Saturday, September 27, 2008

Was That It?

There are certain events in history that don't last long: Usain Bolt running an Olympic final, Amir Khan fighting for a few seconds more, Leroy Rosenior being in charge of Torquay for ten minutes and Lancaster, Pennsylvania being the capital of the United States of America for one day.

After the battle of Brandywine (10/10 for the name) during the American war of Independence, the Continental Congress moved from Philadelphia to Lancaster to escape the British army. Lancaster was thus declared the United States capital on September 28th, 1777. The next day, to presumably escape the British army again, the Congress decided to relocate further west, to York.

3 comments:

Name Witheld said...

I must commit this fact to memory in case it crops up at the pub quiz on Tuesday night!

Paul said...

Strange but true!

Span Ows said...

Brandywine...good! I like the name Pennsylvania too, basically it's the equivalent of Owswoods/ Baldiniosforests etc.