12 Things That You Can Thank Ohio For Later

OH, you're welcome. Discover Ohio, and find your own reasons to be thankful for the Buckeye State.

1. Professional Baseball

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The Cincinnati Red Stockings (now just the Cincinnati Reds) were the first team to give each player a salary, with the highest paid player taking home $1,400 a season. A small price then, but nowadays, these players are making bank. Hey, all you pro baseball players out there, you're welcome!

2. The Birth of Aviation

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WARNING CONTROVERSIAL DEBATE: The Wright Brothers designed and built their flying machines in Dayton, Ohio, but took them to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to find bigger winds. So, aviation — who can claim it? Dayton or Kitty Hawk? Fortunately for Ohioans, in 2003, the Senate ruled in favor of Ohio, making it the official "birthplace of aviation."

3. Superman

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"It's a bird, it's a plane, no — it's a local Ohioan!"

This big-time hero has small-town roots. Few are aware that this well-known superhero was dreamed up over 75 years ago by Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in the lovely town of Cleveland, Ohio.

4. Modern Day Golf Ball

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Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio

From wood to boiled feathers, golf balls have been through many iterations, but the most modern form was created by Coburn Haskell in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1898.

"Rubber core golf balls? I'll believe it when I see it." —Some Ancient Golfer Dude

Originally, people were skeptical, until 1902, when one of these balls was used for 72 holes straight. Seeing IS believing. Get your Ohio golf on at one of the many courses or get a taste of golf history at The Jack Nicklaus Museum.

5. Interchangeable Eyeglasses

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Gone are the days when you buy one pair of glasses and wear them every day all day until they break.

Thanks to a certain Ohioan, you can now collect a slew of eyeglasses that you just pop the same pair of lenses in and out of. If today is a blue day, wear blue frames. If tomorrow is a tortoise shell day, wear tortoise shell frames. This easy, durable design is available to you from Frameri.

6. Space Exploration

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Twenty-nine of NASA's astronauts call Ohio home, including one particular man from Wapakoneta, Ohio, whom you can thank for taking the first "small step for man" and that "giant leap" that landed himself on the moon. There's a museum in Ohio dedicated to all those brave Ohioans out there floating around in space.

7. Situational Awareness System

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What's that, you say? Think about all those crime-fighting shows with their fancy computers that somehow have access to everything all in one place at the click of a button... OK, so those aren't real – but Footprint is real.

This system allows law enforcement to sift through hours of security footage in minutes, easily customize crime queries to better understand analytics, and map out real-time video feeds to see where crimes are happening.

Dayton is taking law enforcement to the next level.

8. Nonstick Cookware

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Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) (woof that's a mouthful), aka the stuff that makes your pancakes easy to flip, was invented by a once poor farm boy from Ohio, named Roy J. Plunckett. It was a glorious accident in 1938 that has since made many a cook very happy.

9. Rubber Production

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It's in Akron, Ohio — "Rubber Capital of the World" — that the majority of rubber has been produced. In the '50s, over one-third of rubber products were produced there, and while it's not bouncing out of there as much as it used to, things seem to be on an upswing.

The home of F.A. Seiberling, co-founder of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is located in Akron and is the nation's 6th largest historic home open to the public.

10. Ambulance Service

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"Oh man, I wish we didn't have to drive ourselves to the hospital," said a guy in 1864. Thankfully, in 1865, Cincinnati was home to the first ambulance service based out of a hospital — currently known as Cincinnati General. Thanks for the ride!

11. Electric Traffic Signals

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Many lay claim to this invention, but it was James Hoge's design that received a patent in 1918 for his system of red and green lights that were installed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1914. Guess this means you can thank Ohio for one of your favorite childhood games too: "Red light! Green light! Red light. Green light."

12. Presidential Leadership

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Is Ohio the "Mother of Presidents"? With eight past U.S. presidents hailing from the state, Momma Buckeye is more than proud of her governmental babies.

Learn more about their presidential journey by visiting one of the many museums in Ohio, like this one or this one.

Thank-yous just mean so much more in person. Visit Ohio, and tell her to her face. Download the New 2015 Official Ohio Travel Guide, and plan your trip today.