Ohio to unveil new license plate

Ohioans, start your engines. The state is getting a new license plate. 

Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles Registrar Charlie Norman will unveil Ohio's new standard license plate at 10 a.m. Thursday.

Ohio last updated its license plate in 2013 when then-Gov. John Kasich debuted the Columbus College of Art & Design-crafted "Ohio Pride" plate. The current license plate features words and phrases that describe Ohio including "mother of modern presidents" and "17th state." 

Before that, Ohio's license featured a bucolic farm scene next to a cityscape that then-Gov. Ted Strickland's wife, Frances, helped select. Called "Beautiful Ohio," they diverged from the typical red-and-blue color scheme typically present in the state's plates. 

Ohio's first vehicle registration was issued to Thomas B. Paxton Jr., Cincinnati, for an H.H. Franklin gasoline engine automobile in 1908, according to an Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles report. Ohio's first license plates, made of porcelain and steel, had a blue background and white lettering.

In recent years, each governor has put his stamp on the state's license plate. There are some requirements in state law: the plate must include the slogan, "birthplace of aviation," a nod to the Wright brothers and the state's many notable astronauts like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong.

In earlier years, Ohio's license plates featured the phrase: "Ohio, The Heart of It All," created in 1984 by the Ohio Division of Travel and Tourism. It was later replaced by "Ohio, So Much to Discover" and "Ohio. Find It Here."

This story will be updated.

Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.