#PatsFacts
Welcome to #PatsFacts! Each week, I'll be sharing facts with my constituents about our great state of Pennsylvania. You can also receive #PatsFacts each week by signing up for my newsletter here.
- Ash Carter (from Abington, Montgomery Co.) is the latest in a long line of Secretaries of Defense (or War) from Pennsylvania. Depending on how you count PA native turned New Yorker John Armstrong, Jr., Carter would give PA the most (or second most) of any state with 11 (or 10).
- At 7:25 AM this morning (February 2, 2015), Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his dwelling on Gobbler's Knob and saw his shadow, once again predicting six more weeks of winter. Since 1887, Phil has only predicted an early spring 17 times.
- The smiley emoticon was invented at Pennsylvania's Carnegie Mellon University by Professor Scott Fahlman in 1982. :-)
- Bloomsburg is the only incorporated "town" in Pennsylvania - the result of a special act passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1870.
-Yesterday (January 11, 2015) the Golden Globes were co-hosted by Upper Darby (Delaware County) native Tina Fey.
-More than 200 confectionery companies and 10,000 confectionery employees call Pennsylvania their home, producing more than $5 billion worth of candy each year.
-The American Legion Freedom Bell in front of Union Station in Washington, D.C. is a replica of a famous Pennsylvania symbol: the Liberty Bell.
The 2,080 lbs. Liberty Bell was made in London and hung in the Pennsylvania State House (now called Independence Hall) in 1753, but would have to be recast twice in Phila. because it broke during testing. Inscribed with the excerpt from Leviticus 25:10 "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof," it was first rung to celebrate our independence during the first public reading of the Declaration on July 8, 1776. To prevent it from being melted down into ammunition during the British occupation of Phila., it was hidden (along with several other bells) under the floorboards of Zion United Church of Christ in present day Allentown.
However, it was not until the 1830s that the bell would become a recognizable symbol of freedom when it was first referred to as the "Liberty Bell" by the abolitionist movement in publications.
Legend has it the bell's signature crack was formed in 1835 when ringing on the death of Chief Justice John Marshall, and it would ring for the last time in celebration of Washington's birthday in February 1846.
- The first Pennsylvanian to sit on the United States Supreme Court was James Wilson, a Reading lawyer who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a primary drafter of the Constitution, and one of the six original nominees to the highest bench by George Washington.
- On this day in 1933 (December 5), Pennsylvania, Utah, and Ohio approved the 21st amendment, fully ratifying the repeal of prohibition. Today, Pennsylvania is home to more than 100 breweries throughout the state.
- The first law in the United States requiring traffic to stay on the right side of the road was passed in 1792 as a result of intensified Conestoga wagon congestion on the Philadelphia-Lancaster Turnpike.