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Portal:Philadelphia

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The Philadelphia skyline from the South Street Bridge, January 2020

Philadelphia (/ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə/ FIL-ə-DEL-fee-ə), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the sixth-most populous city in the United States. Its population was 1.60 million at the 2020 census and estimated at 1.57 million in 2025. The Philadelphia metropolitan area, also known as the Delaware Valley, is located in both the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern United States; home to 6.33 million residents, it is the nation's ninth-largest metropolitan area. Philadelphia is known for its culture, cuisine, and history, maintaining contemporary influence in technology and business, sports, and music.

Philly has a culturally and philanthropically active LGBTQ+ community. The city has also played an influential historic and ongoing role in the development and evolution of American music, especially R&B, soul, and rock.The city hosts more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other city in the nation. Fairmount Park, when combined with adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the same watershed, has an area of 2,052 acres (830 ha), representing one of the nation's largest urban parks and the world's 55th largest. With five professional sports teams and one of the nation's most loyal and passionate fan bases, Philadelphia is often ranked as the nation's best city for professional sports fans. (Full article...)

The July 7, 1844 riot in Southwark.
The July 7, 1844 riot in Southwark.

The Philadelphia Nativist Riots were a series of riots that took place between May 6 and 8 and July 6 and 7, 1844 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States and the adjacent districts of Kensington and Southwark. The riots were a result of rising anti-Catholic sentiment at the growing population of Irish Catholic immigrants. In the months prior to the riots, nativist groups had been spreading a rumor that Catholics were trying to remove the Bible from public schools. A nativist rally in Kensington erupted in violence on May 6 and started a deadly riot that would result in destruction of two Catholic churches and numerous other buildings. Riots erupted again in July after it was discovered that St. Philip Neri's Catholic Church in Southwark had armed itself for protection. Fierce fighting broke out between the nativists and the soldiers sent to protect the church, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries. Grand juries investigating the riots found that fault lay mainly with the Irish Catholic population. However, nationally the riots helped fuel criticism of the nativist movement despite denials from nativist groups of responsibility. The riots made the deficiencies in law enforcement in Philadelphia and the surrounding districts readily apparent, influencing various reforms in local police departments and the eventual consolidation of the city in 1854.

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Runaway advertisement in The Pennsylvania Gazette, May 23, 1796

Oney Judge was a slave at George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon, in Virginia. A servant in Washington's presidential households beginning in 1789, she escaped to freedom from the Philadelphia President's House on Saturday, May 21, 1796, and defied his attempts to recapture her. More is known about her than any other Mount Vernon slave because she was twice interviewed by abolitionist newspapers in the 1840s.

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Sarah Chang holding violin
Sarah Chang holding violin

Sarah Chang is a classical violinist recognized as a child prodigy who first played as a soloist when she was eight years old. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School and has performed as a soloist with many of the world's major orchestras. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Voorhees—a Philadelphia suburb—she is the daughter of Myoung-Jun, a composer, and Min-Soo Chang, who was a violinist and music teacher. Her mother trained her to play one-finger melodies on the piano at age three. For her fourth birthday, she was given a 1/16-sized violin. In 1986, when Chang was five years old, she auditioned for and was accepted to the Juilliard School by performing the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor. She auditioned at the age of eight with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic, as well as Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Both conductors granted her immediate engagements. In 1991, when Chang was ten years old, she recorded her first album, Debut, which entered the Billboard chart of classical best-sellers. In 2006, Newsweek ranked her as one of the Top Eight Achieving Females in the United States. Chang has also performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and many others. Chang has been a soloist under many famous conductors including Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Plácido Domingo, and John Williams. Notable recital engagements have included her Carnegie Hall debut and performances at the Kennedy Center, Boston's Symphony Hall, London's Barbican Centre, and Berlin's Philharmonie.

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"We can only solve our biggest problems if we come together and embrace the freedoms that our Founding Fathers established right here in Philadelphia, which permitted our ancestors to create the great American exceptionalism that all of us now enjoy."*

Michael Bloomberg

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