Kentucky is the 15th state of the United States of America, admitted to the Union on June 1, 1792.

Kentucky is one of four states that bear the name commonwealth, and its full title is the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Kentucky has had a rich and varied history since frontier times, when it was the haunt of Daniel Boone and other famous pioneers.

Located on the border between the historical U.S. regions of the North and the South, the state officially remained in the Union during the American Civil War (1861-1865). But the state was a contested area, and a considerable number of its citizens fought with the Confederate army.

Significantly, the key Civil War political figures of the Union and the Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, were both born in Kentucky.

Kentucky slowly recovered from the war, and in the remaining decades of the 19th century, its people began to develop the manufacturing sector of the state’s economy that remains its cornerstone today.

The name of the state is derived from a Cherokee name for the area South of the Ohio River. The early pioneers spelled the name in many ways, including Kaintuckee and Cantuckey. Its meaning is disputed, but some historians believe it means "meadowland".

The state’s official nickname is the Bluegrass State, which is derived from the famed bluegrass grown in pastures in central Kentucky. The grass, while green itself, has buds with a purplish-blue hue, which give pastures a bluish tint when seen from a distance. The nickname also recognizes the role that the Bluegrass region has played in Kentucky’s economy and history.

Following are Kentucky’s major cities, in order of population.

• In the heart of the Bluegrass region, Lexington, the seat of, and coextensive with, Fayette County, extends over Bourbon, Clark, Jessamine, Madison, Scott, and Woodford counties.
• Louisville, the seat of Jefferson County, is home to many of Kentucky’s industries and the Kentucky Derby. It is the center of a major metropolitan region that is comprised of Jefferson, Bullitt, and Oldham counties in Kentucky, and Clark, Floyd, Harrison, and Scott counties in Indiana.
• Owensboro, the seat of Daviess County, is the industrial, cultural, retail and healthcare center of Western Kentucky.
• Bowling Green, the seat of Warren County.
• Covington, one of two seats of Kenton County, and the adjoining city of Newport, one of two seats of Campbell County, forms part of the metropolitan area of Cincinnati, Ohio.
• Hopkinsville, the seat of Christian County.
• Frankfort, the seat of Franklin County and the state capital.
• Henderson, the seat of Henderson County, along the Ohio River in Western Kentucky.
• Paducah, the seat of McCracken County.
• Ashland, in Boyd County.