Portal:Philadelphia/Selected article archive/2008
2008[edit]
- December
The Philadelphia Phillies has employed 51 managers and 10 general managers (GMs). Duties of the manager include team strategy and leadership on and off the field. Of those 51 managers, 15 have been "player-managers", who managed the team while still being signed as a player. In contrast, the general manager controls player transactions, hires and fires coaching staff, and negotiates players' contracts. The Phillies posted their franchise record for losses in a season during their record-setting streak of sixteen consecutive losing seasons (with a winning percentage below .500), with 111 losses in 154 games in 1941. During this stretch from 1933 to 1948, the team had seven different managers, all of whom posted winning percentages below .430 for their Phillies careers. Seven managers have taken the Phillies to the postseason, with Danny Ozark leading the team to three playoff appearances. Dallas Green and Charlie Manuel are the only Phillies managers to win a World Series: Green in 1980 against the Kansas City Royals; and Manuel in 2008 against the Tampa Bay Rays. The longest-tenured GM has been Paul Owens, with 11 years' service, from 1972 to 1983. Owens also served as the team manager in 1972, and from 1983 to 1984. After this, he served as a team executive until 2003, and was inducted into the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame in recognition of his services.
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- November
Congress Hall is a building at 6th and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that served as the seat of the U.S. Congress from December 6, 1790 to May 14, 1800, during Philadelphia's tenure as the temporary national capital. In that decade the country admitted three new states, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee; ratified the Bill of Rights; and oversaw the Presidential inaugurations of George Washington (second term) and John Adams. Built as a municipal courthouse, Congress Hall was restored in the 20th century to its appearance in 1796. The building is now managed by the National Park Service within Independence National Historical Park, and open for tours by the public. Congress Hall should not be confused with Independence Hall, which is located next door.
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- October
Rocky is a 1976 film written by and starring Sylvester Stallone and directed by John G. Avildsen. It tells the rags-to-riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but good-hearted debt collector for a loan shark in Philadelphia. Balboa is also a club fighter who gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship when the scheduled contender breaks his hand. Also starring are Talia Shire as Adrian, Burt Young as Adrian's brother Paulie, Burgess Meredith as Rocky's trainer Mickey Goldmill, and Carl Weathers as champion Apollo Creed. The film, made for only US$1.2 million and shot in just 28 days, was a sleeper hit; it made over US$117.2 million, won three Oscars, including Best Picture, to good reviews, and launched Stallone's career into the stratosphere. The film spawned five sequels, Rocky II, III, IV, V, and Rocky Balboa.
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- September
The Earle Mack School of Law is the law school of Philadelphia's Drexel University. The school, which opened in Fall 2006, was the first new law school in the area in over thirty years, and is the newest school within Drexel. Serving both undergraduate and graduate students, the school offers Juris Doctor degrees and requires all students to take part in their cooperative education program. The 65,000-square-foot (6,000 m2) complex features a moot courtroom, a two-floor library, a two-story atrium for meetings and casual conversation, faculty/staff offices, and several rooms for students to meet and work; the building also shares the campus-wide wireless Internet access. The permanent location for the law school, on the corner of 33rd and Chestnut Streets, is projected to be completed and open in 2012. The inaugural class of the Earle Mack School of Law began classes on August 16, 2006.
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- August
The list of Philadelphia Eagles first-round draft picks began three years after the professional American football team based in Philadelphia joined the National Football League (NFL) in 1933 as a replacement team for the defunct Frankford Yellow Jackets. After the AFL–NFL merger, the Eagles were moved to the current NFC East division. Every April, each NFL franchise adds new players to its roster through a collegiate draft held at the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting", more commonly known as the NFL draft. Teams are ranked in inverse order based on their previous season's records, with the worst record picking first, the second-worst picking second, and so on. Two exceptions to this order are made for teams that played in the previous Super Bowl: the Super Bowl champion picks last, and the Super Bowl loser picks next to last. Teams often trade their picks to other teams for different picks, players, cash, or combinations thereof; thus, it is not uncommon for a team's actual pick to differ from its assigned pick, or for a team to have extra or no draft picks in any round. The Eagles' first selection as an NFL team was running back Jay Berwanger from the University of Chicago. The Eagles have selected number one overall three times: Berwanger in 1936, Sam Francis in 1937, and Chuck Bednarik in 1949, as well as second overall five times, and third overall three times. Three eventual Hall of Famers have been drafted by the Eagles: Steve Van Buren, Bednarik, and Bob Brown. The team's most recent first-round choice was Brodrick Bunkley, a defensive tackle from Florida State University.
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- July
The Rohm and Haas Corporate Headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the headquarters for the chemical manufacturing company Rohm and Haas. Completed in 1964, the building was the first private investment for the urban renewal of the Independence Mall area. Only two blocks from Independence Hall, the building, designed by Pietro Belluschi and George M. Ewing Co., was lauded for its respect to the nearby park and historical buildings. Philadelphia's city planners praised the building as a standard for all redevelopment buildings. The nine-story edifice's most notable feature is its facade of translucent, corrugated sunscreens; held in place by aluminum lattices, the sunscreens are made of Rohm and Haas's principal product, Plexiglas. In 2007 the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is today considered one of the best examples of the International style.
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- June
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 a World Series championship in 1980 over the Kansas City Royals. 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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- May
The Philadelphia Lazaretto was the first quarantine hospital in the United States, built in 1799, in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The site was originally inhabited by the Lenni Lenape, and then the first Swedish settlers in America. The facility predates similar national landmarks such as Ellis Island and Angel Island and is considered both the oldest surviving quarantine hospital and the last surviving example of its type in the United States. All passenger and cargo vessels entering the port of Philadelphia were required to dock at the Lazaretto for inspection. Passengers suspected of contagion were quarantined in the hospital, and all suspect cargo was stored in the public warehouse. The Board of Health of the City of Philadelphia operated the facility and enforced the local quarantine regulations until the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania assumed authority for enforcing quarantine regulations in 1893. After it was closed as a hospital, it was used as an aviation base.
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- April
Benjamin Franklin Parkway is a scenic avenue that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia. The Parkway is an integral part of the city's Museum District. Named for favorite son Benjamin Franklin, the Parkway is a mile-long tree-lined boulevard that cuts diagonally across the grid plan street pattern of Center City's northwest quadrant (similar, for example, to the diagonal avenues in Washington, D.C.). It starts at the Philadelphia City Hall and ends at Eakins Oval in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Some of the city's most famous sites are located here: the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, Swann Fountain, which is encircled by Logan Circle, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute, Moore College of Art and Design, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Rodin Museum. At its ending point, the parkway provides access to Kelly and Martin Luther King Drives in Fairmount Park and the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76). French urban architect Jacques Gréber designed the Parkway in 1917 to emulate the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
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- March
The University of Pennsylvania is a private university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the university, it is America's first university and is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Penn is also a member of the Ivy League and is one of the Colonial Colleges. Benjamin Franklin, Penn's founder, advocated an educational program that focused as much on practical education for commerce and public service as on the classics and theology. Penn was one of the first academic institutions to follow a multidisciplinary model pioneered by several European universities, concentrating several "faculties" (e.g., theology, classics, medicine) into one institution. Penn is acknowledged as a leader in the arts and humanities, the social sciences, architecture, communications and education Penn is particularly noted for its schools of business, law and medicine (see BusinessWeek magazine and U.S. News & World Report). About 4,500 professors serve nearly 10,000 full-time undergraduate and 10,000 graduate and professional students. In FY2007, Penn's academic research programs undertook more than $787 million in research, involving some 4,200 faculty, 870 postdoctoral fellows, 3,800 graduate students, and 5,400 support staff. Much of the funding is provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for biomedical research. Penn tops the Ivy League in annual spending, with a projected 2007 budget of $5.18 billion. In 2007, it ranked fourth among U.S. universities in fundraising, bringing in about $392.4 million in private support.
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- February
The list of Drexel University alumni includes former undergraduate students and former graduate students. The 16th largest private university in the nation, Drexel is made up of 10 colleges and 3 schools most of which serve both undergraduate and graduate students. There are 70 undergraduate degree programs, 77 master's programs, and 21 doctoral programs offered by the university. Degrees are available in areas from Engineering and Business to Culinary art and Music. Drexel began awarding undergraduate degrees in 1915, starting with the Bachelor of Science in engineering, and in 1931 began offering graduate degrees through the School of Home Economics. Since its founding in 1891 the university has had more than 100,000 alumni. In 1991, the university's centennial anniversary, Drexel created an association called the Drexel 100, for living alumni who have demonstrated excellence in work, philanthropy, or public service. After the creation of the association 100 alumni were inducted in 1992, and since then the induction process has been on a biennial basis. By 2006, 164 total alumni had been inducted into the association.
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- January
The Philadelphia Convention took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, to address problems in the United States of America following independence from Great Britain. At what came to be known as the Annapolis Convention, the few state delegates in attendance endorsed a motion that called for all states to meet in Philadelphia in May, 1787 to discuss ways to improve the Articles of Confederation in a "Grand Convention." Although it was purportedly intended only to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention of many of the Convention's proponents, chief among them James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, were from the outset to create a new government rather than "fix" the existing one. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the convention. The result of the Convention was the United States Constitution. The Convention is one of the central events in the history of the United States.
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