Portal:Tennessee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Culture · Geography · Health · History · Mathematics · Nature · Philosophy · Religion · Society · Technology
| Main page | Facts & Symbols | Topics | Lists | Categories | Wikimedia |
 |
|
 |
|
Tennessee is a state located in the Southern United States. Tennessee borders eight other states: Kentucky and Virginia to the north; North Carolina to the east; Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi on the south; and Arkansas and Missouri on the Mississippi River to the west.
Tennessee attained statehood in 1796, becoming the sixteenth state to join the Union.
The state is divided geographically and by law into three Grand Divisions: East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, and West Tennessee. Physiographically, East Tennessee includes the Blue Ridge area characterized by high mountains, including the Great Smoky Mountains and the Ridge and Valley region, in which numerous tributaries join to form the Tennessee River in the Tennessee Valley. The state's third- and fourth-largest cities, Knoxville and Chattanooga, are located in the Tennessee Valley.
To the west of East Tennessee lies the Cumberland Plateau, a region of flat-topped mountains separated by sharp valleys. West of the Cumberland Plateau in Middle Tennessee is the Highland Rim, an elevated plain that surrounds the Nashville Basin, characterized by rich, fertile farm country and high natural wildlife diversity. Nashville, the state's capital and second largest city, is in Middle Tennessee.
The landscape of West Tennessee is formed on the Gulf Coastal Plain, ranging from rolling hills just west of the Tennessee River to the region of lowlands, floodplains, and swamp land referred to as the Mississippi Delta region. Memphis, Tennessee's largest city, is on the banks of the Mississippi River in the southwestern corner of the state.
Tennessee is known as the "Volunteer State", a nickname earned during the War of 1812 because of the prominent role played by volunteer soldiers from Tennessee.
Fisk University is a historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, which opened its doors to its first classes on January 9, 1866.
Fisk is the home of the world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers. The Jubilee Singers started out in the 1870s as a group of traveling students who set out from Nashville to raise money for the school through their singing. After a tour of Europe in 1873 they sent enough money back to Fisk to build Jubilee Hall, the first permanent building in the country built for the education of newly-freed slaves.
Notable Fisk alumni include Marion Barry, former mayor of Washington D.C.; Cora Brown, the first African-American woman to be elected to a state senate; W.E.B. DuBois, a sociologist and scholar, who was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University; poet Nikki Giovanni; U.S. Congressman Alcee Hastings and John Lewis; concert singer Roland Hayes; and Alma Powell, wife of General Colin Powell. (Read more...)
Pat Head Summitt (born Patricia Sue Head on June 14, 1952 in Clarksville, Tennessee) is the coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team. She has been coach at the University of Tennessee since 1974.
As a player, and a member of Chi Omega sorority at the University of Tennessee-Martin, Summitt was an All American and co-captain of the 1976 Olympic basketball team.
As coach, Pat Summitt has won eight national championships, which is the most among all women's basketball coaches, and second most among all college basketball coaches (only former UCLA men's coach John Wooden won more). She also has 14 Southeastern Conference regular season titles with the Lady Vols, as well as 13 SEC tournament titles.
She has written two books (with the help of Sally Jenkins), Reach for the Summitt (part motivational book, part autobiography) and Raise the Roof (about the Lady Vols' undefeated season in which they won the 1998 NCAA championship). Read more...
- ...that the Ocoee River was the site of the whitewater slalom events during the 1996 Summer Olympics?
- ...that the name of The Leaf-Chronicle (Clarksville's daily newspaper) refers to the leaf of tobacco, the area's main agricultural crop?
- ...that the Cumberland Gap Tunnel between Tennessee and Kentucky replaced a stretch of U.S. Route 25E that had been called "Massacre Mountain" because of the number of motorists killed there?
Clingmans Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains is the highest point in the state of Tennessee.
Image credit: Scott Basford (2007)
- June 1, 1796 - Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state. The original Tennessee State Constitution came into effect.
- June 1, 1996 - Bicentennial Mall State Park in Nashville is opened during the state's Bicentennial celebration.
- June 7, 1937 - Birth in Nashville of artist Red Grooms, known for his pop art constructions depicting frenetic scenes of modern urban life.
- June 8, 1861 - Tennessee seceded from the Union, becoming the 11th state to join the Confederacy.
- June 11, 1940 - Establishment of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
- June 11, 2005 - Federal and state agents, led by the FBI, raided and closed the Del Rio Cockfighting Pit in Cocke County, described by officials as the United States' largest and oldest illegal cockfighting pit. 143 criminal citations were issued.
- June 15, 1934 - The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established. About half of the park is located in Tennessee, the other half in North Carolina.
- February 5-6, 2008: A cold front spawned severe thunderstorms and tornadoes that killed at least 50 people in the Southern U.S., including at least 30 deaths in West and Middle Tennessee. Learn more...
- February 5, 2008: Hillary Clinton wins a majority of the Democratic vote and Mike Huckabee claims a plurality of the Republican vote in Tennessee's Presidential primary. Learn more...
- February 1, 2008: Whirlpool Corp. announced plans to close its refrigerator manufacturing plant in La Vergne; 500 employees are expected to lose their jobs. Learn more...
.svg/45px-Flag_of_Georgia_(U.S._state).svg.png){kind=small}
- Join WikiProject Tennessee
- Help compile high quality encyclopedic content related to the State of Tennessee for the Tennessee Portal. Suggest articles, biographies, anniversaries. Every idea, suggestion and contribution is welcome! Please leave your idea on the WikiProject Tennessee talk page.
