Philadelphia, PA news and local guide

By the 1750s Philadelphia had passed Boston as the largest city and busiest port in British America. The First Continental Congress met at Carpenters' Hall in 1774, and the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence at the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall, on July 4, 1776. After the American defeat at Brandywine on September 11, 1777, the Liberty Bell was carried away and hidden under the floor of a church in present Allentown until the British left in June 1778. The Battle of Germantown was fought within today's city limits on October 4, 1777. The Constitutional Convention met at Independence Hall and finished the Constitution on September 17, 1787, and Philadelphia was the national capital for most of the period up to 1800. The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 killed about 4,000 to 5,000 people, about a tenth of the city. In the 19th century the city became an industrial center, home to the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Cramp shipyards and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Irish and German workers led a general strike in 1835 that won the ten-hour day, and the Centennial Exposition of 1876 was the first official world's fair in the United States. Sources Wikipedia: Philadelphia