1. Jell-O was invented in Le Roy in 1897. A carpenter named Pearle B. Wait was trying to create herbal teas, and made this instead.
2. When Theodore Roosevelt was governor of the state, he would run up the steps of Albany’s capitol building every morning for exercise. Allegedly, if reporters wanted an interview, they would have to get to the top of the stairs first.
3. The first person to survive going over the edge of Niagara Falls was Annie Edson Taylor, during a wooden barrel stunt in 1901. She did it on her 63rd birthday
4. If you're going to jump off a building in New York, make sure it's a tall one, because if you get caught the penalty for jumping off a building, is death.
5. New Yorkers cannot dissolve a marriage for irreconcilable differences, unless they both agree to it. Umm, can anyone spot the logic fail here?
6. Oneida, NY is home to the world's smallest church. This tiny chapel can be found on a small dock in the middle of a pond. It is open to the public.
7. Who needs Egypt when we have Long Island? There is a concrete sphinx in Bayport complete with headdress and googly eyes. The plaque below it reads: "She who climbs the the sphinx's head, a millionaire will surely wed."
8. No one tell Batman, but it turns out referring to New York City as Gotham was actually meant as an insult by Washington Irving, a writer who came up with the name.
9. In New York you may only water your lawn if the hose is held in your hand. As opposed to…?
10. Turns out New York is a bit more European than we thought, because in the Empire State women can go topless in public, just as long as said toplessness isn't for business purposes.
11. Donkeys are not allowed to sleep in bathtubs—no word on New York’s laws in regards to showers though…
12. There is a fountain dedicated to the film "Planet of the Apes" in Flushing Meadows, NY.
13. Speaking of.. ahem… unique fountains in New York, Rockland is home to a very large and anatomically correct fountain.
14. You can’t live in Rochester without having eaten the garbage plate. While many places serve this, it’s generally agreed upon that Nick Tahou Hots came up with it.
15. There isn’t an official measure of fat for a “garbage plate,” since the ingredients vary. But homemade recipes range from 93 to 203 grams of fat on every plate. That maximum number surpasses what you’d need for three days.
16. Lake George, NY is a very unique place with even more unique acoustics. From the center of this towns Mystery Spot you can hear your voice echoing back at you from the mountains across the lake.
17. There’s a national museum in Rochester devoted entirely to the study of how children play, and its impact.
18. At the National Museum of Play, also known as the Strong, has a National Toy Hall of Fame. A cardboard box was inducted in 2005.
19. And just to mention a few other toys on this list, marbles, Nintendo Game Boy, and “Star Wars” action figures are also hall of famers.
20. Long Island is more populated than the entire island of Ireland.
21. New York has a storied history with... toilet paper. New York City resident Joseph Gayetty is said to have introduced commercial toilet paper in 1857, which were sold in flat sheets. Albany resident Seth Wheeler patented perforated toilet paper in 1871, and had another patent for rolled (and perforated) toilet paper in 1891.
22. 2014 is the 50th anniversary of the chicken (aka Buffalo) wing.
23. 27 billion chicken wings were eaten last year. A little over a billion of those—1.2 to be precise—were eaten on Super Bowl Sunday.
24. The Beach Boys hold the record for the most performances at the New York State Fair’s grandstand. They played a dozen times between 1981 and 1999.
25. This year, the event has its own beer, the State Fair Showstopper Ale, brewed by Syracuse’s Empire Brewing Company.
26. Congrats, Buffalo. You have the biggest Dyngus Day festival in the country. Now you can explain to everyone else what that means.
27. In case you’re wondering, “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” is a grammatically correct sentence.
28. Are you eating a New York bagel for breakfast? Once you’ve finished the last bite, your meal comes out to about a quarter to more than one half of a bread loaf.
29. Southampton’s Meadow Lane is often referred to as “Billionaire Lane.” One home, valued at more than $27 million, has a dining room that’s decorated like a circus.
30. New York was the first state to make car license plates a requirement.
31. No wonder you feel a bit cramped in NYC. About 1 in every 38 people residing in this country live here.
32. Prepare to wait if you’re looking to nab a table at Damon Baehrel at the Basement Bistro in Earlton. The restaurant is booked for the next five years, and it’s arguably one of the hardest places to secure a reservation on the globe.
33. The Adirondack Mountains are made up of Precambrian rocks that are believed to be a billion years old.
34. Adirondack Park is comprised of more than six million acres, and makes up one-fifth of the state.
35. Need perspective on that? If the national parks of Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Everglades all made one combined park, it still wouldn’t equal the size of the Adirondack Park.
36. 3,000 tons of water descend over Niagara Falls every second.
37. Milk is the official beverage of New York – although the state comes in third in nationwide dairy production.
38. The ice cream sundae was invented in Ithaca in 1892.
39. King Kullen was the country’s first modern supermarket. It opened on Long Island in 1930.
40. The “Spirit of St. Louis,” the airplane flown by Charles Lindbergh during the first solo transatlantic flight, took off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island before landing in Paris.
41. Long Island is home to the nation’s first suburbia, Levittown. It was built in 1947.
42. The Levitt family was so successful at mass-producing homes for returning World War II soldiers, that by mid-1948, they were completing about 30 homes per day. Homes cost about $8,000.
43. Creepy. Washington Square Park, Bryant Park, Union Square Park, and Madison Square Park were all cemeteries at one time.
44. The first passenger railroad in the country was the Mohawk and Hudson River Railroad, which ran from Albany to Schenectady.
45. The Crailo State Historic Site, in Rensselaer, is said to be the site where “Yankee Doodle” was written, in 1758. A British Army surgeon created the song to poke fun at colonial troops.
46. A General Electric engineer, Ernst Alexanderson, made the first in-home television broadcast at his own home in Schenectady in 1927.
47. Thomas Edison founded the Edison General Electric Company in Schenectady, which later dropped his name during a merger in 1892.
48. The first person in the world to be executed by the electric chair was Buffalo native William Kemmler, in 1890.
49. The world’s largest kaleidoscope is in Mount Tremper, and it is built from a converted silo.
50. Three-day tickets for the Woodstock Music Festival – which as we know, took place in Bethel – sold for $18 in advance and $24 at the entrance. So many people turned up that it became free.
51. New York-born John D. Rockefeller is said to have been worth $336 billion, adjusted for inflation.
What’s your favorite fun fact about New York? Tell us in the comments below!
