Today in Pennsylvania History
Sub-Topics: Philadelphia
Historical Events
Results 1 - 91 of 91
1682-10-27 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded.
1682-12-04 - 1st General Assembly in Pennsylvania (Chester)
1683-06-23 - William Penn signs friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape indians in Pennsylvania; only treaty "not sworn to, nor broken"
1732-12-28 - 1st known ad for "Poor Richard's Almanack" (Pennsylvania Gazette)
1737-09-20 - Runner Edward Marshall completes his journey in the Walking Purchase forcing the cession of 1.2 million acres (4,860 km²) of Lenape-Delaware tribal land to the Pennsylvania Colony.
1738-05-25 - A treaty between Pennsylvania and Maryland ends the Conojocular War with settlement of a boundary dispute and exchange of prisoners.
1748-08-26 - The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1751-05-11 - 1st US hospital founded (Pennsylvania Hospital)
1752-02-11 - Pennsylvania Hospital, the 1st hospital in the US, opened
1756-06-04 - Quakers leave assembly of Pennsylvania
1758-05-21 - Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
1758-11-25 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is founded.
1759-05-31 - The Province of Pennsylvania bans all theater productions.
1763-11-15 - Charles Mason & Jeremiah Dixon begin surveying Mason-Dixon Line between Pennsylvania & Maryland
1778-05-01 - American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
1781-01-01 - 1,500 soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne's command rebel against the Continental Army's winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey as part of the Pennsylvania (Continentals; Regiment) Mutiny of 1781.
1783-09-26 - Fayette County, Pennsylvania created
1784-09-21 - Pennsylvania Packet & Daily Advertiser 1st success US daily newspaper
1787-02-04 - 1st Anglican bishops of NY & Pennsylvania consecrated in London
1787-12-12 - Pennsylvania becomes 2nd state to ratify US constitution
1788-01-01 - Quakers in Pennsylvania emancipate their slaves
1789-03-02 - Pennsylvania ends prohibition of theatrical performances
1790-12-06 - The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1791-12-15 - 1st US law school established at University of Pennsylvania
1794-02-28 - US Senate voids Pennsylvania's election of Abraham Gallatin
1799-02-15 - 1st US printed ballots authorized, Pennsylvania
1805-12-26 - Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts established, Philadelphia
1806-01-30 - The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened.
1817-05-15 - Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1824-07-24 - Harrisburg Pennsylvanian newspaper publishes results of 1st public opinion poll. Clear lead for Andrew Jackson
1848-05-01 - The Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
1848-10-16 - 1st US homeopathic medical college opens in Pennsylvania
1849-10-16 - Avery College establishes in Allegheny, Pennsylvania
1851-09-15 - Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1852-02-19 - The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
1854-12-30 - Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co, 1st in US, incorporated in NYC
1856-02-18 - The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
1856-07-17 - The Great Train Wreck of 1856 occurs in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania killing over 60 people.
1863-06-20 - Skirmish at Greencastle Pennsylvania
1863-06-24 - Planning an invasion of Pennsylvania, Lee's army crosses Potomac
1863-06-30 - Battles in Hanover Pennsylvania: 80 casualties
1863-06-30 - Skirmish at Sporting Hill Pennsylvania
1864-07-30 - Confederate troops attack Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in fire
1865-10-09 - 1st US underground pipeline for carrying oil is laid in Pennsylvania
1869-09-06 - Mine fire kills 179 at Avondale Pennsylvania
1877-06-21 - The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants, are hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons.
1878-12-18 - John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania.
1880-03-01 - Pennsylvania is 1st American state to abolish slavery
1887-02-02 - In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.
1888-07-11 - Pennsylvania's Monongehela River rises 32' after 24 hour rainfall
1891-01-27 - Mine explosion kills 109 at Mount Pleasant Pennsylvania
1897-09-10 - Lattimer Massacre - a sheriff's posse kills twenty unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania, United States.
1904-01-05 - -42°F (-41.1°C), Smethport, Pennsylvania (state record)
1904-01-25 - 179 die in coal mine explosion at Cheswick, Pennsylvania
1911-01-18 - 1st shipboard landing of a plane (Tanforan Park to USS Pennsylvania)
1914-02-01 - Pennsylvania State Board of [motion picture] censors appointed
1917-11-18 - Sigma Alpha Rho, a Jewish high school fraternity, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1918-06-15 - 1" of snow falls in Northern Pennsylvania
1918-07-25 - Race riot in Chester Pennsylvania (3 blacks & 2 whites killed)
1922-10-14 - 1st automated telephones-Pennsylvania exchange in NYC
1923-02-03 - The Alpha Zeta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia founded at Pennsylvania State University.
1927-05-17 - U.S. Army aviation pioneer, Major Harold Geiger, dies in the crash of his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane at Olmstead Field, Pennsylvania
1928-05-19 - Explosion in coal mine in Mather, Pennsylvania, 195 die
1931-07-24 - A fire at a home for the elderly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania kills 48 people.
1933-11-07 - Pennsylvania voters overturn blue law, by permitting Sunday sports
1933-11-29 - 1st state liquor stores authorized (Pennsylvania)
1933-12-21 - Dried human blood serum 1st prepared, Univ of Pennsylvania
1934-01-02 - 1st state liquor stores open, in Pennsylvania
1935-02-10 - Pennsylvania RR begins passenger service on new electric locomotive
1936-07-10 - 111°F (44°C) Phoenixville, Pennsylvania (state record)
1938-06-24 - 500 ton meteorite lands near Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
1940-04-28 - Glenn Miller records "Pennsylvania 6-5000"
1940-10-01 - Pennsylvania Turnpike, pioneer toll thruway, opens
1941-05-17 - Pennsylvania declares legal holiday to honor A's manager Connie Mack
1942-07-17 - 3' of rain falls on Pennsylvania, flooding kills 15
1943-05-17 - The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the ENIAC.
1948-10-30 - 20 die & 6,000 made ill by smog in Donora Pennsylvania
1954-03-20 - 1st newspaper vending machine used (Columbia Pennsylvania)
1954-09-04 - Peter B Cortese of US achieves a one-arm deadlift of 370 lbs; 22 lbs over triple his body weight, at York, Pennsylvania
1965-03-26 - A truck loses control down Moosic Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania, killing the driver. This accident later inspired the 1974 Harry Chapin song, "30,000 Pounds of Bananas."
1968-02-14 - Pennsylvania Railroad/NYC Central merge into Penn Central
1976-05-04 - "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" opens at Mark Hellinger NYC for 7 perfs
1976-05-08 - "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" closes at Mark Hellinger NYC after 7 perfs
1977-07-19 - Floods in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, kills 76
1985-05-31 - 1985 United States-Canadian tornado outbreak: Forty-one tornadoes hit Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, leaving 76 dead.
1987-01-22 - Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer shoots and kills himself at a press conference on live national television, leading to debates on boundaries in journalism.
1991-04-04 - Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their plane over an elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania.
2001-09-11 - Attempt by passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 to retake control of their hijacked plane from terrorists causes plane to crash in Pennsylvania field killing all 64 people onboard
2001-10-05 - Tom Ridge resigns as Governor of Pennsylvania to become President Bush's Homeland Security Advisor.
2002-07-28 - Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, are rescued after 77 hours underground.
2006-10-02 - Five school girls are murdered by Charles Carl Roberts in a shooting at an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania before Roberts commits suicide.
Famous Birthdays
Results 1 - 26 of 26
1696-11-02 - Conrad Weiser, Pennsylvania's ambassador to the Native Americans (d. 1760)
1722-11-19 - Benjamin Chew, Chief Justice of colonial Pennsylvania (d. 1810)
1732-11-13 - John Dickinson, American lawyer and Governor of Delaware and Pennsylvania (d. 1808)
1860-11-01 - Boies Penrose, United States Senator from Pennsylvania (d. 1921)
1899-09-15 - Milton S Eisenhower, Dwight's brother/pres (Pennsylvania State)
1915-06-06 - Vincent Persichetti, Phila Pennsylvania, composer (Sibyl)
1923-05-17 - Peter Mennin[i], Erie Pennsylvania, composer (Moby Dick)
1926-04-09 - Harris Wofford, (Sen-R-Pennsylvania)
1931-08-01 - Lucien E Blackwell, (Rep-D-Pennsylvania)
1931-09-29 - Joseph M McDade, (Rep-R-Pennsylvania, 1963- )
1932-07-25 - Paul Joseph Weitz, Erie Pennsylvania, astronaut (Skylab 2, STS 6)
1936-08-24 - William J Coyne, (Rep-D-Pennsylvania, 1981- )
1942-06-21 - Marg Margolies-Mezvinsky, (Rep-D-Pennsylvania)
1945-08-26 - Thomas J Ridge, (Rep-R-Pennsylvania, 1983- )
1947-07-22 - Curt Weldon, (Rep-R-Pennsylvania)
1950-07-26 - Paul McHale, (Rep-D-Pennsylvania)
1951-05-04 - Gene Greenwood, (Rep-R-Pennsylvania)
1951-09-23 - Ron Klink, (Rep-D-Pennsylvania)
1957-03-05 - Tim Holden, (Rep-D-Pennsylvania)
1960-04-13 - Bob Casey, Jr., Democratic U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania
1964-07-19 - Gina Procaccio, Drexel Hills Pennsylvania, 5k runner
1971-04-07 - Cara Kendra Bernosky, Miss USA-Pennsylvania (1997)
1972-10-24 - Susan Barnett, Miss Pennsylvania USA (1996)
1972-12-13 - GiGi Gordon, Butler PA, Miss America-Pennsylvania (1997)
1977-11-09 - Patricia Campbell, Pennsylvania, Miss Teen USA (1996-2nd place)
1980-09-02 - Ashley Witmer, Miss Pennsylvania Teen USA (1997)
Famous Deaths
Results 1 - 7 of 7
1760-07-13 - Conrad Weiser, Pennsylvania's ambassador to the Native Americans (b. 1696)
1808-02-14 - John Dickinson, American lawyer and Governor of Delaware and Pennsylvania (b. 1732)
1810-01-20 - Benjamin Chew, Chief Justice of colonial Pennsylvania (b. 1722)
1893-11-22 - James Calder, 5th President of the Pennsylvania State University (b. 1826)
1921-12-31 - Boies Penrose, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (b. 1860)
2006-09-01 - Bob O'Connor, mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (b. 1944)
2006-12-12 - Raymond P. Shafer, 38th Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1917)
