Pennsylvania

Philadelphia City Hall is the house of government for the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At 167 m , including the statue, it is the world's... second-tallest masonry building, only .5 m shorter than Mole Antonelliana in Turin. The weight of the building is borne by granite and brick walls up to 22 feet thick, rather than steel; the principal exterior materials are limestone, granite, and marble. It was the tallest habitable building in the world from 1901 to 1908 and the tallest in Pennsylvania until 1932 when surpassed by the Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh. It remained the tallest building in Philadelphia until the construction of One Liberty Place ended the informal gentlemen's agreement that limited the height of tall buildings in the city; it is currently the 16th-tallest building in Pennsylvania. The building was designed by Scottish-born architect John McArthur, Jr., in the Second Empire style, and was constructed from 1871 until 1901 at a cost of $24 million.
more

The Cathedral of Learning, a Pittsburgh landmark listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is the centerpiece of the University of... Pittsburgh's main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Standing at 535 feet , the 42-story Late Gothic Revival Cathedral is the tallest educational building in the Western hemisphere and the second tallest university building in the world. The Cathedral of Learning was commissioned in 1921 and ground was broken in 1926. The first class was held in the building in 1931 and its exterior finished in October 1934, prior to its formal dedication in June, 1937. The Cathedral is a steel frame structure overlaid with Indiana limestone and contains more than 2,000 rooms and windows. The building is often used by the University in photographs, postcards, and other advertisements. The basement through floor forty are used for educational purposes, although most floors above 36 house the building's mechanical equipment. These floors include theaters, computer laboratories, classrooms, and departmental offices.
more

Fonthill was the home of the American archeologist and tile maker Henry Chapman Mercer, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Built between 1908 and 1912, it... is an early example of poured-in-place concrete and features 44 rooms, over 200 windows, 18 fireplaces and 10 bathrooms. The interior was originally painted in various pastel colors, but age and sunlight have all but eradicated any hint of the former hues. It contains much built-in furniture and is embellished with decorative tiles that Mercer made at the height of the Arts and Crafts movement. It is filled with an extensive collection of ceramics embedded in the concrete of the house, as well as other artifacts from his world travels, including cuneiform tablets discovered in Mesopotamia dating back to over 2300 BCE. The home also contains around 1,000 prints from Mercer's extensive collection, as well as over six thousand books, almost all of which were annotated by Mercer himself. The home was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was later included in a National Historic Landmark District along with the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works and the Mercer Museum.
more

Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, at 301 Pine Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, preserves the home of Tadeusz Kościuszko. The life and... work of the Polish patriot and hero of the American Revolution are commemorated here Kosciuszko returned to America to a hero's welcome after his wounding, capture, imprisonment, and banishment from his native Poland occupied by Russia, in 1796. Instructed to find "a dwelling as small, as remote, and as cheap" as possible, Kosciuszko's secretary, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, chose Mrs. Ann Relf's boarding house in Society Hill . Here, while Kosciuszko recuperated from his wounds , he was visited by numerous luminaries of the day, including Vice President Thomas Jefferson, architect Benjamin Latrobe, William Paterson , Chief Little Turtle of the Miamis, and Chief Joseph Brant of the Mohawk. The home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 18, 1970. The National Memorial was authorized on October 21, 1972.
more

Michael Keller Ditka, Jr. is a former American football NFL player, television commentator, and coach. Ditka coached the Chicago Bears for 11 years and New Orleans Saints for three years. Ditka and Tom Flores are the only two people to win Super Bowls as a player, an assistant coach, and a head... coach. Ditka was the only individual to participate in both of the last two Chicago Bears' championships, as a player in 1963 and as head coach in 1985. Ditka was born as Michael Dyczko in the Pittsburgh-area town of Carnegie, Pennsylvania on October 18, 1939. The oldest child of Mike Sr. and Charlotte, he grew up in nearby Aliquippa, Pennsylvania with siblings Ashton, David, and Mary Ann. Mike Sr., a welder, was one of three brothers of a Ukrainian family in the coal mining and steel manufacturing area in Western Pennsylvania. The surname "Dyczko" was difficult to pronounce in his hometown, so the family name was changed to "Ditka." Ditka attended St. Titus School. A three-sport star at Aliquippa High School, Ditka hoped to escape his hometown's manufacturing jobs by attending college with a football scholarship.
more

Glen Osbourne is an American professional wrestler, perhaps best known for his appearances with Eastern Championship Wrestling in the early 1990s, where he was the youngest holder of the ECW World Television Championship. Since debuting in 1990, he has wrestled on the East Coast independent... circuit. Osbourne got his start in the Philadelphia-based Tri-State Wrestling Alliance , run by radio personality Joel Goodhart, and became an early contributor to the city's hardcore wrestling style . The TWA was unique for its time because they regularly booked big-name talent to work with their homegrown stars. Other notable TWA alumni include The Sandman, Rockin' Rebel, Jimmy Jannetty, Larry Winters, Tony Stetson, Johnny Hotbody, Max Thrasher, and D.C. Drake. During this time, Osbourne attended West Chester University, majoring in English. Although its shows drew well, the TWA ceased operations suddenly in 1992. The gap was soon filled by Eastern Championship Wrestling, precursor to Extreme Championship Wrestling, helmed by Tod Gordon.
more

Don Beddoe was an American character actor. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Beddoe made his Broadway acting debut in 1929, receiving top billing in Nigger Rich. After a decade of stage work and bit parts in films, Beddoe began more prominent film roles in the late 1930s. He was usually cast as... fast talking reporters and the like. His commercial acting career was put on hold when he served in World War II in the Army Air Corps, where he performed instead in the Air Forces play Winged Victory. Beddoe subsequently returned to films playing small character roles. He occasionally appeared in comedy shorts playing comic foils, such as the Three Stooges shorts Three Sappy People and You Nazty Spy!. Beddoe appeared in over 180 films and dozens of television programs. Beddoe died of natural causes on January 19, 1991 at age 87.
more

Jason Calvin Garrett is an American former National Football League player and the current head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Garrett was the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach of the Cowboys before being promoted to interim head coach after the Cowboys fired coach Wade Phillips on... November 8, 2010 while remaining offensive coordinator. Garrett went to prep school at University School in Hunting Valley, Ohio, and was a letterman in football, basketball, and baseball. In football, as a senior, he won All-League honors as both a quarterback and safety. Jason Garrett graduated from University School in 1984. Garrett attended grade school at Saint Ann's, located in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Garrett originally played college football at Princeton University, but transferred to Columbia University when his father, Jim Garrett, became the head coach. Following his father's resignation as head coach after Columbia's 0-10 1985 season, Jason and his brothers, John and Judd, transferred back to Princeton. At Princeton in 1987 and 1988, Garrett completed 366 of 550 passes for 4,274 yards and 20 touchdowns and won the Asa S.
more

    West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Upland South, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia on... the southeast, Kentucky on the southwest, Ohio on the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland on the northeast. The capital and largest city is Charleston.     Historically the area now occupying West Virginia had a separate identity from the early days of pioneering settlement. The early British American settlers called the area Vandalia. After the American Revolution the settlers of the area sought the status of an individual state of the union under the name Westsylvania, but their attempts were blocked by Virginia which claimed most of the area, and Pennsylvania which claimed a small part of the area.     After the Wheeling Conventions, West Virginia broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War and was admitted to the Union as a separate state on June 20, 1863, and was a key Civil War "border state." It is one of only two states formed during the American Civil War and is the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state and one of three states to secede from another state .     The Census Bureau considers West Virginia part of the South because most of the state is south of the Mason-Dixon Line. The northern panhandle, however, extends adjacent to Pennsylvania and Ohio with the West Virginia city of Weirton on a parallel with Pittsburgh, while Bluefield is less than seventy miles from North Carolina and Harper's Ferry is considered to be a part of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The unique position of West Virginia means that it is often included in a wide variety of geographical regions, including the Southeastern United States and even the Northeastern United States. Notably, it is the only state which entirely lies within the area served by the Appalachian Regional Commission, which is a common definition of "Appalachia".[4]     The state is noted for its great natural beauty, its historically significant logging and coal mining industries, and its labor history. It is also known for a wide range of outdoor recreational opportunities, including skiing, whitewater rafting, rock climbing, caving, fishing, hiking, mountain biking, and hunting.
more

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to... its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east. Maryland was the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution, and three nicknames for it are occasionally used. Maryland is the 9th least extensive, but the 19th most populous and the 5th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The state's most populated city is Baltimore. Its capital is Annapolis. It was named after Queen Henrietta Maria. Maryland has an area of 12,406.68 square miles and is comparable in overall area with the European country of Belgium . It is the 42nd largest/9th smallest state, and is closest in size to Hawaii , the next smallest state. The next largest state, Maryland's neighbor West Virginia, is almost twice the size of Maryland . Maryland possesses a variety of topography, hence its nickname, "America in Miniature.
more

Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by... Maryland, to the east by New Jersey, and to the north by Pennsylvania. The state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and Virginia's first colonial governor, after whom what is now called Cape Henlopen was originally named. Delaware is located in the northeastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula and is the 2nd least extensive, the 6th least populous, but the 6th most densely populated of the 50 United States. Delaware is divided into three counties. From north to south, these three counties are New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. While the southern two counties have historically been predominantly agricultural, New Castle County has been more industrialized. The state ranks second in civilian scientists and engineers as a percentage of the workforce and number of patents issued to companies or individuals per 1,000 workers. The history of the state's economic and industrial development is closely tied to the impact of the Du Pont family, founders and scions of E. I.
more

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New... York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware. New Jersey is the 4th least extensive, but the 11th most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies mostly within the sprawling metropolitan areas of New York City and Philadelphia. It is also the third wealthiest by 2009-2010 median household income. The area was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, with historical tribes such as the Lenape along the coast. In the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. The British later seized control of the region, naming it the Province of New Jersey. It was granted as a colony to Sir George Carteret and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. At this time, it was named after the largest of the British Channel Islands, Jersey, where Carteret had been born. New Jersey was the site of several decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War.
more