohio has a thriving tourism industry, which typically generates tens of billions of dollars in sales in the state. Popular destinations include the various "halls of fame" and presidential homes. Canton is home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, while Cleveland boasts the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. People interested in presidential history can visit the homes of Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding. Sites connected with Ohio's American Indian past are also popular. One of the most visited sites is the ancient earthworks at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park.

Energy Production: Ohioans rely heavily on petroleum and natural gas for energy. Other important sources of energy are coal and nuclear power. Ohio has two nuclear power plants, Davis-Besse and Perry. Together, the facilities produced approximately 14 percent of the state's net generation of electricity in 2021. That same year, natural gas output was over twenty-nine times higher than it had been in 2010.

Agriculture: Ohio's agriculture is highly diversified among vegetable crops, dairy farming, and sheep and hog raising. In 2022, there were 76,500 farms in operation; this represents a massive consolidation of ownership since the mid-twentieth century, when farms numbered above 160,000. Major crops include soybeans, corn, hay, wheat, and oats.

Airports: Ohio has several international airports as well as numerous regional airports. The international facilities are Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Cleveland/Hopkins International Airport, John Glenn Columbus International Airport, and Dayton International Airport. The regional facilities are Akron/Canton Regional Airport, Toledo Express Airport, and Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.

Seaports: Ohio, an inland state, does not have any seaports, but it does have several busy ports along its Lake Erie border. Toledo and Cleveland are two of the most important. These ports handle much of the million tons of freight carried into and through Ohio via trucks and railroads.

GOVERNMENT

• Governor: Mike DeWine (Republican)
• Present constitution date: March 26, 1905
• Electoral votes: 17
• Number of counties: 88
• Violent crime rate: 309.8 (per 100,000 residents) (2020 estimate)
• Death penalty: Yes

Constitution: Ohio’s current constitution was adopted in 1851 but has been amended many times since then. The 1912 constitutional convention made numerous changes to provide for more direct popular control. These changes included adoption of direct primaries, referendums, and voter initiatives.

Branches of Government

Executive: The governor, the state’s chief executive, is elected to a four-year term and is constitutionally limited to two successive terms. The governor serves as commander in chief of the state’s military units, including the state National Guard. The lieutenant governor, who has the same term length and limits, is a member of the governor’s cabinet and presides at meetings during the governor’s absence. The governor can choose also to appoint the lieutenant governor as the head of an administrative agency.

Legislative: The Ohio General Assembly is a two-house legislature composed of the senate and house of representatives. The senate has thirty-three members and the house ninety-nine. Senators may serve up to two consecutive four-year terms, while representatives may serve up to four consecutive two-year terms.

Judicial: Ohio’s highest judicial body is the state supreme court, the members of which include the chief justice and six other justices. Justices are elected to six-year terms, with no term limits. The court has original jurisdiction in certain cases but generally serves as the court of last resort for state constitutional questions and other important public issues. The high court also hears appeals from the Board of Tax Appeals, the Public Utilities Commission, and death penalty cases.

Beneath the supreme court is the court of appeals, which includes twelve courts. This court hears appeals from the courts of common pleas, municipal courts, and county courts as well as from the Board of Tax Appeals. The state also has a number of mayor's courts, subordinate to the municipal and county courts. Each of Ohio’s counties has a court of common pleas, which handles civil and criminal cases, divorce and custody cases, probate issues, and juvenile offenses. The court of claims handles cases suing the state for damages.

HISTORY

1662 Connecticut receives a large land grant known as the Western Reserve as a gift from King Charles II of England. This territory encompasses much of what is now northern Ohio.

1669 French explorer Robert Cavalier, sieur de la Salle, explores the Ohio River Valley.

1754 The French and Indian War breaks out, as Great Britain and the French fight for control of the Ohio River Valley. The fighting is part of a larger European conflict known as the Seven Years’ War. The American phase of the war flares up when Virginia troops under Lieutenant Colonel George Washington battle against French forces.

1763 The Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years’ War. Britain receives all French territory east of the Mississippi River except for New Orleans. That same year, King George III of Britain attempts to reduce tensions with American Indian tribes by signing the Proclamation of 1763. The act, widely hated by the colonists, forbids any English to settle beyond the Allegheny Mountains and requires those already there to return east.

1775–83 American Revolution. No major battles take place in the Ohio Country, but there is considerable fighting between the settlers and local American Indians. British forces and their American Indian allies attack American settlements, while the Continental forces destroy American Indian settlements. Fort Laurens, built in 1778 and abandoned one year later, is the only fortification that the Continental army constructs in the Ohio Country during the war. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which recognizes American independence, cedes British western lands—including the entire Ohio Country—to the newly formed United States.

1787 The Confederation Congress passes the Ordinance of 1787, which creates the Northwest Territory out of the western lands ceded to the national government by the states. The measure also establishes a territorial government and provisions for creating new states. When any part of the territory reaches a population of sixty thousand or more, it can apply for admission to the Union as a state. The ordinance’s other provisions include support for religious freedom, education, and the abolition of slavery in the territory. In addition to Ohio, the Northwest Territory encompasses what will later become the states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. It also includes part of Minnesota.

1788 The first European settlement is established on the site of present-day Cincinnati. Initially called Columbia, it is soon renamed Losantiville, meaning “the place opposite the Licking River.”

1789 The US Army establishes Fort Washington near Losantiville.

1790 Arthur St. Clair, the first governor of the Northwest Territory, gives Losantiville the name Cincinnati in honor of the ancient Roman hero Cincinnatus. The city is also named for the Society of Cincinnati, an association of Continental army veterans.

1791–94 Ohio and Indian Wars. After a long period of increasing hostility, St. Clair leads a force of mostly untrained militia against the area’s American Indians. He is soundly defeated, causing many White settlers to panic and flee. St. Clair is forced to resign from the army but remains territorial governor. General Anthony Wayne inflicts a decisive defeat on the American Indians in 1794 at the Battle of Fallen Timbers (now in northwestern Ohio). This leads to the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, in which most of Ohio’s American Indians relinquish the majority of their land claims in the territory.

1796 Ebenezer Zane, under contract to the US Congress, builds the first road into the Ohio Country. Zane’s Trace runs from Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), to Limestone, Kentucky, passing through Ohio. The road greatly helps open up Ohio to settlement. The following year, Zane’s son-in-law John McIntire builds the community of Zanesville. That same year, the city of Cleveland is founded in northern Ohio by General Moses Cleaveland, head surveyor of the Connecticut Land Company. The settlement does not become permanent until 1799.

1797 A Kentucky surveyor, Lucas Sullivant, founds Franklinton, the first permanent White settlement in central Ohio.

1802 Congress passes the Enabling Act, which allows the Ohio Territory to enter the Union as a state. This measure also provides full federal funding for a road from the East Coast to the western territories. Public land in Ohio will be sold to settlers, with 5 percent of the proceeds going to build the road. The road, officially known as the Cumberland Road, eventually becomes known as the National Road.

1803 On March 1, 1803, Ohio enters the Union as the seventeenth state. The capital is first located at Chillicothe but in 1810 moves to Zanesville and then in 1812 back to Chillicothe. Columbus, founded 1812 and named for Christopher Columbus, becomes the permanent capital in 1816.

1804 Ohio University is founded in Athens. It is the state’s first university.

1812–15 War of 1812. General William Henry Harrison has his troops build Fort Meigs in northwest Ohio to protect the region from British invasion. In 1813, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry wins an important naval victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Erie.

1829 The Dayton-Cincinnati Canal is completed. The canal is later extended to Lake Erie.

1832 The Columbus is connected to a feeder of the Erie Canal, known as the Ohio and Erie Canal.

1833 The National Road reaches Columbus. Oberlin College is founded as the nation’s first coeducational and interracial college.

1835 In April, Ohio and the Michigan Territory fight a brief and almost bloodless boundary conflict known as the Toledo War. The source of dispute is the Toledo Strip, a region including the site of present-day Toledo. Ohio wants the land because it offers access to Lake Erie, but Michigan claims that this goes against congressional guidelines established in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. President Andrew Jackson quickly ends the fighting. Congress gives the Toledo Strip to Ohio, while awarding most of the Upper Peninsula to Michigan.

1830s–50s Ohio becomes a prominent center of antislavery activity. Many Ohioans take part in the Underground Railroad, a network of abolitionists who help fugitive enslaved individuals flee northward.

1837 William Procter and James Gamble found a small soap and candle company in Cincinnati. Procter and Gamble Company grows to become one of the world’s largest manufacturers, making thousands of different household and commercial products.

1841 Oberlin College becomes the first institution of higher learning to grant degrees to women.

1845 The Miami and Erie Canal is completed. It passes through Delphos, fifteen miles west of Lima.

1861–65 The Civil War. As in other border states, loyalties are sharply divided between North and South. Despite this, Ohio strongly supports the Union war effort and provides many regiments to the conflict. The Battle of Buffington Island, the only major Civil War battle fought in Ohio, takes place in 1863 in Meigs County. There, a Union army defeats Confederate cavalry under the command of General John Hunt Morgan.

1869 The Cincinnati Red Stockings become the nation’s first professional baseball team.

1870 The Ohio General Assembly founds the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College as a land-grant school. (The Morrill Act, passed by Congress in 1862, gives federal lands to states in order to establish colleges whose curricula include agricultural and technical subjects.) Classes begin in 1873, and in 1878 the school changes its name to Ohio State University.

1872 Victoria Claflin Woodhull, a native of Homer, Ohio, runs for the US presidency as candidate of the Equal Rights Party, even though women are not allowed to vote. She is the first woman to receive a presidential nomination.

1879 Inventor Charles Brush successfully demonstrates electric arc lights on the streets of Cleveland. This makes Cleveland the world’s first city to be lit by electricity.

1885 Oil is discovered in Lima, in a gas well being drilled at Benjamin C. Faurot’s paper mill. For a time, the Lima Field is the nation’s largest oil field.

1886 The American Federation of Labor is founded by trade-union leaders at a meeting in Columbus.

1887 Faurot begins operation of Lima’s first electric streetcars. This is the first such system in Ohio and one of the first in the United States.

1894 “Coxey’s Army” marches from Ohio to Washington, DC, to protest unemployment. The leader is Jacob Coxey, a wealthy Massillon, Ohio, businessman. He wants the federal government to fund public works projects in order to create jobs.

1903 Bicycle makers Orville and Wilbur Wright of Dayton conduct the first manned heavier-than-air flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The brothers later found the American Wright Company to produce their aircraft.

1904 The Wright brothers turn a field near their Dayton home into the Huffman Prairie Flying Field. Here, in 1905, they develop the first practical airplane. During World War I, the site becomes part of a base for US Army aviation.

1905 Rubber manufacturer Harvey Firestone of Akron agrees to make tires for the Ford Motor Company.

1913 The worst flood in Dayton’s history kills between three hundred and four hundred people and causes over $100 million in damages. This disaster leads to the creation of the Miami Conservancy District, the nation’s first comprehensive flood-control initiative. That year, automobile-parts manufacturer Carl Fisher helps create the Lincoln Highway Association, an organization that plans to build the nation’s first transcontinental highway. The highway is developed throughout the 1910s and 1920s. Part of the route runs through northern Ohio. The Lincoln Highway Association fades in the late 1920s with the rise of US numbered routes.

1914 Martha, the last passenger pigeon in captivity, dies in the Cincinnati Zoo. This marks the extinction of the species, which was once considered too numerous to count.

1914–18 World War I. In 1916, Akron-based Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company establishes Wingfoot Lake Airship Base south of the city. Wingfoot Lake, the nation’s first airship base, becomes a manufacturing site where the company builds airships for the US Armed Forces.

1920 The National Football League (NFL) is founded in Canton.

1922 Florence Allen is elected to the state supreme court, becoming the nation’s first female state supreme court justice. She serves from January 1923 to April 1934.

1925 Goodyear builds and begins operating the nation’s first commercially licensed blimp.

1933 Bank robber John H. Dillinger is incarcerated at the Lima jail after robbing a bank in nearby Bluffton. Three of Dillinger’s associates free him from jail, killing the Lima sheriff in the process. His career of bank robbery and murder continues until 1934, when FBI agents shoot him dead in front of a Chicago theater. That same year, Procter and Gamble sponsors the nationally syndicated radio drama Ma Perkins. Other brands begin promoting other radio dramas, giving rise to the expression “soap operas.”

1935 Dr. Bob Smith, an Akron physician, meets stockbroker Bill Wilson. The two men form the self-help group Alcoholics Anonymous.

1936 The Ohio River Valley floods, the worst such flood in the river’s history. Flooding reaches 52.6 feet, with an elevation of 686.3 feet.

1941–45 World War II. Thousands of Ohioans enlist for service in the Armed Forces, while others do their part on the home front. Many Ohio companies play important roles in supplying the Armed Forces with equipment. At its Wingfoot Lake base, Goodyear builds over one hundred airships for the US Navy. The Dayton-based National Cash Register Company (NCRC) helps the US Navy develop the bombe, a code-breaking machine that can counter the Germans’ Enigma machine.

1948 The US Air Force establishes Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, on the site of the old Wright and Patterson Fields. This was the location of the Wright Brothers’ early experiments at Huffman Prairie.

1953 General Motors acquires Ohio-based Euclid Road Machinery Company, a manufacturer and distributor of off-road equipment for earth moving.

1967 Black American jurist Carl Stokes is elected mayor of Cleveland. He is the first Black American mayor of a major American city.

1969 Robert M. Duncan becomes the first Black American justice of the state supreme court. He serves until 1971.

1970 Four students die during an anti–Vietnam War protest at Kent State University, when members of the Ohio National Guard fire on the protestors. The incident causes a national controversy.

1974 Former astronaut John H. Glenn, a Democrat, is elected US senator from Ohio. He serves until 1999.

1977 The Davis-Besse nuclear power plant begins operation in Oak Harbor, east of Toledo.

1996 The Ohio Statehouse reopens after extensive remodeling. The Cleveland Browns football team moves to Maryland and becomes the Baltimore Ravens.

1998 Glenn goes back into space as a crewmember of the space shuttle Discovery.

1999 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) renames Lewis Research Center, near Cleveland, the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field.

2003 Ohio celebrates the two hundredth anniversary of its statehood.

2004 Voting procedures in Ohio come under scrutiny during the 2004 presidential election.

2005 Governor Bob Taft is implicated in a scandal related to gifts and campaign contributions. He is later reprimanded by a judge.

2007 Heavy rain causes rivers in Ohio to flood, damaging property and forcing residents out of their homes.

2010 An E. coli outbreak in Ohio and several other states causes officials to recall lettuce throughout the United States.

2012 A number of earthquakes occur in Ohio throughout the year. Some scientists suggest that the earthquakes were caused by drilling operations carried out by the oil and natural gas industries.

2013 In May, three girls who had been held captive for ten years inside the home of a Cleveland man, Ariel Castro, are finally found and rescued. By August, Castro is given a life sentence in prison. However, he hangs himself in his cell about one month later.

2016 An Ohio State University student intentionally drives his car into pedestrians on the campus before stabbing several people, leading to at least eleven being injured in a suspected terrorism-related attack.

2019 After medical marijuana was legalized in Ohio in 2016, the first sales in the state occur.

2020 Like other states, Ohio is disrupted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

2021 The Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball (MLB) team officially announces they will change their name to the Cleveland Guardians, in response to heightened scrutiny of racial insensitivity.

2023 Media platforms nationwide cover the major derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in the Ohio town of East Palestine. The incident raises concerns and sparks further investigations into railway safety and regulations as some reports of health issues surface among residents of the town.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

Neil Armstrong, 1930–2012 (Wapokeneta) , Astronaut, first person to walk on the moon.

Jim Backus, 1913–89 (Cleveland) , Actor.

Halle Berry, 1966– (Cleveland) , Actor.

E. Lucy Braun, 1889–1971 (Cincinnati) , Botanist.

Drew Carey, 1958– (Cleveland) , Actor; comedian.

George Armstrong Custer, 1839–76 (New Rumley) , Soldier.

Dorothy Dandridge, 1923–65 (Cleveland) , Actor.

Ruby Dee, 1924–2014 (Cleveland) , Actor.

Phil Donahue, 1935– (Cleveland) , Talk-show host.

Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1872–1906 (Dayton) , Poet.

Thomas A. Edison, 1847–1931 (Milan) , Inventor.

Harvey Firestone, 1868–1938 (Columbiana) , Rubber manufacturer.

Clark Gable, 1901–60 (Cadiz) , Film actor.

James A. Garfield, 1831–81 (Orange) , Twentieth president of the United States.

John Glenn, 1921–2016 (New Concord) , Astronaut, first American to orbit the earth; US senator.

Ulysses S. Grant, 1822–85 (Point Pleasant) , Civil War general; eighteenth president of the United States.

Zane Grey, 1875–1939 (Zanesville) , Writer of Western novels.

Warren G. Harding, 1865–1923 (near Corsica, now Blooming Grove) , Twenty-ninth president of the United States.

Benjamin Harrison, 1833–1901 (North Bend) , Twenty-third president of the United States.

Rutherford B. Hayes, 1822–93 (Delaware) , Nineteenth president of the United States.

LeBron James, 1984– (Akron) , Basketball player.

John Legend, 1978– (Springfield) , Musician.

Henry Mancini, 1924–94 (Cleveland) , Film and television composer.

William McKinley, 1843–1901 (Niles) , Twenty-fifth president of the United States.

Toni Morrison, 1931–2019 (Lorain) , Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist.

Jack Nicklaus, 1940– (Columbus) , Golfer.

Paul Newman, 1925–2008 (Shaker Heights) , Film actor.

Eddie Rickenbacker, 1890–1973 (Columbus) , Military aviator.

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., 1917–2007 (Columbus) , Historian.

William Tecumseh Sherman, 1820–91 (Lancaster) , Soldier.

Carl Stokes, 1927–96 (Cleveland) , Mayor of Cleveland.

Tecumseh, ca. 1768–1813 (probably Clark County) , Chief of the Shawnee.

William Howard Taft, 1857–1930 (Cincinnati) , Twenty-seventh president of the United States; chief justice of the Supreme Court.

James Thurber, 1894–1961 (Columbus) , Writer and cartoonist.

Bobby Womack, 1944–2014 (Cleveland) , Musician and songwriter.

Victoria Claflin Woodhull, 1838–1927 (Homer) , Women’s rights advocate, presidential candidate.

Orville Wright, 1871–1958 (Dayton) , Aviation pioneer.

Wilbur Wright, 1867–1912 (Dayton) , Aviation pioneer.

TRIVIA

• Ohio's nickname, "The Buckeye State," comes from the large numbers of buckeye trees that grow in the state.
• Ohio inventor Charles Kettering, born 1876, invented the electric self-starting ignition for the automobile. This makes it easy for anyone to use a car.
• Ohio became the seventeenth state in 1803, but Congress never formally declared its statehood. This custom began in 1812, when Louisiana became the eighteenth state. President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation in 1953, during Ohio's sesquicentennial (150th anniversary), retroactivity declaring March 1, 1803, as the date when Ohio officially entered the Union.
• Jacquelyn Jeanne Mayer, "Miss Ohio," won the 1962 Miss America pageant.
• The Wyandot Popcorn Museum, the world's only museum dedicated to popcorn, is located in Marion, birthplace of US President Warren G. Harding.
• The Warmke family of Philo built a house in 2004, known as the Earthship, made entirely of trash—mostly tires, plastic bottles, and aluminum cans.
• Similar to other states, Ohio canceled its state fair for the first time in decades in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some features such as shopping and recipes were made part of an alternate online experience.
• The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2023.

Bibliography

Goodman, Rebecca, and Barrett J. Brunsman. This Day in Ohio History. Emmis, 2005.

Leonard, Lee. A Columnist’s View of Capitol Square: Ohio Politics and Government 1969–2005. U of Akron P, 2010.

"Ohio." Quick Facts, US Census Bureau, 1 July 2022, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/OH/PST045222. Accessed 20 Sept. 2023.

"Ohio: State Profile and Energy Estimates; Profile Analysis." US Energy Information Admistration, 18 Aug. 2022, www.eia.gov/state/?sid=OH. Accessed 20 Sept. 2023.

"Ohio: 2020 Census." United States Census Bureau, 25 Aug. 2021, www.census.gov/library/stories/state-by-state/ohio-population-change-between-census-decade.html. Accessed 19 Oct. 2021.

Scheiber, Harry N. Ohio Canal Era: A Case Study of Government and the Economy, 1820–1861. Ohio UP, 2012.

"State BEARFACTS." Bureau of Economic Analysis, US Department of Commerce, apps.bea.gov/regional/bearfacts/. Accessed 20 Sept. 2023.

"2022 State Agriculture Overview: Ohio." US Department of Agriculture, www.nass.usda.gov/Quick‗Stats/Ag‗Overview/stateOverview.php?state=OHIO. Accessed 20 Oct. 2023.

"Unemployment Rates for States, 2022 Annual Averages." Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2 Mar. 2022, www.bls.gov/lau/lastrk22.htm. Accessed 20 Sept. 2023.

Eric Badertscher