Tennessee

history prior to joining the United States
Tennessee was admitted to the Union in 1796 as the 16th state, and was created by taking the north and south borders of North Carolina and extending them with only one small deviation to the Mississippi River, Tennessee's western boundary. Tennessee seceded from the Union on May 7, 1861. After the American Civil War, Tennesse adopted a new constitution that abolished slavery (February 22, 1865), ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on July 18, 1866, and was readmitted to the Union July 24.
major historical events that occurred in state

Law and Government

[Note that all the U.S. states have similar legal and political systems, so maybe we only need to mention anything that makes the state distinct]

It is bordered on the north by Kentucky and Virginia, on the east by North Carolina, on the south by Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and on the west by Arkansas and Missouri. The state is bisected by the Tennessee River[?].

The state of Tennessee is traditionally divided by its people into three grand divisions - East, Middle, and West Tennessee.

The capital is Nashville. Other important cities are Bristol-Kingsport-Johnson City, Oak Ridge, Chattanooga, Memphis and Knoxville. As of 2000, the population is 5,689,283.

http://www.state.tn.us
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (http://www.ornl.gov), a US Department of Energy national laboratory, one of the principal sites for the Manhattan Project's production and isolation of weapons-grade fissionable material, is also located in the state.