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Origin and History of the Name Tennessee
Captain Juan Pardo, the Spanish explorer, passed through a Native American village named "Tanasqui" after leaving South Carolina in the 1500s, near the river now known as Tanase, the "Little Tennessee".
The origin of the name Tennessee is usually attributed to the Cherokee word Tanase, a word with no certain meaning (It has been said to mean "meeting place", "winding river" or "River of the great bend"). The word Tanase itself is said to be a Cherokee modification of a Yuchi/Creek word.
It was also the name of an Overhill tribal town in what is currently Monroe County, TN.
The earliest known use of the modern spelling was in 1754.
In 1788 North Carolina named the third County to be established in what now is middle Tennessee "Tennessee County".
The name was officially applied to the region of transmontane North Carolina formerly known as The Territory of the United States of America South of the River Ohio in 1793
A constitutional convention was held in Knoxville on January 11th, 1796, forming the state "Tennessee" out of the Southwest Territory.
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History as a State
Tennessee was admitted to the Union in 1796 as the 16th state, and was created by taking the north and south borders of North Carolina and extending them with only one small deviation to the Mississippi River, Tennessee's western boundary. Tennessee seceded from the Union on June 8, 1861. After the American Civil War, Tennesse adopted a new constitution that abolished slavery (February 22, 1865), ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on July 18, 1866, and was the first state readmitted to the Union (July 24 of the same year).
major historical events that occurred in state
Tennessee was the only state that seceded from the Union that did not have a military governor after the American Civil War, mostly due to the influence of President Andrew Johnson, a native of the state, who was Lincoln's vice president and succeeded due to the assassination.
In 1897, the state celebrated its centennial of statehood (ignoring the small question of the Civil War) with a great exposition.
During World War II, Oak Ridge was selected as a US Department of Energy national laboratory, one of the principal sites for the Manhattan Project's production and isolation of weapons-grade fissionable material.
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Law and Government
Tennessee's governor holds office for a four year term and may serve any number of terms, but not more than two in a row. The speaker of the state Senate has the title of lieutenant governor. See:List of Tennessee Governors.

The General Assembly, ( the state's legislature) consists of the Senate which has 33 members and the House of Representatives with 99 members. Senators serve four year terms, and House members serve two year terms.

The highest court in Tennessee is the state Supreme Court. It has a chief justice and four associate justices. The Court of Appeals has 12 judges. The Court of Criminal Appeals has nine judges.

Tennessee's current state constitution was adopted in 1870. The state had two earlier constitutions. The first was adopted in 1796, the year Tennessee joined the union, and the second was adopted in 1834.

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Geography

Map of TennesseeSee:List of Tennessee counties See:List of Tennessee state parks

It is bordered on the north by Kentucky and Virginia, on the east by North Carolina, on the south by Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and on the west by Arkansas and Missouri. The state is bisected by the Tennessee River. The highest point in the state is Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet (2,025 meters).

The state of Tennessee is traditionally divided by its people into three grand divisions - East, Middle, and West Tennessee.

Tennessee features six principal geographic regions. Roughly from west to east, these are:

Gulf Coastal Plain - including the Mississippi Alluvial Plain; this is the largest region in Tennessee
Nashville Basin
Highland Rim - this is continuous with the region in Kentucky termed the Pennyroyal Plateau
Cumberland Plateau - also called the Appalachian Plateau
Ridge-and-valley Appalachians
Blue Ridge Mountains - including the Great Smoky Mountains
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Economy
According to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2001 Tennessee's Gross State Product was $115,204,000,000, 1.1% of the total Gross National Product.

In 2001, the per capita personal income was $26,808, 36th in the nation, and only 88% of the national per capita personal income of $30,413. Total earnings were $110,654,536,000.(BEARFACTS)

State income
Major industries/products
state taxes
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Demographics
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2003, Tennessee's population was estimated at 5,841,748 people.

The racial makeup of the state is:

79.2% White
16.4% Black
2.2% Hispanic
0.3% American Indian
1.0% Asian
1.1% are mixed race
The 5 largest ancestry groups in Tennessee are American (21.2%), African American (16.4%), Irish (11.3%), English (11.0%), German (10.1%).

The 5 largest religious denominations in Tennessee are Baptist (42%), Methodist (11%), "Christian" (7%), Church of Christ (6%), Roman Catholic (6%). 10% of the population is nonreligious.

6.6% of Tennessee's population were reported as under 5, 24.6% under 18, and 12.4% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51.3% of the population.

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Important cities and towns
The capital is Nashville. Memphis has the largest population of any city proper in the state, but Nashville has a slightly larger metropolitan area, comprising over 20% of the state's population. Chattanooga and Knoxville, both in the eastern part of the state near the Smoky Mountains, have approximately a third of Memphis or Nashville's population. The three towns of Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City make up a fifth significant population center, often called the "Tri-Cities", in the far northeast of the state. As of 2000, the population is 5,689,283.

Tennessee cities' claims to fame are:

Memphis - Blues music center, assassination of Martin Luther King, home of Elvis Presley
Nashville - World center of country music industry, Southern Baptist Convention headquarters
Knoxville - main campus of University of Tennessee, proximity to the Great Smoky Mountains
Chattanooga - railroad center, "See Rock City", major Civil War battleground
Oak Ridge - major scientific/research center, Manhattan Project
Bristol - site of major NASCAR track
Lynchburg - home of Jack Daniels distillery
Smyrna - site of very large Nissan production facility
Spring Hill - like Smyrna, major automotive manufacturing center, only for Saturn automobiles
Carthage - home of recent Vice President and Presidential candidate Al Gore
Clarksville - main campus of Austin Peay State University
Fort Campbell - Home of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division
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Education
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Colleges and universities
Aquinas College
Austin Peay State University
Baptist Memorial College of Health Sciences
Belmont University
Bethel College
Bryan College
Carson-Newman College
Christian Brothers University
Crichton College
Cumberland University
East Tennessee State University
Fisk University
Freed-Hardeman University
Johnson Bible College
King College
Knoxville College
Lambuth University
Lane College
Lee University
LeMoyne-Owen College
Lincoln Memorial University
Lipscomb University
Martin Methodist College
Maryville College
Meharry Medical College
Memphis College of Art
Middle Tennessee State University
Milligan College
Nashville State Community College
O'More College of Design
Rhodes College
Sewanee, The University of the South
Southern Adventist University
Tennessee State University
Tennessee Technological University
Tennessee Temple University
Tennessee Wesleyan College
Trevecca Nazarene University
Tusculum College
Union University
University of Memphis
University of Tennessee System
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
University of Tennessee at Martin
University of Tennessee at Memphis
Vanderbilt University

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Professional sports teams
Memphis Grizzlies, National Basketball Association
Nashville Predators, National Hockey League
Tennessee Titans, National Football League
Minor League Baseball Teams
Memphis Redbirds
Nashville Sounds
Chattanooga Lookouts
minor league cont.
West Tenn Diamond Jaxx (Jackson)
Tennessee Smokies (Sevierville)
Elizabethton Twins
Greeneville Astros
Kingsport Mets
Johnson City Cardinals

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Famous Tennesseans
see List of famous Tennesseans see List of Governors of Tennessee

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Miscellaneous information
See: Tennessee State Flag

The Tennessee Valley Authority is based in Knoxville.

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External links
Tennessee Encyclopedia Online (http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/intro.htm)
State Government Website (http://www.tennessee.gov)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (http://www.ornl.gov)
U.S. Census Bureau (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/47000.html)

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tennessee".

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