State bird: Mockingbird, State flower: Orange Blossom, Population: 15,982,378 people
Nickname: Sunshine State, Economy: Citrus, vegetables, nursery stock, cattle, sugarcane, diary products, tourism, food processing, printing and publishing, transportation equipment, machinery Fun facts: Orlando attracts more visitors than any other amusement park destination in the United States. Cape Canaveral is America’s launch pad for space flights.
Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where the drink was first developed.
Miami Beach pharmacist Benjamin Green invented the first suntan cream in 1944. He accomplished this development by cooking cocoa butter in a granite coffee pot on his wife’s
stove. Clearwater has the highest rate of lightening strikes per capita in the US. Miami installed the first ATM especially for rollerbladers. Florida is not the southernmost state in the US – Hawaii is. The Benwood, on French Reef in the FL keys, is known as one of the most dived shipwrecks in the world. Key Largo is known as the Dive Capital of the World. DeFuniak Springs is home to one of the two naturally round lakes in the world. Nearly 80% of the state intake of Atlantic shrimp is harvested in Amelia Island waters (2 million pounds annually).