Philadelphia
largest city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and seat of Philadelphia County
83 dated entries naming Philadelphia, drawn from 58 separate years between 2300 BCE and 1986 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.
Also written as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.
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23rd century BC
17th century
18th century
- 17018 September - A group of Welsh Baptists, led by Thomas Griffith, land in Philadelphia on the ship "James and Mary".source
- 17291 March - A St. David's Society is established by Welsh immigrants in Philadelphia.source
- 1732May 10 – Representatives of the heirs of William Penn and of Lord Baltimore, the respective owners of most of the land in the Province of Pennsylvania and the Province of Maryland set out the boundary between the two future U.S. states after a survey determines that Philadelphia is located on the Maryland side of the border. The dispute eventually leads to a lawsuit and the eventual survey by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to determine the Mason–Dixon line.source
- 1736December 7 – Benjamin Franklin builds the first volunteer fire company in Philadelphia.source
- 1737Benjamin Franklin creates the Philadelphia Police Force – the first city-paid force.source
- 1743October 21 – Benjamin Franklin's view of a lunar eclipse from Philadelphia is spoiled by a rainstorm; several days later, he learns that residents of Boston received the same storm hours after the eclipse, demonstrating that weather moves from west to east.source
- 1748August 26 – The first Lutheran Church body in America is founded at a conference in Philadelphia, organized by German-born evangelist Henry Muhlenberg and attended by pastors of orthodox and pious Lutheran communities. The two groups agree to create a common liturgy to govern public worship.source
- 1751January 7 – The University of Pennsylvania, conceived 12 years earlier by Benjamin Franklin and its other trustees to provide non-denominational higher education "to train young people for leadership in business, government and public service". rather than for the ministry, holds its first classes as "The Academy and Charitable School in the Province of Pennsylvania" in Philadelphia.source
- 1751May 11 – The Pennsylvania Hospital, first hospital in the American colonies, is chartered in Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania legislature, which grants the right to Benjamin Franklin and to Dr. Thomas Bond.source
- 1752February 10 – Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States, and the first to offer medical treatment to the mentally ill, admits its first patients at a temporary location in Philadelphia.source
- 1754August 17 – Pennsylvania becomes the first of the British colonies to address Benjamin Franklin's Albany Plan for an inter-colonial union. With Franklin absent from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's House of Representatives votes against to not consider the Plan at all, and to not refer it to the next legislative session for debate.source
- 1759January 11 – In Philadelphia, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.source
- 1766February 20 – The Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a British sloop off Wilmington, North Carolina, has seized a sloop sailing from Philadelphia, and another sailing from Saint Christopher, on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. In response, local residents threaten to burn a Royal Man-of-War attempting to deliver stamps to Wilmington, forcing the ship to return to the mouth of the Cape Fear River.source
- 176620 February – the Pennsylvania Gazette reports that a British sloop outside of Wilmington, North Carolina seized one sloop sailing from Philadelphia and one sloop sailing from Saint Christopher on the charge of carrying official documents without stamps. In response, local residents threaten to burn a Royal Man of War attempting to deliver stamps to Wilmington, forcing the ship to return to the mouth of the Cape Fear River.source
- 1774September 4 – Delegates from twelve colonies discuss measures for common safety, at Philadelphia. Canada and Georgia are not represented, though invited. Vermont, not being organized, is not invited.source
- 1774September 5 – The First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia.source
- 1774October 26 – The first Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.source
- 17764 July – United States Declaration of Independence signed in Philadelphia. Sixteen of the 56 signatories are of Welsh descent, Francis Lewis having been born in Llandaff.source
- 1776July 8 – American Revolution: The Liberty Bell rings for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia.source
- 1777March 4 – The Fourth Continental Congress, with John Hancock as president, begins a 199 day session in Philadelphia, lasting until September 18.source
- 1777September 26 – American Revolutionary War – British troops occupy Philadelphia; members of the Continental Congress flee to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where they meet and hold a one day session as the Fifth Congress before fleeing again.source
- 1779October 4 – The Fort Wilson Riot against James Wilson and others in Philadelphia takes place.source
- 1782Jesuit priest Robert Molyneux establishes the first parochial school in the United States in Philadelphia.source
- 1782January 7 – The first American commercial bank (Bank of North America) opens in Philadelphia.source
- 1785September 13 – Benjamin Franklin returns to Philadelphia after seven years as the U.S. Ambassador to France and prepares to take office as the new Governor of Pennsylvania.source
- 1787A fossil bone recovered from Cretaceous strata at Woodbury, New Jersey is discussed by the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.source
- 1787May 14 – In Philadelphia, delegates begin arriving for a Constitutional Convention.source
- 1787May 14 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin arriving to write a new Constitution for the United States.source
- 1787May 25 – In Philadelphia, delegates begin to convene the Constitutional Convention, intended to amend the Articles of Confederation (however, a new United States Constitution is eventually produced). George Washington presides over the Convention.source
- 1787May 25 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to convene a Constitutional Convention intended to amend the Articles of Confederation. However, a new Constitution for the United States is eventually produced. George Washington presides over the Convention.source
- 1787September 17 – The United States Constitution is signed by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.source
- 1790November 27 – U.S. President George Washington and his wife, Martha Washington, arrive in the new temporary U.S. capital, Philadelphia, and take up residence at the President's House located at 524 Market Street.source
- 1790December 6 – The United States Congress opens its first session in the new temporary U.S. capital in Philadelphia.source
- 1791February 24 – First Bank of the United States chartered for 20 years, with headquarters in Philadelphia.source
- 1792The Insurance Company of North America (later Chubb) is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.source
- 1793January 9 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a gas balloon in the Western Hemisphere, from Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia to Deptford Township, New Jersey. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe are among the spectators.source
- 1793March 4 – George Washington is sworn in as the president of the United States in Philadelphia, for his second term.source
- 1793August 1–November 9 – The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 hits Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 5,000 die.source
- 1793August 1 – The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 starts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.source
- 1795July - Ezekiel Hughes, Edward Bebb and others leave Llanbryn-mair on foot, bound for Philadelphia.source
19th century
- 1816March 30–April 11 – In Philadelphia, the African Methodist Episcopal Church is established by Richard Allen and other African-American Methodists, the first such denomination in the U.S. completely independent of White churches.source
- 1816April 11 – In Philadelphia, the African Methodist Episcopal Church is established by Richard Allen and other African-American Methodists, the first such denomination completely independent of White churches.source
- 1824Thomas Say begins publication of American Entomology, or Descriptions of the Insects of North America in Philadelphia, including the first description of the Colorado potato beetle.source
- 1826February 4 – James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans is first printed, by a publisher in Philadelphia.source
- 1826February 6 – First printing of James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans, in Philadelphia.source
- 1828August 11 – The Working Men's Party is founded in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the 1st 'worker oriented' political party in the United States.source
- 1829October 25 – Eastern State Penitentiary opens in Philadelphia as Cherry Hill State Prison, a pioneering example of the separate system in the history of United States prison systems.source
- 1837February 25 – In Philadelphia, the Institute for Colored Youth (ICY) is founded, as the first institution for the higher education of black people in the United States.source
- 1841April 20 – Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is published in Graham's Magazine (Philadelphia) (of which he became editor in February). The story will be recognized as the first significant work of detective fiction.source
- 1847May 7 – In Philadelphia, the American Medical Association (AMA) is founded.source
- 1849March 29 – Shipment containing Henry Box Brown departs Richmond for Philadelphia.source
- 1851September 15 – Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia.source
- 1851September 15 – Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.source
- 1852End of the Great Famine. In the period it has lasted since 1845, one million people have emigrated from Ireland. The Irish now make up a quarter of the population of Liverpool, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore; and a half of Toronto.source
- 1856February 18 – The American Know Nothing Party convenes in Philadelphia to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.source
- 1856February 18 – The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.source
- 1856July 17 – The Great Train Wreck (the worst railroad calamity in the world to date) occurs near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.source
- 1856July 17 – The Great Train Wreck of 1856: Two trains collide near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania killing at least 59 and injuring at least 100.source
- 1864June – The United States Sanitary Commission's Sanitary Fair in Philadelphia takes place.source
- 1866Marcus Jastrow arrives in the United States to become rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.source
- 1869Marcus Jastrow arrives in the United States to become rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia.source
- 1874July 1 – Four-year-old Charley Ross, America's first major kidnapping for ransom victim, is taken from his home in Philadelphia.source
- 1876May 10 – The Centennial Exposition begins in Philadelphia.source
- 1876October 6 – The American Library Association is founded in Philadelphia.source
- 1876November 10 – The Centennial Exposition ends in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.source
- 18861-30 June - Numerous Norwegian emigrants arrived in North American ports aboard transatlantic steamships, including New York, Quebec, Boston, Philadelphia, and Halifax.source
- 1891December 17 – Drexel University is inaugurated as the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry in Philadelphia.source
20th century
- 1915September 11 – The Pennsylvania Railroad begins electrified commuter rail service between Paoli and Philadelphia, using overhead AC trolley wires for power. This type of system is later used in long-distance passenger trains between New York City, Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.source
- 1918May 15 – The United States Post Office Department begins the world's third regular airmail service, between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.source
- 1918May 15 – The United States Post Office Department (later renamed the United States Postal Service) begins the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC).source
- 1940June 24 – United States politics: The Republican Party begins its national convention in Philadelphia, and nominates Wendell Willkie as its candidate for president.source
- 1942December 7 – The battleship USS New Jersey is launched at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.source
- 1943May 23 – WWII: The battleship USS New Jersey is commissioned at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.source
- 1948April 19 – The American Broadcasting Company (otherwise known as ABC) begins television services, on WFIL-TV in Philadelphia (later WPVI-TV).source
- 1959July 4 – With the admission of Alaska as the 49th U.S. state earlier in the year, the 49-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia.source
- 1972October 22 – The Oakland Athletics defeat the Cincinnati Reds four games to three to capture Major League Baseball's World Series. It is the Athletics' first championship since 1930, when the franchise was in Philadelphia.source
- 1976July 27 – Delegates attending an American Legion convention at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, US, begin falling ill with a form of pneumonia: this will eventually be recognised as the first outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and will end in the deaths of 29 attendees.source
- 1978February 9 – The Budd Company unveils its first SPV-2000 self-propelled railcar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.source
- 1985July 13 – Live Aid benefit concerts in London and Philadelphia raise over £50 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.source
- 1986August 31 – The cargo ship Khian Sea departs from the docks of Philadelphia, carrying 14,000 tons of toxic waste. It wanders the seas for the next 16 months trying to find a place to dump its cargo. The waste is later dumped in Haiti.source