In addition to personalized plates, California offers special interest plates, military plates, and historical plates.

Special interest plates reportedly help fund various state projects and programs, including those dealing with agriculture, the arts, coastal preservation, firefighters, pets, child health and safety, preservation, conservation, recreation and more.

Photo credit: Boing ​Boing

Military plates include Congressional Medal of Honor, Gold Star Family, Legion of Valor, Pearl Harbor Survivor, Ex-Prisoner of War, and Purple Heart. In addition, “Veterans’ Organization plates are available to anyone who wishes to order one to represent their pride in the nation’s military.”

Historical plates are also available “for motor vehicles that are of historical interest” that were built after 1922 and at least 24-years-old.

The first license plate of any kind was issued in 1901, when New York passed a law requiring motor vehicle owners to register with the state, reports Time magazine.

The law required license plates to include “the separate initials of the owner’s name placed upon the back thereof in a conspicuous place, the letters forming such initials to be at least three inches in height.”

A man named George F. Chamberlain received the first license plate issued.