{"id":179814,"date":"2026-04-30T00:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/179814\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T00:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:32:10","slug":"were-no-1-celebrating-250-years-of-pennsylvania-firsts-in-politics-pianos-and-pints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/179814\/","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019re No. 1: Celebrating 250 years of Pennsylvania firsts in politics, pianos and pints"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the country prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary in July, it\u2019s an apt time for a history lesson. The Keystone State\u2019s role in our nation\u2019s founding is heavily noted throughout our history books, but the commonwealth also has its fair share of mind-blowing \u2013 or head-scratching \u2013 off-the-radar accomplishments in its archives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at some lesser-known firsts that took place in the commonwealth, dating back to before the country\u2019s founding:<\/p>\n

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\nPhoto credit: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh<\/p>\n

1775: First piano<\/a> made and sold in America<\/p>\n

John Behrent, who learned piano-building in London and Portugal before coming to Philadelphia, introduced the \u201cPiano Forte\u201d to America in 1775. In an ad placed in the Pennsylvania Packet, Behrent described the piano as \u201can extraordinary fine instrument \u2026 in the manner of a harpsichord, and several changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

1840: First lager made in the USA<\/a> – John Wagner, made in Philadelphia<\/p>\n

Philadelphia already had a long history with beer (still does) \u2013 but John Wagner from Bavaria changed the game in 1840. Wagner took the lager \u2013 perfected by Bavarians, using special bottom-fermenting yeast strains \u2013 to Philly, where the large German population and the hot summer months helped it take off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nPhoto credit:\u00a0zrfphoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

1859: First commercial oil drilling<\/a> begins near Titusville, known as the Drake Well<\/p>\n

From one valuable liquid to another: Shortly after beer, oil drilling in the U.S. also d\u00e9buted in the Keystone State. Thanks to technological advancements from Edwin Drake, the Drake Well \u2013 located near Titusville \u2013 showcased the viability of oil extraction, leading to the creation of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nPhoto credit:\u00a0PhotoQuest\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

1920: KDKA makes the nation\u2019s first commercial radio broadcast<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1920, the leading radio manufacturer, Westinghouse, approached Frank Conrad, a Pittsburgh-area ham radio operator, with the idea of offering programming to help sell more radios. On Nov. 2 of that year, a four-man staff at the KDKA station helped Conrad lead the nation\u2019s first commercial radio broadcast \u2013 a term coined by Conrad himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1940: The Pennsylvania Turnpike<\/a> becomes first all-weather, limited-access superhighway in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Say what you want about Pennsylvania\u2019s roadways, but the commonwealth\u2019s turnpike set a new standard for highway design when its first section opened in 1940, connecting Carlisle to Irwin, near Pittsburgh. The now-360-mile Pennsylvania Turnpike featured an easy-to-navigate, four-lane, divided highway design that earned the title of \u201cAmerica\u2019s First Superhighway.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nPhoto credit:\u00a0Bettmann\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

1954: WQED becomes the first public television station<\/a> in the country to broadcast<\/p>\n

No joke \u2013 the nation\u2019s first community-supported television station went on air on April 1, 1954. The Pittsburgh-area station was home to Mister Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood and continues to offer educational programming for children today. It also founded the region\u2019s only 24-hour classical radio station, WQED-FM, in 1973.<\/p>\n

1966-67: Pittsburgh Pipers win the inaugural American Basketball Association championship<\/a><\/p>\n

Prior to the NBA’s rise in the 1980s, Pittsburgh was already something of a basketball town. The ABA, which existed from 1967 to 1976, when it merged with the NBA, was home to several teams that didn\u2019t live to see the end of the intraleague rivalry. One of them was the Pittsburgh Pipers, who took home the championship in the ABA\u2019s first season with the help of future Hall of Famer Connie Hawkins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nPhoto credit:\u00a0EllenMoran\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

1967: The first Big Mac was invented and sold<\/a> in Pennsylvania<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s world-famous burger got its start in Uniontown in Fayette County, of all places. Created by Jim Delligatti, the Big Mac was first served in Uniontown in 1967, and soon expanded to the Pittsburgh region and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nPhoto credit:\u00a0Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

1972: HBO\u2019s first broadcast<\/a> shown to about 365 subscribers in Wilkes-Barre<\/p>\n

If you think of television and the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton area, the American version of \u201cThe Office\u201d might come to mind. But Northeast Philadelphia\u2019s place in television history dates back to 1972, when a new breed of \u201cpay-cable\u201d channel, known as the Home Box Office, made its first broadcast. On November 8, 1972, HBO\u2019s first showing featured an NHL hockey game \u2013 the Vancouver Canucks versus New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden \u2013 followed by a Paul Newman- and Henry Fonda-led film titled \u201cSometimes a Great Notion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the country prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary in July, it\u2019s an apt time for a history…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2479,13472,69,71,70,13473],"class_list":["post-179814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-commonwealth","tag-personality","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-satire-odd-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179814","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=179814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}