Other fun facts and things you might not know about Utah:
• The first dinosaur bones were discovered in Utah in 1859. In 1909, Carnegie Museum (in Pittsburgh) paleontologist Earl Douglass discovered the fossils at what is now Dinosaur National Monument.
• During its history Utah has had:
—two Miss Americas: Colleen Hutchins, 1952; Sharlene Wells, 1985
—one U.S. Supreme Court Justice: George Sutherland, appointed by President Harding in 1922
—one NCAA Championship basketball team: University of Utah, 1944
—one National Champion football team: BYU, 1984
—one Nobel Prize winner: Mario Capecchi, U., 2007
• The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has performed for five presidential inaugurals: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965; Richard Nixon, 1969; Ronald Reagan, 1981; George H.W. Bush, 1989; George W. Bush, 2001. It has also performed at 13 World's Fairs and Expositions and at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
• The University of Utah, founded as the University of Deseret in 1850, is the oldest university west of the Mississippi. Brigham Young University, founded in 1875, has become the largest church-sponsored university in the United States.
• During its history, the U.S. Navy has named at least 33 ships for Utah, its cities, counties, geographic locations or exemplary citizens. These include: USS Bryce Canyon, USS Bennion, USS Kane County, USS Provo Victory and two each USS Ogden and USS Salt Lake City. The USS Utah was among the ships bombed at Pearl Harbor.
• No soldiers from Utah fought on either side in the Civil War. However, the state filled its quota and then-some for recruits and soldiers in subsequent wars. Casualty totals include: nine in the Spanish-American War; 665 in World War I; 1,450 in World War II; 436 in the Korean War; 369 men, 1 woman and 19 Missing in Action in Vietnam.
• The first Salt Palace was built in 1899. It was made of "wood encrusted and sprayed with powdered salt" and "slabs of rock salt from Salina and incrustations from the shores of Great Salt Lake." Designed by Richard K.A. Kletting, the same man who designed the Capitol, it also included a bicycling race track.
• The first radio broadcast in the state occurred on May 5,1922, from the roof of the Deseret News building. When KZN went on the air, LDS Church President Heber J. Grant was the first speaker.
• Projects completed in Utah as part of the 1976 Bicentennial celebration include the Salt Lake Arts Center, Abravanel Hall, the restoration of the Capitol Theatre, and Gov. Calvin Rampton's "A Million Trees for a Million People" planting campaign.
• In 1957, the semi-annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was cancelled due to a flu outbreak.