Mississippi facts…little known facts about Mississippi.
Did you know… in 1964, the first human lung transplant was successfully accomplished at the University of Mississippi Medical Center as well as the first heart transplant surgery in the world was performed by Dr. James D. Hardy at the Mississippi Medical Center in 1964.
Greenville is the birthplace of Jim Henson, the creator and voice for Kermit The Frog who was “born” in Leland where Henson played as a kid. Columbia’s Walter Payton was the first football player to win the coveted spot on front of a Wheaties box and a group of slaves who lived in Mississippi and were freed by their master in 1834 returned to Africa, and created the present-day state of Liberia. And of course Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, on January 8, 1935.
Natchez was settled by the French in 1716 and is the oldest permanent settlement on the Mississippi River. Natchez once had 500 millionaires, more than any other city except New York City. Greenwood is called the Cotton Capital of the World and Vardaman is called the Sweet Potato Capital of the World.
Hold you head up proudly and say I am from Mississippi home of Pine Sol which was invented in 1929 by Jackson native Harry A. Cole, Sr, and home to Barq’s Root Beer invented in Biloxi in 1898 by Edward Adolf Barq, Sr.
