Elvis Presley, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, made Memphis his home after his family moved to the city from Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1948.

Memphis is home to Graceland, home of Elvis Presley, the second most visited private home in the United States next to the White House in Washington, D.C.

Memphis was founded in 1819 by John Overton, Andrew Jackson, and James Winchester. Before its official founding, the Bluffs of Memphis was occupied by a succession of Native Americans, traders, and forts. It is situated on the edge of the fullest part of the Mississippi River.

Memphis is home of historic Beale Street, whose musical offerings – as lively today as ever – have helped it to be voted the second most popular entertainment district in America following Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

Sun Studio, the birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll, is located at 706 Union Avenue, just outside of downtown Memphis.

Tom Lee Park was named after a great citizen who saved 32 people from drowning in the Mississippi River when the steamship Norman sank despite his inability to swim.

Memphis has one of the largest artesian well systems in the world. This aquifer contains more than 100 trillion gallons of water that fell to the earth as long as 2,000 years ago. It first became available to the city in 1887.

Memphis is home to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, founded in 1962 by entertainer Danny Thomas. St. Jude is one of the world’s premier centers for research and treatment of catastrophic diseases in children and has treated more than 16,000 children from the U.S. and 60 foreign countries. Peter Doherty, Ph.D., chairman of the hospital’s immunology department, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1996.