66 Awesome and Interesting Facts & Trivia About Delaware
Welcome to the Delaware entry of Content Bash’s series about the 50 nifty states — especially if you’re joining us from our YouTube video about Delaware. From Alabama to Florida and Georgia and Iowa to Kentucky, we’re collecting as many entertaining, interesting, cool, weird, and informative facts and pieces of trivia we can get our hands on about all 50 states. You may have never been to Delaware or know anyone from the state and there are people who have never even heard of it! If anything, it’s often the butt of jokes, like in Wayne’s World or passing references on The Simpsons. But that’s okay — Delaware residents totally don’t mind and actually takes some pride in their relative obscurity. Nevertheless, we’re here to help give this tiny state some positive publicity. Read on for a few dozen facts about Delaware, and stay tuned for other states in our series.
What is Delaware known for?
1. Delaware is known for being the first state ever to be a state! It ratified the Constitution on December 7, 1787.
2. If you know anything about Delaware at all, it may be because of Joe Biden. The lifelong public servant is such a huge part of Delaware that in 2011, the Amtrak station in Wilmington was renamed the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station.
3. Corporations love Delaware! Because of its generous corporate-friendly tax laws, more than 50% of businesses listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Fortune 500 are based in Delaware. Chances are, your favorite conglomerate is incorporated in Delaware, too!
4. Delaware is one of five states with no sales tax (the others being Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon), which makes it very consumer-friendly. You can save tens (if not hundreds or thousands) of dollars by purchasing all of your clothing and electronics exclusively in Delaware.
5. Milton, Delaware is home to Dogfish Head Brewery, a favorite brand of hipster beer snobs everywhere. What started as a modest microbrewery making experimental artisan beers near the Delaware beaches in 1995 eventually grew to a $300 million-dollar merger with the Boston Beer Company in 2019. Bonus fun fact: Dogfish Head president Sam Calagione made his first batches of brew in his New York City apartment while his roommates Ken Marino and Joe Lo Truglia were filming The State for MTV.
Click on the products to buy Dogfish Head Brewery merch!
6. When Sarah McBride won her election for the 1st Delaware State Senate district in 2020, she became the highest-ranking transgender official in the history of the United States. In 2018, she published her memoir Tomorrow Will Be Different, with none other than Joe Biden penning the forward.
Click on the book cover to buy!
7. Scrapple is big in Delaware. Made up of pig parts like the heart, liver, head, and other trimmings, it’s seasoned with pepper, thyme, and sage. The Mid-Atlantic delicacy is then cut into slices and fried and eaten (usually) for breakfast. It’s often referred to as “everything but the oink,” and not for the particularly squeamish — especially for the unfamiliar who are not already from the area. Order some and try some scrapple for yourself! Scrapple lovers from Delaware can also profess their love of the most gourmet of foodstuffs with a t-shirt.
Click to buy your own Scrapple!
Official Delaware state flag, symbols, plants, & animals
8. The tiger swallowtail is the state butterfly, adopted in June 1999.
9. Delaware has lots of nicknames, including the Blue Hen State, Small Wonder, the First State, the Diamond State, and the Home of Tax-Free Shopping.
10. The peach blossom has been the official state flower since 1895.
11. Delaware has an official herb that was adopted in 1996, and it’s the sweet golden rod.
12. In 1983, Delaware was so bored that it adopted milk as the official beverage of the state.
13. In February 1939, the blue hen was named as Delaware’s state bird. The “Fighting Blue Hens” were the mascot of Delaware’s Revolutionary War soldiers, and it’s also the name of the teams at the University of Delaware.
14. In 1974, a whole bunch of Delaware school children petitioned the General Assembly to name the ladybug as the official state bug.
15. The Delaware state flag — adopted in July 1913 — is made up of the state seal within a diamond with a colonial blue background.
Who are famous people with Delaware roots?
16. Joe Biden is probably the most famous person in the world that has strong Delaware connections. His political career started as a New Castle County Councilor in 1970, and he was elected President of the United States in 2020. During those 50 years in between, he was the sixth-youngest senator in American history when he was elected to represent Delaware in 1972, and he also served as Barack Obama’s Vice President for eight years.
Click to buy Joe Biden’s book!
17. Oliver Evans was an innovative engineer who created a lot of automation processes that influenced the Industrial Revolution, including the first high-pressure steam engine. Decades ahead of his time, Evans also came up with the first (and very rudimentary) design of the automobile in 1805. He was born in Newport.
18. Bob Marley, easily the most famous reggae artist in the history of popular music, spent time in Delaware where his mother lived. He worked as a lab assistant at DuPont and on the assembly line of the Chrysler plant so he could save money to start his own record label back home in Jamaica. Though he did not stay in Delaware long and supposedly did not care for it very much, the state nonetheless counts him as a favorite son of sorts. The song “Night Shift” is supposedly about his time at the plant.
Click the album cover to buy the Bob Marley box set!
19. George Thorogood, best known for his popular 1982 song “Bad to the Bone” with his band The Destroyers, was born in Wilmington.
20. Though he was raised in Kingston, Jamaica, 8-time Grammy Award winner Stephen Marley (son of Bob and Rita, and brother of Damian) was born in Wilmington.
21. A handful of prominent actresses have Delaware roots. They include Aubrey Plaza (who gained fame with Parks and Recreation), Elisabeth Shue (nominated for an Academy Award for Leaving Las Vegas), Valerie Bertinelli (who won a Golden Globe Award for One Day at a Time), and Teri Polo (perhaps best known for Meet the Parents and its sequels).
Click on the covers to buy on DVD and Blu-ray!
22. Well-known actors who have connections in Delaware include Fast Times at Ridgemont High star Judge Reinhold (who was born in Wilmington), I Know What You Did Last Summer star Ryan Phillippe, (who grew up in New Castle), Delaware theater veteran Keith Powell of television shows 30 Rock and About a Boy (who went to St. Mark’s High School in Wilmington), Elisabeth Shue’s brother Andrew (who was born in Wilmington), and Sean Patrick Thomas of Save the Last Dance and TV’s The District, (who grew up in Wilmington).
Click on the covers to buy on DVD and Blu-ray!
23. Seminal post-punk band Television had its beginnings in Delaware, when Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell met at Sanford, a boarding school located in Hockessin. Their first two records Marquee Moon (1977) and Adventure (1978) are as influential as any guitar band in rock-n-roll.
Click on the album covers to buy Television!
24. According a 2015 story in NJ.com, actor Miles Teller (Whiplash, The Spectacular Now) spent some time in Delaware at one point during his nomadic childhood.
25. Henry Heimilich was a prominent thoracic surgeon and the dude that invented the famous Heimilich Maneuver that has been credited for saving thousands of lives. He was born in Wilmington, and published his autobiography in 2014. It is called Heimilich’s Maneuvers hahahahaha get it?
Click to buy the Henry Heimilich book!
Delaware geography & topography
26. The capital of Delaware is Dover.
27. That arc that make up the northern boundary of Delaware is called the Twelve-Mile circle.
28. The Delaware River and Delaware Bay came before the state. When explorer Samuel Argall named those bodies of water in 1610, he did so for Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, the governor of Virginia.
29. There are only three counties in Delaware: New Castle, Kent, and Sussex.
30. The highest point in Delaware is Ebright Road in north Wilmington, a mere 442 feet above sea level.
31. The Mason-Dixon line survey was started just outside Newark in 1763.
32. At just 2,044 square miles, Delaware is the second-smallest state, next to Rhode Island. It’s 96 miles long from north to south, and 39 miles long at its widest.
What are cool places to visit in Delaware?
33. For such a small state, Delaware sure has its fair share of interesting and fun attractions. One of them is a big-ass doctor’s bag with a stethoscope located in front of the Apex Medical Center in Newark. It’s hard to confirm if this is the biggest doctor’s bag in the world but it’s probably in the running.
34. Built in 1780, Barratt’s Chapel in Frederica is the first — and oldest surviving — Methodist church in the United States.
Click to buy the Tom Otterness book!
36. The ghost of a headless horseman supposedly haunts the Welsh Tract Baptist Church in Newark. Charlie Miller was an American soldier during the Revolutionary War who was decapitated by a cannonball while he was riding on horseback through the cemetery near the church and according to local legend, he is still looking for his head. If you visit the nearly 300-year-old church, you can still see the outline where the cannonball hit.
37. NASCAR fans are probably pretty familiar with the Dover International Speedway, which has held many events since its first race in 1969. It currently hosts several major NASCAR events, including the Cup Series and Xfinity Series, and is also home to its mascot Miles the Monster, a 46-foot sculpture made of fiberglass who has made its home in Dover since 2000.
38. The Rockwood Mansion is a favorite among local ghost hunters. Built in the early 1850s by Quaker banker Joseph Shipley, legend has it that a 100-year-old woman named Mary who died in the mansion haunts her old room with cold, wet drafts and the smell of her lingering perfume. Supposed spirits aside, there is a lot to admire in the splendid Gothic details in the architecture.
39. Speaking of g-g-g-g-ghosts, Delaware has more than its fair share of haunted houses and spaces that even the official Delaware state website will indulge. The Addey Sea Inn in Bethany Beach is even said to have the sound of organ music mysteriously playing from one of the rooms.
40. Ninety-eight Futuro houses — flying saucer-shaped prefabricated domiciles created by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen — were built in the 1960s and 70s with an eye on alleviating the housing shortage, and Delaware has two of them. Milton resident Rich Garrett lives in one of them and despite having almost no closet space and sounding like a “Tupperware in a dishwasher” when it rains, he absolutely loves it. Unfortunately, because of its minimalist nature and aggressively post-modern look, Futuro houses never caught on in America, and less than a hundred were made. The picture below is not of one of the ones in Delaware, but you get the idea.
Other fun & weird Delaware facts
41. In 1923, a woman named Cecile Long Steele who lived in Ocean View ordered 50 baby chicks — but was accidentally given 500. This more or less started the chicken industry in Delaware, as the enterprising Steele spent the next few months raising and fattening up the chicks into robust juicy chickens to sell. By 1928, Steele and her husband were ordering 26,000 chicks a year, and local companies like Perdue were also getting into the chicken game. It’s a big reason why we eat so much chicken today.
42. Georgia is known as the Peach State, but the first peach orchards were actually grown in Delaware City in 1832.
43. It is illegal for a pawnbroker in Delaware to accept a wooden leg or any other kind of artificial limb.
44. A Delaware company basically invented the space suit! ILC Dover, located in Frederica, has outfitted every American astronaut that has walked on the moon.
45. Title 28, section 906 of the Delaware Code — passed in 1973 — prohibits horse racing on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
46. In the summer of 2013, a team of students from John Dickinson High School in Wilmington built the tallest LEGO tower in the world at 112 feet with more than half a million bricks. However, the record has been broken at least twice since then; first in Budapest, Hungary in 2014, and again in Milan, Italy in 2015.
47. Delaware has not changed its license plate design since 1959. It is the longest-running license plate design in the history of the United States.
48. For a time during the 19th century, Delaware was a leading supplier of the holly often used for wreaths and other Christmas decorations. Because of this, the American holly is the official state tree of Delaware.
49. Study abroad programs are pretty common at many colleges, but the University of Delaware created the first one in 1923.
50. Famed writer of The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda moved to Edgemoor, Delaware in March 1927 after a Princeton lawyer pal from Wilmington talked up the place. The literary socialites spent about two years in the Ellerslie, a Greek Revival mansion by the Delaware River, and Ernest Hemingway even spent the night once or twice. Unfortunately, the mansion slowly fell apart to the point of its demolishment in 1973 so there is no building to visit, which is why we didn’t list this under the attractions.
Delaware movies & music
51. Delaware isn’t exactly Hollywood, but a few movies with scenes shot in the state include the Michael Keaton vehicle Clean and Sober (with scenes shot in Claymont), Jonathan Demme’s 1998 film Beloved that was based on the Toni Morrison novel (with scenes in New Castle), Jack Fisk’s 1986 Violets Are Blue, starring Sissy Spacek and Kevin Kline (with scenes in Rehoboth Beach), and Tony Scott’s 1990 film Days of Thunder starring Tom Cruise (with scenes shot at the Dover International Speedway).
Click to buy the DVD and Blu-ray!
52. Peter Weir’s 1989 film Dead Poets Society — starring Robin Williams, Ethan Hawke, and Josh Charles — was filmed at St. Andrew’s School in Middletown. It garnered four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director for Weir, and Best Actor for Williams. It won for Best Original Screenplay.
Click to buy the DVD and Blu-ray!
53. There are certain Delaware connections that indie rock fans may not be aware of. Jade Tree Records, the label that has released a serious run of emo classics, is based in Wilmington. Hardcore band BoySetsFire are from Newark, and so were the members of Zen Guerilla. Delaware band The Caulfields scored a couple minor hits in the grunge-era mid-90s, while Papas Fritas (whose members met in a Delaware high school), put out several records on Minty Fresh. More recently, The Spinto Band has put out records on Bar/None and Park the Van.
Click on the album cover to buy the record!
54. Metallica’s show at the now-defunct Stone Balloon in Newark in 1989 is the stuff of local music legend, and in the pre-internet era, there were people who doubt it ever even happened. But in 2018, the band released a deluxe box set edition of …And Justice for All that was jam-packed with heavy metal riches, including the remastered classic album on LP and CD, three live LPs, eleven additional CDs, and four DVDs, one of which was their live show at the Balloon.
55. Country musician Jimmie Allen, who has scored a couple hits from his 2018 record Mercury Lane, was born in Milton, Delaware.
Click on the album cover to buy Jimmie Allen!
56. A few prominent jazz musicians have ties to Delaware. Clifford Brown, a trumpeter and pioneer of the hard bop sub-genre who performed with Lionel Hampton and Art Blakey before eventually forming The Clifford Brown & Max Roach Quintet, was born in Wilmington. Matthew Shipp is a pianist and bandleader who has had a prolific career and extensive discography as one of the more successful avant-garde post-bop musicians in modern jazz, was also born in Wilmington. Cab Calloway had an incredibly influential six-decade career as a singer, dancer, and actor, and though his connection to Delaware isn’t very strong (he was born in Baltimore, raised his family on Long Island, and passed away in a nursing home in Hockessin), it’s enough that the Cab Calloway School of the Arts in Wilmington is named for him.
Click on the album cover to buy the record!
Delaware Sports & Athletes
57. Delaware has a minor league professional baseball team based in Wilmington. They’re called the Blue Rocks, and they are the Single-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. Many residents root for the neighboring Philadelphia and Baltimore sports teams, but plenty of Delawareans also enjoy a night at their local ballpark with its relatively affordable tickets and intimate small-town feel. Almost 300,000 people visit Daniel S. Frawley Stadium every year.
58. Two high school players in Delaware were first-round picks in the Major League Baseball draft in 1980s: Derrick May from Newark High School (9th overall in 1986 by the Cubs), and Delino DeShields from Seaford High School (12th overall in 1987 by the Expos). May played over a decade in MLB, Mexico, and Japan, while DeShields had a nice career as one of the better second basemen in the National League.
59. Judy Johnson is Delaware’s only representation in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Inducted in 1975, the Negro League star grew up in northern Delaware and has been praised for his baseball intelligence and acumen, traits that eventually served him well as a scout.
60. The Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens men’s basketball team competes in the NCAA at the Division I level. They have appeared in the NCAA Tournament — perhaps more commonly known as March Madness — five times, never advancing further than the first round.
61. Two Super Bowl quarterbacks also QB’d at the University of Delaware: Super Bowl XLVII MVP Joe Flacco, and 2002 MVP Rich Gannon, who threw a record-breaking 5 interceptions against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII.
62. Speaking of Delawarians playing in the Super Bowl, wide receiver Chris Godwin won a ring with the Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV, and he went to Middletown High School. Chris and his wife created the Team Godwin Foundation, a nonprofit for animals in need.
63. Donte DiVincenzo was the 17th overall pick in the 2018 NBA drafted out of Villanova University for the Milwaukee Bucks. He was born in Newark, Delaware, went to Salesianum School, and recently signed to play with the Golden State Warriors.
64. Judy Johnson’s Hall of Fame credentials aside, Elena Delle Donne is perhaps the most decorated athlete to ever come out of Delaware. Born in Wilmington and played college ball at the University of Delaware, the Ursuline Academy superstar was the 2nd overall pick by the Chicago Sky in the 2014 WNBA Draft. Since then she has made the All-Star team almost every year of her career, and has won the MVP twice. Elena even won the WNBA championship with the Washington Mystics in 2017.
65. In 2021, yet another Delaware player was drafted in the 1st round of the NBA. Bones Hyland was selected 26th overall by the Denver Nuggets out of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) after attending St. Georges Technical High School in Middletown, Delaware. Bones Hyland was named NBA All-Rookie 2nd Team in 2002.
66. Delaware celebrated another NBA 1st-round pick in 2022. Jalen Duren was selected 13th overall after attending University of Memphis. Though he played high school basketball in nearby Philadelphia, the New Castle resident went Gunning Bedford Middle School.
*****This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a commission. Thanks!*****
Pingback: 70 Fun, Cool, and Interesting Facts About Alabama! - Content Bash!