Posted
on December 12, 2015
First,
there were many different nations of native peoples, including the
five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.
Then,
there were 13 British colonies, each with their own slightly
different flavor, based on who had settled them, when and why.
At
last, there was just one nation – the United States of America. The
brand new nation had won its Revolutionary War against Britain –
and so on the date of the war's end, there was a new nation with 13
states...right?
Not
so fast...There was a failed attempt at a national structure under
the Articles of Confederation, and then there was a Constitutional
Convention, with lots of discussion, debate, and even arguments. And
then there was the process of each of the 13 colonies-would-be-states
deciding whether or not to ratify the finished Constitution.
It's
only natural that some states voted to ratify more quickly than
others. Pennsylvania, it turns out, became State # 2 when it vote to
ratify the Constitution on this date in 1787.
What's
up in Pennsylvania?
If
you go to Pennsylvania, you can see the world's largest clothespin,
the world's largest paint can, the world's largest Yogi Bear, and the
world's largest shoe!
You
can visit the Crayola Factory, SIX (count 'em, six!) potato chip
factories, the factory where Peeps are made, and of course the
Hershey Chocolate Factory.
The
Crayola Factory in Easton, Pennsylvania, makes around 12 million
crayons a day! Take a photo tour of this amazing place here.
The factory tour, called The Crayola Experience, has a fun family
vibe.
You
can check out a bookstore that claims to be the oldest in the world
that has been operating continuously, and you can visit the nation's
oldest still-operational drive-in movie theater.
Some of the fantastic cities you can visit include:
- Indiana (yes, it's a city in Pennsylvania!) - the childhood home of Jimmy Stewart – which is decorated every year in the theme of the movie It's a Wonderful Life. And Indiana County is called the Christmas Tree Capital of the World!
- Bethlehem and Nazareth (again, yes, these are cities in Pennsylvania), home of the Peeps factory and of a famous guitar factory, respectively.
- Centralia, which has been on fire ever since 1962 (an underground coal-mine fire – yikes!).
- Punxsutawney, home of a famous groundhog named Phil. (Think Groundhog Day, seeing one's shadow, and six more weeks of winter.)
- Kennett
Square, the Mushroom Capital of the World. Mushroom farmers in the
region produce more than a million pounds of mushrooms every week!
- Pittsburg, with the amazing Cathedral of Learning.
- Pennsylvania, home of the Liberty Bell.
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on this date:
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