1. Graeter’s Ice Cream was founded here in 1870 and is still a local favorite for handmade treats and baked goods.
2. Today, Graeter’s is run by the three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren of the original owner, Louis Graeter. They still use the same recipes and methods.
3. Cincinnati’s original name was Losantiville after the Licking River. The name Losantiville means “opposite of the mouth of the river.”
4. Along with The Queen City, Cincinnati has been called Porkopolis. The name dates back to the 1820s through the 1930s when Cincinnati was the main pork processing center in the country.
5. The Cincinnati Red Stockings (later the Reds) became the first professional baseball team in 1869 with a total of 10 players.
6. They were also the first team to travel to another city by airplane.
7. As the first baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds always open the season at home.
8. The Reds have won five World Series, 10 pennants and 15 playoff appearances.
9. When it was completed in 1867, the Roebling Suspension Bridge was the longest of its kind worldwide and was the prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge.
10. Its location on the Ohio River just across from Kentucky (which was a slave state) meant Cincinnati was a crucial stop on the Underground Railroad to freedom.
11. The Emmy-winning 1970s show WKRP in Cincinnati featured life at a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati.
12. The first man to walk on the moon was Cincinnati native Neil Armstrong, putting the city on the intergalactic map forever.
13. After his historic trip, Armstrong took a teaching position in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati over his own alma mater.
14. Cincinnati was the first city in the country to have a licensed public television station, WCET-TV, in 1954.
15. Because of the rapid growth Cincinnati saw in the 40 years after its founding, residents began referring to the city as The Queen City or The Queen of the West around 1820, giving Cincinnati its nickname.
16. Jerry Springer –yes, that Jerry Springer- was once the Mayor of Cincinnati and an anchor on WLWT-TV news before going on to be the controversial talk show host.
17. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is one of the oldest orchestras in the country.
18. In 1890 Cincinnati was the third largest beer producer in the country.
19. As a college student, Donald Trump took on one of his first projects – the revitalization of the then-foreclosed Swifton Village apartment complex in Cincinnati in 1962.
20. Cincinnati-style chili is well known and loved all across the country. More than 140 chili restaurants can be found here.
21. Because of their love for chili, Cincinnatians consume more than two million pounds of their favorite food each year topped with 850,000 pounds of shredded cheddar cheese.
22. Cincinnati was the first settlement in Ohio to publish a newspaper in 1793.
23. In 1850, Cincinnati established the first Jewish Hospital in the U.S.
24. Cincinnati is surrounded by seven hills: Mount Adams, Mount Auburn, Walnut Hills, Fairmount, Fairview Heights, Clifton Heights and Mt. Harrison.
25. If you loved "E.T.," "Jurassic Park" and "Jaws," then give a little nod to Cincinnati, the birthplace of innovative director Steven Spielberg.
26. Cincinnati was the first city to establish a paid, municipal fire department and fire house over 200 years ago.
27. Cincinnati had the first air mail delivery, which was from Cincinnati to Toledo by hot air balloon.
28. The Licking River is one of the few rivers in the world that flows north.
29. Oktoberfest-Zincinnati USA is the largest Oktoberfest celebration in the country and the second largest in the world after Munich with over 500,000 visitors.
30. Cincinnati is the home to five US presidents: William Howard Taft, Rutherford B. Hayes, Ulysses S. Grant, William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison.
31. Widely regarded as the “Birthplace of American Astronomy,” the Cincinnati Observatory is located at the top of Mt. Lookout and is the oldest professional observatory in the U.S.
32. President John Quincy Adams gave his last public speech at the ceremony to lay the first cornerstone of the observatory in 1843. The city’s Mt. Ida was renamed Mt. Adams in his honor.
33. Opened in 1875, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden is the second oldest zoo in the U.S.
34. Maria Longworth Nichols Storer founded Rookwood Pottery in 1880, making her the first woman to own and operate a large manufacturing operation.
35. Built in 1903, the 15-story Ingalls Building was the world’s first steel reinforced skyscraper.
36. The University of Cincinnati was the first university in the country to offer cooperative education which allows students to balance a full-time school schedule with work.
37. Local favorite pretzel maker Servatii Pastry Shop and Deli serves a 6 lb. pretzel for parties.
38. Rain Man, Eight Men Out, Seabiscuit, Elizabethtown and Ides of March are all movies filmed in Cincinnati.
39. Cincinnati is famous for its German dish of goetta, which has become known as “Cincinnati Caviar.” The largest commercial producer of goetta is the local company Glier’s which produces more than 1,000,000 pounds annually, 99 percent of which is consumed in the Cincinnati area.
40. Every year, residents of Cincinnati run a nighttime 5k race through a cemetery on Halloween weekend. The Run Like Hell race brings runners out in costumes like characters from Clue or Mario Brothers.
41. Cincinnati was named for the Roman hero Cincinnatus. General Arthur St. Claire named the city to pay honor to George Washington, who was president of the Society of Cincinnatus in Philadelphia at the time.
42. Samuel Adams is brewed at the former Hudepohl-Schoenling brewery in Over The Rhine in Cincinnati as one of their three brewing facilities in the country.
43. The Procter & Gamble Company was founded in Cincinnati in 1837 as a candle and soap making company because of the area’s easy access to lye.
44. After The Who concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in 1979, 11 people were killed in a stampede leading to the city banning festival seating at concerts. The ban was overturned 24 years later along with instituting better crowd-control rules that kept a similar event from happening again.
45. Gorilla Glue was introduced in 1999 and was recently named one of Greater Cincinnati’s top workplaces.
46. George Clooney was born in Cincinnati. You’re welcome, ladies.
47. Cincinnati is home to an annual dachshund race that brings out competitors to fight for the prestigious champion title called The Running Of The Wieners.
48. Jungle Jim’s popular market (now with a location in Cincinnati) is considered the amusement park of grocery stores, that sells hard-to-find foods along with 1,400 different hot sauces.
49. Viewers of the soap opera "The Edge of Night" could see the immortalized Central Trust Tower (now PNC Bank) in the opening sequence of the show up until 1984.
50. Cincinnati is the capital of the game cornhole and loves it so much, locals developed the American Cornhole Organization. "Cornhole the Movie" was filmed in Cincinnati.
What's your favorite fun Cincinnati fact? Let us know in the comments below!
