* The first public museum in the United States, the Charleston Museum, was founded in 1773 and is still operating today. * South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. * South Carolina was the first province in the New World to plant rice and indigo for sale. * The oldest formal gardens in the United States, Middleton Place in Charleston, was founded in 1740 and took 100 men more than 10 years to complete. * The largest remaining virgin stand of bald cypress and tupelo trees in the world are located in the Francis Biedler Forest near Charleston, S.C. * South Carolina has the longest deer hunting season of any state. * South Carolina is the nation�s largest producer of peaches for the fresh market. * America�s first federal architect, Robert Mills, was born in Charleston. One of his most outstanding designs is the Washington Monument. * Beth Elohim Reform Temple in Charleston is the birthplace of Reform Judaism in America. The synagogue was built in 1840 and is the second oldest synagogue in America in continuous use. * The first American library housed in a separate building was constructed in 1840 at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. * The first building in America devoted wholly to drama, The Dock Street Theater, was built in Charles Towne. Its first production was Farquhar�s �The Recruiting Officer.� * The first commercial tea farm in the United States was that of Dr. Charles Shepard near Summerville, the Pinehurst Tea Farm. Today, the nation�s only commercial tea farm, American Classic Tea, is located on Wadmalaw Island near Charleston. * The only man in the nation who has ever been elected to the U.S. Senate on a write-in vote was Strom Thurmond of South Carolina.