Portal:Philadelphia
Introduction
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city, with a 2017 census-estimated population of 1,580,863. Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents . Philadelphia is also the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.
William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city in 1682 to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 at the Second Continental Congress, and the Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Several other key events occurred in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War including the First Continental Congress, the preservation of the Liberty Bell, the Battle of Germantown, and the Siege of Fort Mifflin. Philadelphia was one of the nation's capitals during the revolution, and served as temporary U.S. capital while Washington, D.C., was under construction. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became a major industrial center and a railroad hub. The city grew from an influx of European immigrants, most of whom came from Ireland, Italy and Germany—the three largest reported ancestry groups in the city . In the early 20th century, Philadelphia became a prime destination for African Americans during the Great Migration after the Civil War, as well as Puerto Ricans. The city's population doubled from one million to two million people between 1890 and 1950.
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Independence Hall is the building where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated and adopted. It is now the centerpiece of Independence National Historical Park. The building was completed in 1753 as the colonial legislature (later Pennsylvania State House) for the Province of Pennsylvania and was used in that capacity until the state capital moved to Lancaster in 1799. It became the principal meeting place of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1783 and was the site of the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787. A convention held in Independence Hall in 1915, presided over by William Howard Taft, marked the formal announcement of the formation of the League to Enforce Peace, which led to the League of Nations and eventually the United Nations. The building was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1979.
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The list of Philadelphia Phillies seasons documents the season-by-season records of the Phillies' franchise including their years as the "Quakers" and the years where they shared the names "Quakers" and "Phillies." The team was formed in the National League after the dissolution of the Worcester Ruby Legs in 1883, though there is no additional connection between the teams. At times, the Phillies' search for success has been seen as an exercise in futility, because of their long stretches of losing seasons, including an MLB-record sixteen straight from 1933 to 1948. However, the Phillies do own five National League pennants, won in 1915, 1950, 1980, 1983, and 1993, as well as two World Series championships - in 1980 over the Kansas City Royals and in 2008 over the Tampa Bay Rays. The Phillies also enjoyed an extended period of success in their history from 1975 to 1983, when they won five East Division championships as well as the first-half championship in the strike-shortened 1981 season. The team is currently having a period of extended success as well. They have finished with a winning percentage over .500 in all but one year since 2000; however, this winning has not translated to playoff success, as the team had been consistently left out until their division championship in 2007. Over their 124 completed seasons (through 2007), they have played 18,881 games, winning 8,853 and losing 10,028, for a winning percentage of .469. The Phillies are also a combined total of 22–38 (.367) in post-season play.
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John Lester was an American cricketer, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Lester was one of the Philadelphian cricketers who played from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of World War I. His obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, described him as "one of the great figures in American cricket." During his career, he played in 53 matches for the Philadelphians, 47 of which are considered first class. From 1897 until his retirement in 1908, Lester led the batting averages in Philadelphia and captained all the international home matches. John Lester helped to lift Philadelphia cricket to the highest levels of international play with his leadership and understanding of the sport. He is one of the few American cricketers noted in Cricket Scores and Biographies, which said that he was "a watchful batsman who could hit well and had plenty of strokes and strong defence." In 1951 he authored A Century of Philadelphia Cricket, which was a definitive history of the game in the area. Lester was also integral in the foundation of the C.C. Morris Cricket Library when he proposed that cricket, "with a history and literature second to none should be given a permanent home in the United States."
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Selected anniversaries - October
- October 4, 1777 - American Revolutionary War: British troops repel an attack by General George Washington at the Battle of Germantown.
- October 7, 1952 - Bandstand, later called American Bandstand, premieres on WFIL-TV.
- October 25, 1701 – William Penn issues the Charter of 1701, establishing Philadelphia as a city.
- October 25, 1918 - The Benjamin Franklin Parkway opens to automobile traffic for the first time.
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"I love my fans in Philadelphia, but this is the hardest place in the world to play in. And I think it's the hardest place to play in to be a superstar."*
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