Kentucky, KY.

Bluegrass State

The Commonwealth of Kentucky became the 15th U.S. state when it was admitted to the U.S. in 1792. Kentucky and its residents are probably most well known for thoroughbred horses and horse racing, local whisky distilleries, and enthusiasm for basketball (The two principal basketball rivals in the state are the University of Kentucky (blue and white, Wildcats) and the University of Louisville (red and black, Cardinals)). Kentucky's pastimes are distinctly those of the South, and sports rivalries between the University of Kentucky and the Universities of Tennessee and North Carolina have long existed. Kentuckian cuisine is considered to be a synergistic blend of Midwestern cuisine and Southern US cuisine.

It was once believed that the name Kentucky was derived from the Native American word meaning "dark and bloody hunting ground," which is believed to be due to the fact that many Native American tribes went there to hunt in the game-rich forests and often fought each other there. However, it is now most commonly believed that the name Kentucky can be attributed to various Native American languages with several possible meanings from "land of tomorrow" to "cane and turkey lands" to "meadow lands." This last may come from the Iroquois name for the Shawnee town Eskippathiki. The name Kentucky referred originally to the Kentucky River and from that came the name of the region. Kentucky is one of four states referred to as a commonwealth. Before the American War of Independence, this land was called Transylvania with its capital at Boonesborough. It was a major gateway for early migration to the west through the Cumberland Gap, and was the first major frontier developed west of the Appalachian Mountains. Guns enabled this movement westward, and even the term shotgun was first coined in Kentucky in 1776. After the war, it became Kentucky County, Virginia and ten constitutional conventions took place at the courthouse of Constitution Square in Danville between 1784 and 1792. In 1790, Kentucky delegates accepted Virginia's terms for separation and the state constitution was drafted at the final convention in April 1792. On June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth state in the union and Isaac Shelby, a Revolutionary War hero from Virginia, was named the first Governor of the Commonwealth Of Kentucky. Both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were born in Kentucky.Kentucky was a border state during the American Civil War and for a time had two state governments, one supporting the Confederacy and one supporting the Union. Fittingly, the Presidents of both the United States (Abraham Lincoln) and the Confederate States (Jefferson Davis) during the Civil War were born in Kentucky. At the beginning of the war, control of Kentucky was coveted by both sides of the conflict because of its central location. So much so, in fact, that in September 1861, Lincoln wrote in a private letter, “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game.” The Confederates made advances in the state during the "Kentucky Campaign" of Generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith in 1862, but Braggs' retreat following the Battle of Perryville left the state under the control of the Union Army for the rest of the war.

source:http://wikipedia.org/