~~Note: originally posted 7/11/2008 on my old site. [from when i lived in LA]~~

Fortunately for me Los Angeles is a virtual melting pot of people who have spurned their hometowns in the hopes of having their dreams crushed whilst pursuing the goal of being more important than they actually are. Thanks to this, I am subjected to the misfortune of seeing out-of-state plates on vehicles as I drive (hypocritically in my PA registered vehicle) the streets of LA. Anywhoo, this led me to a historical conundrum earlier today after seeing an Ohio state plate that appeared similar to this:

The words “Birthplace of Aviation” stuck in my craw a little bit. Isn’t it common knowledge that the first plane was flown in Kitty Hawk, NC? In fact, this is boasted on their license plates as well.

After some diligent fact checking, I was able to confirm that the first flight did take place in Kitty Hawk, NC on December 17, 1903* by Orville “I Ain’t No Redenbacher” Wright. So what gives, Ohio??

Well, it turns out that there is a heated rivalry between the two states over who has rightful claim to the accomplishment. North Carolina claims that it should get the credit as it was where flight was actually birthed — er, started. Gross. Anyway, Ohio claims that it has a right to its slogan because the Wright brothers built their plane in the state before leaving in fear of people not believing in flight because it happened in a backwoods place like Ohio that had recently made headlines for allegedly catching a Bigfoot and inventing incest.

Today, Ohio has changed it’s official slogan to “Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers” to accommodate the inclusion of other famous aviators like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong (also to get North Carolina to stop stealing it’s lunch money). So there we go, another mystery solved.

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*three days earlier Wilbur won a coin toss to fly first but crashed after traveling 3 ft due to an error on takeoff. Orville was unavailable for comment  as he was off reassembling a rutter that had mysteriously fallen off before the attempt.