Did you know?

1. Tennessee

The three stars on Tennessee’s flag represent the three finger holes on the bowling ball, as Tennessee was originally settled as a bowling colony. Bowling remains the state’s official sport, as well as its chief source of income.

2. Connecticut

The center of the flag features three double helixes inside a beaker, under which a ribboning banner displays the letters of the fully sequenced human genome.

3. California

As the story goes, the star in the upper-left corner of this flag has enslaved this bear with its beauty. The bear will walk the earth endlessly, never getting closer to its beloved star, all the while going slowly insane. The designers of the flag repeatedly stressed that the bear dies shortly after the events depicted in the flag.

4. New Hampshire

If you look closely, you’ll notice that the American flag is flying on the ship in the center of this flag, a feature that requires the state of New Hampshire to pay a $4 million usage fee to the federal government each year.

5. Alaska

While this flag was originally just going to be a solid dark blue, Alaskan lawmakers eventually added eight gold stars to honor the eight artists who murdered each other while designing the flag.

6. Maryland

Maryland’s iconic flag was generated by randomly altering and deleting small portions of the code in the .jpg file of a computer chess board.

7. Virginia

This flag was created to remind Virginians that you’re never too old to goof off with your buds, which is exactly what the design depicts.

8. South Carolina

The crescent moon and Middle Eastern palm tree are meant to symbolize Islam, the official state religion of South Carolina.