Pennsylvania Trivia & Tidbits - Page 16

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

Both theologian and scientist, Joseph Priestly (1733-1804)—a rural Pennsylvania resident from 1794 until his death—discovered several gases. Among them is oxygen.

first appeared: 6/17/2001

McDonald (pop. 2,500) native Jay Livingston received an Oscar for his 1956 composition, made famous by Doris Day, Que sera sera (Whatever will be, will be).

first appeared: 6/10/2001

Charles Goodyear Jr. (1833-96), an industrialist and Germantown native, revolutionized shoe manufacturing by introducing the Howe sewing machine to stitch leather.

first appeared: 6/3/2001

The Borough of Kane (pop. 5,000) calls itself the “Black Cherry Capital of the World” for the large number of those trees growing there and for the cherry industry they support.

first appeared: 5/27/2001

American frontiersman Daniel Boone (1734-1820) was born in Reading of Quaker family background. Blazing the Wilderness Road across the Appalachians, he founded Boonesville, Ky., in 1775.

first appeared: 5/20/2001

Oxford (pop. 3,379) is home to the largest collection of Edsels in the world. Farmer Hugh Leslie owns 172 examples of the unpopular car with its horse collar grill and horizontal tail fins, which debuted in the fall of 1957.

first appeared: 5/13/2001

The first drive-in service station in the United States was opened by Gulf Oil Co. on Dec. 1, 1913, in Pittsburgh.

first appeared: 5/6/2001

The streetlights in Hershey (pop. 7,500) resemble Hershey’s Kisses. The shape was chosen to go with the town’s nickname of Chocolate Town, USA.

first appeared: 4/29/2001

The first suspension bridge in the United States was built in Uniontown (pop. 15,000) in 1796 to span Jacobs Creek.

first appeared: 4/22/2001

Scranton was known by several names in the days of its early settlers—including Unionville, Skunk’s Misery, and Slocum Hollow.

first appeared: 4/15/2001

America’s first crushed stone road, the Philadelphia and Lancaster Pike, completed in 1794, cost $7,500 per mile to build.

first appeared: 4/8/2001

The ethnic background of “Pennsylvania Dutch” is actually German. The word Dutch was a mispronunciation of Deutsch, meaning “German.”

first appeared: 4/1/2001

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, a Pittsburgh-produced television show for children, is the longest running children’s show in public TV history.

first appeared: 3/25/2001

Artist Benjamin West (1738-1820), born near Springfield (pop. 30,000), migrated to England at the age of 25, where he remained the rest of his life. He helped found the Royal Academy of Arts in London. One of his best known works, Penn’s Treaty with the Indians, hangs in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall.

first appeared: 3/18/2001

In 1948, three political parties—Republican, Democratic, and National Progressive—all selected Philadelphia as their national convention site. They nominated Thomas E. Dewey, Harry S. Truman, and Henry A. Wallace, respectively. Truman won.

first appeared: 3/11/2001

German-born and Philadelphia-schooled painter Emanuel G. Leutze (1816-1868) said he used the Rhine River in Germany as the model for his famous artwork, Washington Crossing the Delaware.

first appeared: 3/4/2001

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) gave both the construction plans and all profits from the wood-burning stove he invented, and which bears his name, to his longtime friend, Robert Grave.

first appeared: 2/25/2001

During the Great Depression, canned goods served as admission to the Star Theater in Mercersburg (pop. 1,640) to help supply the local soup kitchen.

first appeared: 2/18/2001

The state’s name derives from the combination of the name of William Penn (or Penn’s Woods) with the word sylvan, meaning a forested region.

first appeared: 2/11/2001

Using silver wire and tags, John James Audubon (1785-1851) inaugurated the banding identification system to keep track of birds. He first used it on a brood of phoebes on his Pennsylvania farm.

first appeared: 2/4/2001

jump to page: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17

newspaper partner login create account

Recent

Popular

Recipes

Below are the most recent American Profile articles:

Below are the most recent, highest rated American Profile articles:

Below are the most recent, highest rated American Profile recipes:

Relish

Spry

Below are the most recent articles from our Relish sister site. Click on the "Spry" tab above to see the most recent articles from our other sister site.

Below are the most recent articles from our Spry sister site. Click on the "Relish" tab above to see the most recent articles from our other sister site.