What is your hometown’s claim to fame?

Reddit asks the question.  Here are a few answers:

  • Bhopal, MP, India – The worst industrial disaster of all time
  • Chelmsford, UK – The word boring was invented to describe this town by Charles Dickens.
  • London, we tell the rest of the world what time it is 😀
  • Well my home town is Nokia, Finland..  Call me!
  • My hometown will one day be know as the home of the greatest American novelist. or most likely not. but i did write two chapters tonight.
  • Liverpool. Probably best known for 80’s band The Flock of Seagulls.
  • Sheboygan has the tallest flagpole in the United States. Suck on that, peons.
  • Kitchener ON, – Used to be known as New Berlin… till WW2 when we changed it so people wouldn’t think we were Nazi sympathizers.
  • Dayton, Ohio. Invented the freaking airplane.
  • Bristol, UK … Pirates
  • Seattle, Washington, USA – Starbucks, Amazon, Boeing, RealNetworks, grunge, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Jimi Hendrix, Sub Pop, Death Cab For Cutie, and the Space Needle.
  • my home town is famous for it’s extreme ability to not be famous at all
  • Glasgow Scotland: You are statistically more likely to be stabbed here than anywhere else in Europe, but you’re welcome to visit any time. Really. Especially if I hate you. Oh, and I previously lived in the town home to the man who discovered penicillin.
  • Currently living in Louisville, KY. Kentucky gags aside, this is where Hand Surgery was invented and perfected, Thomas Edison first publicly displayed and installed the Electric Light bulb here, some horse race shuts down the city in the spring and Louisville Sluggers are still made here. Just outside of town is enough bourbon to make Reddit a bit tipsy and although I do not drink, the tours are fascinating.
  • Stratford-upon-avon – Shakespeare was born there.
  • Norwich, Norfolk, UK – home of Colman’s Mustard.
  • My hometown (Jackson, Michigan) is the birthplace of the Republican party. We’re sorry.
  • Rotterdam, the Netherlands has the largest port of Europe and, until 2004, was the busiest port worldwide.
  • Manistee, MI. .. The world’s tallest man, Robert Wadlow, died here after walking in a parade.  [Editors note:  Wadlow is from Alton IL (near St. Louis)
  • Pittsburgh – Steel & Sports. That’s it.
  • Dublin, Ohio is also the home of Wendy’s.
  • Aurora IL is where Wayne and Garth call home in Wayne’s World.
  • LeRoy NY – Birthplace of JELLO.
  • Kansas City, MO- home of the best barbecue and the worst professional sports teams on the face of the earth.
  • Allentown, PA … Billy Joel wrote a song about it…well, he actually wrote the song about Bethlehem, PA…but Allentown is rhymier…

What is your hometown’s claim to fame?

61 thoughts on “What is your hometown’s claim to fame?”

  1. Milwaukee, WI (Brewtown, USA) – Summerfest, the world’s largest music festival; Laverne & Shirley/Happy Days; More bars per capita than anywhere in the world!

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  2. Sheridan, Wyoming – one of top PBR rodeos on the circuit. When most of your history only goes back a tad over 100 years, you have less to work with.

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  3. Nederland, TX, home of Tex Ritter and Karen Silkwood. But Janis Joplin and Superbowl winning coach Jimmy Johnson graduated from a HS 5 miles away (in the same year!), and yesterday’s Port Author oil spill took place about 7 miles from our house.

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  4. Killeen,Tx. Home of the largest mass shooting by a crazy person. The infamous Luby’s Massacre. A dark day in our town’s history for sure. Also we’re next to some kind of military base.
    (I actually claim Harker Heights, which is next to Killeen, but no one has ever heard of that, except maybe my fellow Texans there.)

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  5. Eastpointe Michigan

    Home of Jerry Linenger, space shuttle astronaut.

    He is enshrined (no joke), at our McDonalds. It has an space theme, a paper mache’ model of Jerry, and newspapers from when he walked in space.

    Book your flight now.

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  6. Hawkins, Texas: The State of Texas recognizes Hawkins as the Pancake Capital of Texas. Resident Lillian Richard, portrayed “Aunt Jemima” for 37 years for the Quaker Oats Company. (from the Chamber of Commerce website)

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  7. Lead,(Leed) South Dakota home of the Homestake Mine, formerly the largest gold mine in the world (Black Hills Gold). Our sister city, Deadwood is famous for Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane etc. Come visit!

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  8. Knoxville, TN featured in an episode of the Simpsons, when Bart and Milhouse steal a car and drive here to visit the 1982 Worlds fair. Too bad the fair had been gone about 15 years when they got here. Pissed Bart knocked over the Sunsphere which was the icon for the ’82 fair. In the episode the Sunsphere had been turned into a wig shop. In reality it’s a bar.

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  9. Thats what i heard, but when i looked up this is what i found
    Known as The World’s Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City.

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  10. Defiance, OH, so named for Fort Defiance, built there at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee rivers in 1794, by General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, who then declared, “I defy the British, the Indians, and all the devils in Hell to take this fort!” Dr. Kevin McCann, one time President of Defiance College, wrote speeches for President Eisenhower. I don’t remember it, but my grandparents took me with them to see Ike at the college in 1956. Defiance is also the hometown of Terry Ryan, who wrote a book featuring her mother, “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio,” which was made into a movie of the same name, and starred Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson.

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  11. Well I claim 2 hometowns because I was raised in Lodi, CA. (birthplace of A&W rootbeer) and Saint Joseph, MO. where I was born and currently live ( Home ofthe pony express and where aunt jemima pancake mix was invented)oh and some guy named Jesse James died lol

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  12. My Hometown is Wenatchee, Washington….The Apple Capitol of the World, and home to the annual Apple Blossom Festival. Go, Panthers!!

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  13. London Ontario Canada
    birthplace of Guy Lombardo who popularised the use of the song ‘Auld Lang Syne’ at New Year’s celebrations in America.

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  14. Mount Vernon, Ohio…uh. We have a really old opera house? I guess it’s the oldest 19th century one in the country.

    whoohoo.

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  15. Bowie, MD – Cradle of American horseracing. Belair Stables is the birthplace of more Triple Crown winners than any other stable.
    Also, it’s where Kathy Lee Gifford was REALLY from (not Annapolis as she claims) but we try to forget about that the same way she does.

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  16. @KikiBits

    We are neighbors! I live in Buffalo now.

    Monticello, NY we are home to the only store in the world that sold a harry potter book ahead of schedule and for having a weather pattern almost identical to that of Moscow, Russia.

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  17. Mumbai, India. World’s most populous city 🙂 Also holds the record for the most rainfall received in 24 hours (994mm) on 26th July 2005.

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  18. Hopkinton MA

    The start of the Boston Marathon in MA.

    We had a murderer, Entwistle? who killed his wife and child and then proceeded to flee to Britain. It was on the news a couple years ago.

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  19. The most famous Johnny Cash song ever. One of California’s oldest hydro electric power source. And stupid kids (guilty in my day) of jumping from rock cliffs into “the River” which is Lake Natomas (Look up on Youtube “Jumping big tit” or “jumping China wall”). Folsom California

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  20. I guess I’ll be the first African post…

    Cape Town, South Africa is famous for:
    Table Mountain
    Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela spent 26years)
    The Cape Doctor (friggin SE wind in summer)
    World’s First Heart Transplant
    Spur, Appletizer, Mother City of SA (settled 1652)
    Snoek en patats, Trance Parties, Bobotie
    HQ of the ‘Numbers’ gangs, Drug Port of Africa
    (Thus also known for lots of stoners)
    And people who drive like tossers…

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