On December 28, 1846, Iowa became the 29th state in the Union when President James K. Polk signed Iowa's admission bill into law.

Adopted early in the state's history, Iowa's nickname is "The Hawkeye State" as a tribute to chief Black Hawk, leader of the native American Sauk tribe, who relocated to Iowa after an unsuccessful attempt to fight off settlers.

Iowa is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the east and southeast, Missouri to the south, Nebraska to the west, South Dakota to the northwest, and Minnesota to the north.

The state flag of Iowa is a vertical tricolor of blue, white, and red, reflecting the U.S. state of Iowa's history as part of the French Louisiana Territory. It was designed in 1917, by Knoxville, Iowa, resident Mrs. Dixie Cornell Gebhardt, of the Daughters of the American Revolution of Iowa.

Des Moines was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857. It is located on, and named after, the Des Moines River, which likely was adapted from the early French name, Rivière des Moines, meaning "River of the Monks".

Iowa has the most golf courses per capita in the U.S. and is the only state to have less than 10,000 people per course. It has more than 300 courses for a population of just over 3 million.

Iowa 80 is the world's largest truck stop, located along Interstate 80 off exit 284 in Walcott, Iowa. Set on a 220-acre (89 ha) plot of land, the site receives 5,000 visitors daily and features parking for 900 trucks. Four-hundred and fifty employees staff the megaplex.

Grant Wood was inspired to paint American Gothic when he passed through Eldon, Iowa in 1930. He made sketches of an actual house, along with the kind of people he fancied should live in that house. His painting depicts a farmer standing beside his daughter--often mistakenly assumed to be his wife. The painting is named for the house's architectural style.

The Honey War was a bloodless territorial dispute in 1839 between Iowa and Missouri. Before the issue was settled, militias from both sides had gathered at the border, but the dispute over a 9.5-mile (15.3 km) wide strip running the entire length of the border, caused by unclear wording in the Missouri Constitution on boundaries, misunderstandings over the survey of the Louisiana Purchase, and a misreading of Native American treaties, was ultimately decided by the United States Supreme Court in Iowa's favor.

In the early hours of February 3, 1959, a Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, who had been performing at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, took off from a local runway. The plane crashed soon after takeoff, killing everyone aboard. This event was later eulogized by folk singer Don McLean in his famous song, "American Pie", in which the death of these '50s icons is lamented as "the day the music died".