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Facts and Trivia About Pennsylvania: - Pennsylvania is the first state of the fifty United
States to list their web site URL on a license plate.
- In 1909 the first baseball
stadium was built in Pittsburgh.
- Hershey is considered the Chocolate Capital
of the United States.
- In 1913 the first automobile service station opened in Pittsburgh.
- In 1946 Philadelphia became home to the first computer.
- Bob Hoffman of York is hailed as the Father of Weightlifting. Hoffman started York Barbell Corp. in 1932 and
preached the gospel of physical fitness throughout his life as an U.S. Olympic coach, businessman and philanthropist.
- The first daily newspaper was published in Philadelphia on Sept. 21, 1784.
- Philadelphia saw the first Zoological garden in July 1874.
- Drake Well Museum in Titusville is on the site
where Edwin L. Drake drilled the world’s first oil well in 1859 and launched the modern petroleum industry.
- In Hazleton, there is a law on the books that prohibits a person from sipping a carbonated
drink while lecturing students in a school auditorium.
- In Philadelphia in 1775
Johann Behrent built the first piano in America calling it under the name “Piano Forte.”
- Philadelphia
is the site of the first presidential mansion.
- Betsy Ross made the first
American flag in Philadelphia.
- Vowing not to lose another patient to pneumonia, Dr. George Holtzapple
successfully created the first application of oxygen, thus saving his patient’s life and winning international fame
through his discovery. The year was 1885.
- Stewartstown hired its first police officer
in 1876. He was also the town lamp lighter.
- Philadelphia is home to the cheesesteak sandwich, water ice, soft pretzels,
and TastyKakes.
- The Rockville Bridge in Harrisburg is the longest stone arch
bridge in the world.
- Kennett Square is known as the Mushroom Capital of the World.
- The town of Franklin became a center for worldwide oil production following Colonel Edwin Drake’s discovery
of oil in nearby Titusville.
- The Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia in
1776.
- KDKA radio in Pittsburgh produced the first commercial radio broadcast.
- Philadelphia is home to the Liberty Bell.
- Each year on Christmas
day the “Crossing of the Delaware” is reenacted at Washington Crossing.
- The
Liberty Tunnel in Pittsburgh opened in 1924. At that time the 5,700 foot facility was the longest artificially ventilated
automobile tunnel in the world.
- Pennsylvania is the only original colony not bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.
- Benjamin Franklin founded the Philadelphia Zoo, the first public zoo in the United States.
- Indiana County is
the Christmas Tree capital of the world.
- Actor Jimmy Stewart was born and raised
in the town of Indiana. Each year at Christmas the downtown area is decorated in the theme of the film “It’s a
Wonderful Life.”
- Pittsburgh is famous for manufacturing steel. Its professional football team is named the
Pittsburgh Steelers.
- Fairmount Park in Philadelphia is the largest city park with over 8,000 acres.
- Pittsburgh has over 300 sets of city maintained steps. If they were stacked on top of each other, they would reach over
26,000 feet high. They would measure higher than a lot of the Himalayan Mountains.
- Little
League Baseball’s first World Series was held in 1946 in Williamsport.
- Nazareth is the home of Martin guitars. Finger
picking good since 1833.
- The State College Area High School was the first school in the
country to teach drivers education in 1958.
- Philadelphia was once the United States capital city.
- Originally Bellefonte, a town now with a population of 5,000, was once considered to be Pennsylvania’s
capital. But Harrisburg was chosen because of the easy navigation on the Susquehanna River.
- The first coal festival was held 201 years after the establishment of “Peter’s Camp” on
Memorial weekend 1993 in Blossburg.
- The oldest stone railroad bridge in use
in Pennsylvania is the Starrucca Viaduct that crosses PA Route 171 north of Lanesboro in Susquehanna County.
- In June 1778, a 700 wagon caravan escorted the Liberty Bell on its return to Philadelphia
from Allentown along Towamencin’s Allentown Road. Nine months earlier, when British troops threatened to capture the
city, the bell had been whisked into hiding via the same route.
- The Shenango
River Dam near Sharpsville is a concrete gravity dam with an uncontrolled center spillway. The roadway crossing the top of
the dam, over the spillway is nearly 68 feet above the streambed. The dam has a top length of 720 feet with a base width of
66 feet.
- At the Moravian Pottery & Tile Works in Doylestown handmade
tiles are still produced in a manner similar to that developed by the potter’s founder and builder, Henry Chapman Mercer.
- The Borough of Kane is known as the Black Cherry Capital of the World.
- George G. Blaisdell founded Zippo Manufacturing of Bradford in late 1932. He started with
a simple idea: create a product that answers a real need, design it to work, and guarantee it to last.
- When completed in 1882, the Kinzua Railroad Bridge near Mount Jewett was acclaimed “the highest and
longest railroad viaduct in the entire world.” Rising 301 feet from the valley floor at its center, with a total length
of 2100 feet.
- Antrim Township is located in South-Central Pennsylvania with its southern border being a part of
the Mason-Dixon line.
- Ringing Hill in Lower Pottsgrove Township is named after the
“ringing rocks” which were known for the unique ringing sound they made when struck by a hammer.
- During the depression canned goods served as admission to The Star Theater in Mercersburg
to help supply the local soup kitchen.
- Located in the Grape Coast region of Pennsylvania
the city of North East has four thriving wineries and is home to the largest Welch’s grape processing plant in the country.
- Penn Township, officially referred to as the Township of Penn, was named after the founder of Pennsylvania, William
Penn.
- Punxsutawney citizens are proud to be over shadowed by their town’s most famous resident
the world-renowned weather forecasting groundhog Punxsutawney Phil. Punxsutawney is billed as the weather capital of the world.
- Reading was home to radio stations WRAW, WHUM, WEEU, with well-known personalities as Johnny
Knight, Paul Barclay (the Night Mayor), Professor Schnitzel, and Jack Gownder.
- Reading is the home of the Pagoda. Commissioned
in 1906 at a cost of $50,000 by William A. Witman, Sr. to cover his stone quarry, the Pagoda was completed in 1908. It was
originally intended to be a luxury resort atop Mt. Penn, but due to the bank foreclosure and the denial of a liquor license,
Witman never opened the Pagoda. By 1910 the Pagoda and surrounding 10 acres were deeded to local business owner, Jonathon
Mould and his wife, Julia (Bell). On April 21, 1911 they sold the Pagoda to the City of Reading for the sum of $1. Since then
the Pagoda has been owned, loved and cared for by the citizens and City of Reading. It is 7 stories high, 28 feet wide, 50
feet long. It stands 620 feet above the City of Reading and 866 feet above sea level offering a 30-mile panoramic view of the city and surrounding country-side. It is the only Pagoda in the world with
a fireplace and chimney.
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