Portal:Pennsylvania

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Pennsylvania (/ˌpɛnsɪlˈveɪniə/ ^ⓘ, lit. 'Penn's forest country'), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Dutch: Pennsylvanie), is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. Pennsylvania borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio and the Ohio River to its west, Lake Erie and New York to its north, the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east, and the Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest.

Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 through a royal land grant to William Penn, the son of the state's namesake. Prior to that, between 1638 and 1655, a southeast portion of the state was part of New Sweden, a Swedish Empire colony. Established as a haven for religious and political tolerance, the colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania was known for its relatively peaceful relations with native tribes, innovative government system, and religious pluralism. Pennsylvania played a vital and historic role in the American Revolution and the ultimately successful quest for independence from the British Empire, hosting the First and Second Continental Congress, leading to the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the formation of the Continental Army. On December 12, 1787, Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. The bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, at Gettysburg over three days in July 1863, proved the war's turning point, leading to the Union's preservation. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, the state's manufacturing-based economy contributed to the development of much of the nation's early infrastructure, including key bridges, skyscrapers, and military hardware used in U.S.-led victories in World War I, World War II, and the Cold War.

Pennsylvania's geography is highly diverse. The Appalachian Mountains run through the center of the state; the Allegheny and Pocono mountains span much of Northeastern Pennsylvania; close to 60% of the state is forested. While it has no ocean shoreline, it has 140 miles (225 km) of waterfront along Lake Erie and the tidal Delaware River. (Full article...)

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Portrait by Rembrandt Peale

Benjamin Franklin Peale (born Aldrovand Peale; October 15, 1795 – May 5, 1870) was an American officer of the Philadelphia Mint from 1833 to 1854. Although Peale introduced many innovations to the Mint of the United States, he was eventually dismissed amid allegations he had used his position for personal gain.

Peale was a son of painter Charles Willson Peale, and was born in the Philadelphia Museum, a museum of curiosities which his father ran in Philadelphia. For the most part, Franklin Peale's education was informal, though he took some classes at the University of Pennsylvania. He became adept in machine making. In 1820, he became an assistant to his father at the museum, and managed it after Charles Peale's death in 1827. (Full article...)

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Warren Municipal Building in Warren in July 2012

Warren is a city in and the county seat of Warren County, Pennsylvania, United States, located along the Allegheny River. The population was 9,404 at the 2020 census. It is home to the headquarters of the Allegheny National Forest and the Cornplanter State Forest. It is also the headquarters for the Chief Cornplanter Council, the oldest continuously chartered Boy Scouts of America Council, and the catalog company Blair. Warren is the principal city of the Warren micropolitan area. (Full article...)

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Credit: Nicholas T.
The Delaware Water Gap from Kittatinny View with I-80 on the Delaware side..

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... that the Sideling Hill Tunnel (pictured) is one of the two tunnels that make up the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike?
... that John Sutton Hall at Indiana University of Pennsylvania was set for demolition until its listing on the National Register of Historic Places?
... that Josh Gibson Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is named for Negro League star Josh Gibson, who has been called the "black Babe Ruth?"
... that the Carnegie Library of Homestead in Munhall, Pennsylvania, trained four Olympic swimmers and sponsored both one of the 1890s' best football clubs and a baseball team with Hall of Famer Rube Waddell?
... that there were more than 20 arsons in the Coatesville, Pennsylvania, area since January 1, 2009, and 15 reported arsons there in 2008?

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Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	Pittsburgh

Erie	Lehigh Valley	Pennsylvania Roads

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Jay Cooke & Company was a U.S. bank that operated from 1861 to 1873. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with branches in New York City and Washington, D.C., the bank helped underwrite the Union Civil War effort. It was the first "wire" brokerage house, pioneering the use of telegraph messages to confirm securities transactions with clients. The bank became overextended in the building of the Northern Pacific Railway and failed, contributing to the Panic of 1873. (Full article...)

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Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. (born November 22, 1942) is an American aerospace engineer, retired United States Air Force (USAF) officer and fighter pilot, and former NASA astronaut, in which capacity he became the first African American to go to space. While assigned to NASA, he remained a USAF officer rising to the rank of colonel. He participated in four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992. In 1983, as a member of the crew of the Orbiter Challenger on the mission STS-8, he became the first African American in space as well as the second black person in space, after Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez. (Full article...)

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Pennsylvania news

State facts

State Facts

Nickname: The Keystone State
Capital: Harrisburg
Largest city: Philadelphia
Total area: 119,283 square kilometers (46,055 square miles)
Population (2000 census): 12,281,054
Date admitted to the Union: December 12, 1787 (2^nd)

State symbols

Bird: Ruffed grouse
Fish: Brook trout
Floral emblem: Mistletoe
Flower: Mountain laurel
Insect: Pennsylvania firefly
Mammal: White-tailed deer
Tree: Eastern Hemlock
Fossil: Trilobite
Soil: Hazleton
Song: Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania topics

General images

The following are images from various Pennsylvania-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The colonial possessions of Britain (in pink), France (in blue), and Spain (in orange) as of 1750. The French later lost their possessions in North America to Britain following its defeat in the French and Indian War, fought from 1754 to 1763 (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 2Pittsburgh Steelers' fans waving the Terrible Towel, a tradition that dates back to 1975 (from Pennsylvania)
Image 3
Pennsylvania's unemployment rate between 1976 and 2021
The U.S. unemployment rate during these years
(from Pennsylvania)
Image 4The Gettysburg campaign, which culminated in the Battle of Gettysburg, was a major turning point in the American Civil War and the war's bloodiest battle with an estimated 46,000 to 51,000 casualties (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 5Philadelphia International Airport, the busiest airport in the state and the 21st-busiest airport in the nation with nearly 10 million passengers annually as of 2021 (from Pennsylvania)
Image 6The Stonycreek Township crash site of Flight 93, one of four planes hijacked in the September 11 attacks; the site is now a national memorial. Flight 93 passengers wrestled with al-Qaeda terrorist hijackers for control of the plane, preventing it from being flown into the White House or U.S. Capitol. (from Pennsylvania)
Image 7Shelter House in Emmaus, constructed in 1734 by Pennsylvania German settlers, is the oldest continuously occupied building structure in the Lehigh Valley and one of the oldest in Pennsylvania (from Pennsylvania)
Image 8Autumn in North Branch Township in Wyoming County in October 2011 (from Pennsylvania)
Image 9Ethnic origins of Pennsylvanians (from Pennsylvania)
Image 10The locomotive Tioga in Philadelphia in 1848; Pennsylvania was an important railroad center throughout the 19th century. (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 11The Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg (from Pennsylvania)
Image 12One of only two confirmed photos of Abraham Lincoln (sitting in center, facing camera, without his traditional top hat) at Gettysburg a few hours prior to giving the Gettysburg Address at Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19, 1863. The address, which was only 271 words in length, ranks among the most famed speeches in American history. (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 13Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father of the United States and Pennsylvania delegate to the Second Continental Congress, which created the Continental Army in 1775 and unanimously adopted and issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 142020 U.S. presidential election results by county in Pennsylvania
Democratic
Republican
(from Pennsylvania)
Image 15NASCAR racing at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond (from Pennsylvania)
Image 16Lenape chief Lappawinsoe, depicted in a 1735 painting by Gustavus Hesselius (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 17Stephen Decatur, a 19th-century naval commander who served in the War of 1812 and other engagements (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 18Simon Cameron of Maytown was Secretary of War and head of Pennsylvania's Republican Party, whose party machine controlled Pennsylvania into the 20th century. (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 19Map of Pennsylvania's 67 counties (from Pennsylvania)
Image 20The statue of Benjamin Franklin on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution in Philadelphia ranked one of world's top universities (from Pennsylvania)
Image 21A woodcut illustration of the crowd at the first Republican National Convention in 1856 at Musical Fund Hall at 808 Locust Street in Philadelphia (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 22Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were adopted in 1776 and 1787-88, respectively (from Pennsylvania)
Image 23The Philadelphia Eagles are presented with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after winning Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018 (from Pennsylvania)
Image 24A map of New Netherland (in magenta) and New Sweden (in blue) in the 17th century; New Sweden was later absorbed by New Netherland and then the British in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 25Rivers Casino, located in the Chateau section of Pittsburgh on the Ohio River, one of Pennsylvania's 16 casinos (from Pennsylvania)
Image 26Amtrak's Pennsylvanian on Horseshoe Curve in Logan Township (from Pennsylvania)
Image 27Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia, home of the Philadelphia Phillies, the oldest continuous same-name, same-city franchise in American professional sports (from Pennsylvania)
Image 28Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem was one of the world's leading steel manufacturers for most of the 19th and 20th century. In 1982, however, it discontinued most of its operations, declared bankruptcy in 2001, and was dissolved in 2003. (from Pennsylvania)
Image 29On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln (center, facing camera) arrived in Gettysburg and delivered the Gettysburg Address, considered one of the best-known speeches in American history. (from Pennsylvania)
Image 30South Philadelphia High School on Broad Street in South Philadelphia in February 2010 (from Pennsylvania)
Image 31An Amish family riding in a traditional Amish buggy in Lancaster County; Pennsylvania has the largest Amish population of any state. (from Pennsylvania)
Image 32The Hershey Company in Hershey (from Pennsylvania)
Image 33Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom's Steel Force and Thunderhawk roller coasters in Allentown; Steel Force is the eighth-longest steel roller coaster in the world with a first drop of 205 feet (62 m) and a top speed of 75 miles per hour (121 km/h). (from Pennsylvania)
Image 34The Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1–3, 1863 in Gettysburg, was the Civil War's deadliest battle but also is widely considered the war's turning point in the Union's ultimate victory. The battle is depicted in this 1887 Thure de Thulstrup painting, Battle of Gettysburg. (from Pennsylvania)
Image 35Frederick Winslow Taylor of Philadelphia, a late 19th and early 20th century pioneer in scientific management (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 36Pat's King of Steaks in South Philadelphia is widely credited with inventing the cheesesteak in 1933 (from Pennsylvania)
Image 37William Penn, a Quaker and son of a prominent admiral, founded the colonial Province of Pennsylvania in 1681. (from Pennsylvania)
Image 38Köppen climate types in Pennsylvania (from Pennsylvania)
Image 39The Birth of Pennsylvania, a portrait of William Penn (standing with document in hand), who founded the Province of Pennsylvania in 1681 as a refuge for Quakers after receiving a royal deed to it from King Charles II (from History of Pennsylvania)