Pennsylvania Trivia & Tidbits - Page 12

Looking for Pennsylvania trivia? Try our list Pennsylvania little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Fred McFeely Rogers was born in Latrobe (pop. 8,994) in 1928. In 1953, he developed The Children’s Corner for Pittsburgh public television. The show eventually became Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.

first appeared: 12/29/2002

Walter E. Diemer invented the world’s first commercial bubble gum by accident in 1928 while working on another project for the Fleer Corp. in Philadelphia. When Fleer placed a test batch in a grocery store, it sold out in one afternoon.

first appeared: 12/22/2002

When Hand Hospital opened in Pittsburgh in 1778, it was the only medical institution west of the Alleghenies, and it remained the only such hospital for the next 64 years.

first appeared: 12/15/2002

One of the first Girl Scout cookie sales took place in 1933 when a group of Scouts persuaded the Philadelphia Gas Co. and Philadelphia Electric Co. to let them use the companies’ store windows to display and sell cookies.

first appeared: 12/8/2002

The Swigart Automobile Museum in Huntingdon (pop. 6,918) includes a 1899 Locomobile, a 1904 Cadillac with a rear entrance, and a Sears car that was once manufactured for the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog.

first appeared: 12/1/2002

The world’s first lightning rod for the protection of a building from danger by lightning was set up by Benjamin Franklin in 1752 at his home in Philadelphia.

first appeared: 11/24/2002

Pennsylvania in 1792 became the first state to require drivers (of wagons) to stay to the right. Within a few years, other states passed similar laws.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

Latrobe native Arnold Palmer was named Athlete of the Decade by The Associated Press for the 1960s. Today, Palmer owns the Latrobe Country Club, where he set the course record (60) in 1969.

first appeared: 11/10/2002

Col. Guion S. Bluford Jr., born in Philadelphia and a graduate of Penn State, was the first African-American in space and a veteran of four shuttle launches. His initial flight was in 1983, NASA’s first night launch.

first appeared: 11/3/2002

The first World Fair in the United States was held in Philadelphia in 1876 to celebrate the centennial of the Declaration of Independence. The world fair was so popular that the idea later was copied by many cities.

first appeared: 10/27/2002

The largest battles of two wars fought on American soil took place in Pennsylvania: the Battle of Brandywine in 1777 and the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

first appeared: 10/20/2002

To test a new invention called air brakes, a train equipped with the new device made a demonstration trip from Pittsburgh to Steubenville in April 1869. It used air pressure to push brake pads against the wheels.

first appeared: 10/13/2002

One of the nation’s first public school driver’s education class was taught at State College High School in 1933 by Amos Neyhart. Before teaching driving skills to novices, Neyhart installed dual brake and clutch linkages on his car.

first appeared: 10/6/2002

Launched at Pittsburgh in 1811, the New Orleans was the first steamboat to ply the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

first appeared: 9/29/2002

The Big Mac was created in 1967 by M.J. Delligatti at his McDonald’s franchise in Uniontown. After test marketing, the now famous burger began appearing in every McDonald’s nationwide by 1968.

first appeared: 9/22/2002

The first demonstration of television broadcasting was conducted in 1929 in Pittsburgh in a project headed by Vladimir Zworykin, an early television pioneer.

first appeared: 9/15/2002

Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena, completed in 1961, was the world’s first auditorium with a retractable roof. The roof is three times the size of St. Peter’s Dome in the Vatican.

first appeared: 9/8/2002

The first successful Siamese twin separation in the United States—of Clara and Altagracia Rodriguez—took place in 1974 at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

first appeared: 9/1/2002

Because no clearly accepted spelling of the colony’s name existed at the time the Liberty Bell was cast, the state’s name on the bell is misspelled—Pensylvania.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

A six-day workweek was the rule when George Westinghouse inaugurated the first Saturday half holiday in his Pittsburgh factory in 1881.

first appeared: 8/18/2002

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