The Dakotas: Six Things You Probably Didn’t Know

View of western North Dakota. (Photo by aaronyoung777 via Wikimedia Commons)

On this date in 1889, North Dakota and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th states in the US.

Here are six things you may not have known about the Dakotas.

The states were admitted at the same time, but because North Dakota comes before South Dakota in the alphabet, North Dakota is considered the 39th state.

The Dakotas’ admission to the US was part of the same bill that also admitted Montana and Washington state. Montana was officially admitted on November 8, 1889 while Washington waited until November 11.

Both Dakotas are home to large populations of people of German and Norwegian descent. In both states, the largest non-white population group is Native Americans.

South Dakota is home to the largest population of Hutterites in the United States. The Hutterites are a branch of Anabaptists, who have similar beliefs to the Amish and Mennonites.

North Dakota has the largest percentage of people who go to church of any state. Because of that, the state also has the most churches per capita.

The largest economic sector in North Dakota is agriculture, followed by petroleum processing and food processing. The biggest business in South Dakota is the service industry.

Our question: What city hosts a motorcycle rally that draws almost a million participants every year to South Dakota?

Today is All Souls’ Day.

It’s unofficially National Deviled Eggs Day, National Eating Healthy Day, and Cookie Monster Day.

It’s the birthday of Marie Antoinette, who was born in 1755; actor Burt Lancaster, who was born in 1913; and musician K.D. Lang, who is 55.

Because our topic happened before 1960, we’ll spin the wheel to pick a year at random.

This week in 1988, the top song in the U.S. was “Kokomo” by The Beach Boys.

The No. 1 movie was “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers,” while the novel “The Queen of the Damned” by Anne Rice topped the New York Times Bestsellers list.