Marking Pennsylvania History

The Fateful Days of 9/11?

The year was 1777.

A line of redcoats moved through the dark, quietly, out of Kennett Square toward Jeffries' Ford, six miles away. The time was 4 in the morning.

The British plan was to trap Washington's army, drive it to retreat at Valley Forge, and occupy Philadelphia, without resistance. The date: September 11th.

The British succeeded; the American's lost. And the date - September 11th - was considered then, and is considered now, a fateful day in American history.

Across time, however, a view of September 11th in Philadelphia history yields another portrait that shows this day as any other.

1876: Philadelphians organize to relieve Yellow Fever sufferers in Savannah, Georgia.

1900: Philadelphians collect $100,000 to aid Texans hit by a hurricane.

1915: Work begins on the Broad Street Subway under Philadelphia City Hall.

1925: Fay Lampier, Miss California, wins Miss America pageant.

1933: More than 1,500 farmers protest federal government milk policy.

1951: Grand Jury investigation begins of the Philadelphia Coroner's Office.

1961: Jefferson Medical College enrolls nine women in its freshman class, first since 1824.

1964: Ribbon cutting for a section of the Delaware River Expressway (later I-95).

1968: After years of protests, William Dade, Carl Riley, Theodore Hicks, and Owen Gowans become the first African Americans to enter Girard College as students.

1970: President Richard Nixon proclaims Philadelphia as the principal site for the 1976 Bicentennial calling for "a primarily cultural, inspirational and noncommercial international exposition."

- Kenneth FInkel, Executive Director of WHYY's Arts & Culture Service

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