{"id":100970,"date":"2026-01-30T19:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T19:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/100970\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T19:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T19:07:08","slug":"save-the-dates-make-time-to-celebrate-these-notable-non-250th-milestones-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/100970\/","title":{"rendered":"Save the dates: Make time to celebrate these notable non-250th milestones in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the 250th anniversary of the United States is this year\u2019s marquee celebration \u2013 especially in Philadelphia, site of the nation\u2019s founding \u2013 the semiquincentennial is only one of numerous milestones in 2026. City & State takes a look at several other notable anniversaries of phenomena that have shaped the commonwealth, modern political discourse, or both.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The
\nThe Illuminati may or may not have had their eye on you since the shadowy group\u2019s founding in 1776. Photo credit:\u00a0szakalikus; Anton Zacon via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Illuminati: 250th<\/p>\n

Two months before the Declaration of Independence, the Bavarian Illuminati founded a secret society in the Holy Roman Empire. Two-and-a-half centuries later, the shadowy group remains central to innumerable conspiracy theories about a global cabal \u2013 as well as a never-ending source of speculation about which celebrities are part of it.<\/p>\n

\"The
\nThe first phone call took place in time for the country\u2019s centennial in 1876. Photo credit:\u00a0doug4537\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Telephone call: 150th<\/p>\n

Talk about cutting out the middleman: When Alexander Graham Bell famously telephoned his assistant, Thomas Watson, from his Boston laboratory in 1876, he set in motion 150 years of electronic communication that put first horses and steamships, then entire postal services (see: Denmark<\/a>), out of business \u2013 and spurred generations of internecine household warfare between parents and their chatty teens.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
\nU.S. Steel was one of the 20th century\u2019s great success stories \u2013 and cautionary tales. Photo credit:\u00a0Cavan Images\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

U.S. Steel: 125th\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gilded Age financier J.P. Morgan founded the Pittsburgh manufacturing giant in 1901 through a nearly $500 million merger ($18 billion in today\u2019s dollars). It was for years the nation\u2019s largest steelmaker and the world\u2019s largest corporation, with headquarters in the Empire State Building; at its peak, during World War II, the U.S. Steel workforce numbered nearly 350,000, roughly 16 times that of today.<\/p>\n

\"The
\nThe hundred-year flood that inundated Pittsburgh in 1936. Photo credit:\u00a0glennbphotos<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh Flood: 90th<\/p>\n

On St. Patrick\u2019s Day in 1936, melting snow coupled with torrential rains flooded the Steel City, with water levels rising to 46 feet. Downtown was submerged<\/a>, trains and trolleys were halted, steel mills sustained heavy damage and electricity was out for over a week. The devastation gave momentum to flood control measures \u2013 including, eventually, construction of the upstate Kinzua Dam.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPhoto credit:\u00a0Ridofranz; SANALRENK via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Twitter: 20th<\/p>\n

What did journalists and politicians even do before Twitter founder and original CEO Jack Dorsey and his fellow techies launched Twitter? That little blue bird and its distinctive alert guaranteed a dopamine rush for media junkies; rebranded post-acquisition by Elon Musk as X, the site has outlived numerous rumors of its demise and counts some 600 million users.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the 250th anniversary of the United States is this year\u2019s marquee celebration \u2013 especially in Philadelphia, site…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[60,227,13472,69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-100970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-personality","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","13":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}