Interesting Facts About Mississippi

• Every commercial plane and jetliner in the free world has at least one hydraulic component that was designed and manufactured in Mississippi – at Eaton Aerospace in Jackson.
• The largest “frozenated” beverage company in the United States - ICEE® - “The Coldest Drink in Town,” is owned and managed by Fred Montalvo, who lives at Edwards in Hinds County, Mississippi.
• The South’s largest retail furniture store is Miskelly Furniture on Airport Road in Pearl, Mississippi.
• There are more than 17 miles of conveyors inside the Nissan plant in Canton. The production line that constructs and assembles vehicles utilizes 853 robots.
• La-Z-Boy’s Newton, Mississippi facility employs 1,315 people, more than a third of the town’s total population (3,699).
• A native Mississippian, Dr. Emmette F. Izard, helped develop rayon, the first true synthetic fiber. He worked for DuPont Company at the time, in the early 1900s.
• Clinton, Miss. native, James D. Byrd, is a polymer scientist who holds seven patents and developed the plastic used as heat shields by NASA.
• In addition to operating a Meridian, Mississippi aerospace plant, Lockheed Martin also operates a Space and Technology Center at the Stennis Space Center. It employs 270 employees who design and produce propulsion systems for satellites, as well as thermal blankets and control systems for space vehicles.
• Jackson, Mississippi, in 1994, was the first city in the United States to sell the Direct Broadcast Satellite services for receiving TV programming.
• The world’s first iron, all-welded ship, the Exchequer, was built in Pascagoula at Ingalls Shipyard in 1938. The first all-welded passenger ship, the African Comet, was launched at Ingalls on June 22, 1941.
• The two main Mississippi ports, Gulfport and Pascagoula, are closer to the Panama Canal than either New Orleans or Mobile, Alabama. Gulfport is now the #1 banana port in the United States.
• Peavey Electronics, the world’s largest manufacturer of musical amplification equipment, is located in Meridian, Miss.
• The furniture industry’s first assembly line was started in 1948 in New Albany, Miss., at the Mohasco-Futurion Corporation, a company founded by a Russian immigrant, Morris Futurion, who was called the Henry Ford of furniture.