Mississippi Trivia & Tidbits - Page 7

Looking for Mississippi trivia? Try our list Mississippi little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

In the early morning hours of May 10, 1900, engineer Casey Jones rammed his Illinois Central Passenger Train No. 382, the Cannonball Express, into a freight train in the Yazoo County (pop. 28,149) town of Vaughan. Jones was the only casualty. The story of the wreck was immortalized in The Ballad of Casey Jones, and over the years, dozens of versions of the song have been recorded.

first appeared: 1/16/2005

The Civil Engineer Corps/Seabee Museum in Gulfport (pop. 71,127) spotlights tools, uniforms and weapons used by the U.S. Navy's fighting builders. Established in 1942, the Seabees, who took their name from the initials CB, for "construction battalion," completed airstrips, roads and camps often under fire by the enemy throughout the Pacific theater during World War II.

first appeared: 1/2/2005

The mockingbird was named the official state bird in 1944.

first appeared: 12/19/2004

Near Forest (pop. 5,987), the Bienville Pines Scenic Area contains one of the state’s largest old-growth loblolly pine stands.

first appeared: 12/5/2004

Adult membership in the International Dodge-Ball Federation in Gulfport is growing rapidly. The sport got a bounce with the 2004 movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

first appeared: 11/21/2004

The 1824 structure housing the Woodville United Methodist Church in Woodville (pop. 1,192) is the state’s oldest Methodist church building.

first appeared: 11/7/2004

Nature’s own mimic—the mockingbird—is the state bird of Mississippi.

first appeared: 10/24/2004

The Peavey Museum in Meridian (pop. 39,968) honors Hartley Peavey, who founded Peavey Electronics Corp. in 1965, one of the world’s largest suppliers of musical instruments and sound equipment.

first appeared: 10/10/2004

A 1904 fire in Yazoo City (pop. 14,550) was blamed on “the witch of Yazoo City,” a legend made famous by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and native Willie Morris in Good Old Boy.

first appeared: 10/3/2004

Robert Pittman, known as the “Father of MTV,” was born in 1953 in Jackson and started working as a deejay at age 15. At 27, he created the programming for the music television cable network, which debuted in 1981.

first appeared: 9/19/2004

The Mississippi Quilt Association documented and photographed 1,769 of the state’s heirloom quilts from 1995 to 1997.

first appeared: 9/12/2004

Corinth (pop. 14,054) originally was named Cross City in 1854 because the railroads crossed there.

first appeared: 9/5/2004

The MG Robert Smalls, the first Army vessel named for a Civil War hero and the first to bear the name of an African-American, was built in Pascagoula (pop. 26,200) and christened in May 2004. In 1862, Smalls commandeered a Confederate steamer and turned it over to Union soldiers.

first appeared: 8/29/2004

Legendary sports broadcaster Walter “Red” Barber announced baseball games for the Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees from the 1930s to the 1960s. He was born in 1908 in Columbus (pop. 25,944).

first appeared: 8/22/2004

Completed in 1848, the Biloxi Lighthouse in Biloxi (pop. 50,644) is the South’s first cast-iron lighthouse.

first appeared: 8/15/2004

Bluesman Chester Arthur Burnett, nicknamed Howlin’ Wolf and one of the first electric guitarists in the 1930s, was born in 1910 in West Point (pop. 12,145).

first appeared: 8/8/2004

Of the Confederate states, Mississippi suffered some the heaviest losses during the Civil War. Of the roughly 78,000 soldiers from the state, 59,000 were killed or wounded.

first appeared: 8/1/2004

Picayune (pop. 10,535) is believed to be the only town named after a newspaper. Eliza Jane Poitevent, publisher of The Picayune in New Orleans and a native of Pearlington (pop. 1,684), was asked to name the town and chose her newspaper’s name.

first appeared: 7/25/2004

Dedicated in 1906, the Illinois State Memorial at Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg (pop. 26,407) is modeled after the Roman Pantheon and lists the names on bronze tablets of 36,325 Union soldiers from Illinois who fought at Vicksburg in 1863.

first appeared: 7/18/2004

Camellia shrubs are among beauties in the garden of late Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Eudora Welty in Jackson. The garden was restored to the period of 1925-1945 and opened to the public in April 2004.

first appeared: 7/11/2004

jump to page: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18

newspaper partner login create account

Recent

Popular

Recipes

Below are the most recent American Profile articles:

Below are the most recent, highest rated American Profile articles:

Below are the most recent, highest rated American Profile recipes:

Relish

Spry

Below are the most recent articles from our Relish sister site. Click on the "Spry" tab above to see the most recent articles from our other sister site.

Below are the most recent articles from our Spry sister site. Click on the "Relish" tab above to see the most recent articles from our other sister site.