Ground Hog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, dates back to 1886 and an ancient European holiday called Candlemass Day. Garrison Keeler and his A Prairie Home Companion radio program export a comic, down-home image of Minnesota to a weekly worldwide audience of over four million listeners. Hawaii is the only state that was once a kingdom and had its throne toppled in 1893 by a handful of meddling foreigners with the aid of the U.S. Navy. Following the world's first submarine attack in 1864, the Confederate sub The Hunley sank mysteriously in Charleston Harbor, but was discovered and raised 131 years later. Montana has long been the world's best source for dinosaur fossils and a recent discovery is shedding new light.

• Edward Herrmann