1. In 1754, the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. This congress was a meeting of delegates from several British North American colonies who gathered to discuss their common grievances against British rule.

2. In 1780, the Battle of Kings Mountain took place in what is now York County, Pennsylvania. This battle was a decisive victory for American forces over British forces in the southern colonies during the Revolutionary War.

3. On October 2, 1939, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the country's first superhighway, officially opened to traffic. The highway ran approximately 160 miles from Irwin to Carlisle and was considered a model for modern highway construction in the United States.

4. In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African American justice on the United States Supreme Court. Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, but grew up in Philadelphia and attended law school at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

5. On October 2, 1980, a bomb exploded in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, causing $300,000 in damage but no injuries. The bomb was planted by a group calling themselves the United Freedom Front, who were protesting American involvement in El Salvador.