Portal:Philadelphia

Comcast Center is a skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia. The 58-story, 975 feet (297 m) tower is the second-tallest building in Philadelphia after the Comcast Technology Center. Originally called One Pennsylvania Plaza when first announced in 2001, the Comcast Center underwent two redesigns before construction began in 2005. Designed by architect Robert A. M. Stern for Liberty Property Trust, the Comcast Center was delayed as the developers tried to get the site designated a Keystone Opportunity Improvement Zone. The designation would exempt tenants from most taxes for fifteen years as a way to encourage development in disadvantaged areas. Giving the Comcast Center the designation was supported by many state and city officials who hoped to keep corporations within Philadelphia, but was strongly opposed by other building owners who felt the building would have an unfair advantage in attracting tenants. Even though the bill was not approved in the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2004, Liberty Property Trust went forward with construction. At the beginning of 2005, the final redesign and its new name the Comcast Center was unveiled. The building is named after its lead tenant, cable company Comcast, which makes the skyscraper its corporate headquarters. Leasing 1,094,212 square feet (100,000 m²), Comcast occupies 89 percent of the building. The building features retail and restaurant space and a connection to the nearby Suburban Station. In the lobby is the Comcast Experience, which is a 2,000 square feet (190 m²) high-definition LED screen that has become a tourist attraction. Designed to be environmentally friendly, the skyscraper is the tallest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified building in the United States.

Oney Judge was a slave at George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon, in Virginia. A servant in Washington's presidential households beginning in 1789, she escaped to freedom from the Philadelphia President's House on Saturday, May 21, 1796, and defied his attempts to recapture her. More is known about her than any other Mount Vernon slave because she was twice interviewed by abolitionist newspapers in the 1840s.

Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a renowned polymath and a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution. Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation.

In early adulthood, Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing the Gazette and Poor Richard's Almanack. He was promoted to deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753, enabling him to establish the first national communications network. During the American Revolution, he became the first United States Postmaster General. From 1785 to 1788, he served as the sixth governor of Pennsylvania. He initially owned and dealt in slaves but, by the 1750s, he argued against slavery, becoming one of the most prominent abolitionists. His status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers has seen Franklin honored on coinage, the $100 bill, and the names of many towns, counties, educational institutions, streets, warships, and corporations. In Philadelphia, the main sites named after Franklin include a suspension bridge crossing the Delaware River, a parkway, a science museum, an athletic field, a high school, an elementary school, and a city square.

• ... that the Philadelphia School of Anatomy began as a private dissection room?
• ... that Dom DiSandro, the Philadelphia Eagles' chief security officer, was ejected from a game for getting into a scuffle with an opposing player?
• ... that Amman was renamed Philadelphia around 255 BC by a Greek ruler who was nicknamed Philadelphus for marrying his sister?
• ... that queer pro-Palestinian protesters faced off against the 2024 Philadelphia Pride drumline?
• ... that judge Robert Bork's leaked list of video rentals included movies such as Citizen Kane, The Philadelphia Story and Sixteen Candles?
• ... that the Octavius V. Catto Memorial, unveiled in 2017, contains the first statue on Philadelphia public property of a specific African American?
• ... that William F. Gannon died before reforming the membership of the married men's sodality in Philadelphia?
• ... that the unlicensed Willy's Chocolate Experience in Scotland led to a crossover event between the American television series Abbott Elementary and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?

• July 1, 1874 - After being delayed by the American Civil War, the Philadelphia Zoo opens.
• July 4, 1776 - The Declaration of Independence is adopted at Independence Hall.
• July 7, 1844 - A deadly Nativist riot erupts outside a Catholic church in Southwark.
• July 27, 1976 - The first recognized outbreak of Legionellosis begins at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel.

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