1832
The centennial of George Washington's birth is celebrated in Philadelphia.
1833
The New York Sun publishes the first successful penny newspaper.
1834
Wills Hospital for Diseases of the Eye is established.
1835
Philadelphians flock to see
the exhibit of a live Chinese woman. Afong Moy, 19, amazes spectators
by eating with chopsticks.
Philadelphia begins laying gas pipe.
1835-36
The Delaware River freezes in winter, stopping shipping for two months.
1838
Philadelphia Hall, dedicated to free speech and abolition, opens on May 14. Three days later, a mob burns it to the ground.
Edgar Allan Poe publishes his first work, The Conchologist's First Book.
1839
The earliest American daguerreotypes are taken, among them a view of Central High School.
1842
A mob of whites attacks a parade held to celebrate Jamaican Emancipation Day, sparking the three-day Lombard Street Riot.
1846
Construction begins on the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul.
War breaks out with Mexico, following the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas.
1850
Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Law, mandating the arrest and return of runaway slaves to their owners. The law makes Northern abolitionist states complicit in enforcing slavery.
The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania is founded. The first women's medical college in the world is later renamed Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, and then the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1970, when it begins accepting men. Today, it's the Drexel University College of Medicine.
The School of Design, later Moore College of Art, is founded.
1854
The Consolidation Act aligns the city and county borders, dissolving the governments inside the boundary and making those townships part of Philadelphia.
1856
The first full-page newspaper ad appears, in the New York Ledger.
