Three Rivers Stadium by Joel Dinda/Flickr is licensed under CC BY 2.0

On July 16, 1970, the Pittsburgh Pirates played their first game at their new home: Three Rivers Stadium.

The Pirates lost the game 3-2 to the Cincinnati Reds, the same team they’d lose to in the National League Championship Series. They ended the season with a 89-73 record, giving them their first National League East title.

In June that year, they played their final game at Forbes Field, which had been their home since 1909.

According to Historic Pittsburgh, “At the time of the opening game, the construction work on Three Rivers was still incomplete inside and outside, forcing some fans to cross wooden planks over muddy parking lots to reach their seats.”

The Pirates played at Three Rivers until its demolition in 2001, when they moved to their new home base of PNC Park.

JONAS SALK AND ETHEL BAILEY IN THE LAB. ELSIE WARD IS VISIBLE IN THE BACKGROUND | JONAS SALK POLIO VACCINE COLLECTION, 1917-2005, UA.90.F89, UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH LIBRARY SYSTEM

On July 9, 1957, the polio vaccine developed by Pittsburgher Jonas Salk was declared safe and effective by scientists around the world at the Fourth International Poliomyelitis Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

According to a New York Times report, “the widespread use of Salk anti-poliomyelitis vaccine throughout the world has confirmed studies in the United States of its safety and effectiveness.”

The vaccine was first administered by Salk in 1954. “Since then,” the Times reported, “100,000,000 doses have been distributed in the United States with safety, and reported complications following their administration have been remarkably rare.

“Scientists from other nations have reported similar experience [sic].”

The vaccine was shown to have approximately a 75% effective rate after one or two doses, but more research was needed as to the effectiveness of a full course of three doses worldwide, the report states.

Denmark, which had reached its goal of vaccinating nearly all of the population younger than 40, reported “only a few sporadic cases.” In the United States, they had achieved slightly more than half of their goal of immunizing everyone under 20 years old, but immunization of adults ages 20 to 40 had not been pushed to full force until the vaccine supply was more plentiful.

Last-scale immunization programs had yet to be taken in South America, the “Near East” and the Middle East, the report stated. “Soviet delegates to the conference” stated mass immunization efforts had begun in their country using the Salk technique scientists learned in a visit to the United States in 1955.

Salk became director of the Virus Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1947; it was there he began to develop a vaccine that could immunize against polio, which affected more than 40,000 people in the U.S. each year.

On April 12, 1955, the results of his testing were announced: the vaccine was safe and effective. By 1962, the number of polio cases had dropped to 910.

In 2019, Pittsburgh Magazine named him No. 5 on our list of the Greatest Pittsburghers of All Time.

A CLIP FROM A 1973 EDITION OF THE PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE SHOWS MARCHERS DURING THE CITY’S FIRST PRIDE DEMONSTRATION. | PHOTO VIA CLIO

The first Pittsburgh Pride Parade was advertised in the June 1973 issue of Pittsburgh Gay News with the slogan, “Gay Pittsburgh is Coming Out.”

The event, held on Sunday, June 17, 1973, was held to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots and create a space for the LGBTQ+ community in Pittsburgh to feel empowered and unified. It was the final event of Gay Pride Week sponsored by Gay Alternates Pittsburgh.

The week consisted of a symposium at the University of Pittsburgh, a coffeehouse social in the Pitt Student Union, a lesbian/feminist night, a gay cabaret and even a gay trolley party, which was decked out in signs, banners and balloons to celebrate Gay Pride Week. The week concluded with the parade on Sunday that started with about 50 participants and grew to about 150.

Related: The History of Pittsburgh’s Gay Pride Parade Spans Decades

“And when we march on that Sunday in June the size of our crowd doesn’t matter,” wrote Fred Gormley in an editorial titled “Why Gay Pride Week” for Pittsburgh Gay News. “If ten people march, it’s 10 more people than ever marched in this city proclaiming their gayness before…and each of those 10 marches for 100 more who can’t or won’t show.”

The group started to congregate at noon that day in Market Square. They began their trek at 1 p.m. and marched along Forbes Avenue to Bigelow Boulevard in Oakland, ending at Flagstaff Hill in Schenley Park for a short rally. The speakers called the march “their beginning,” a writer from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported. Following the rally, there was a picnic in North Park.

In a 2003 Tribune Review article, Randy Forrester, co-founder of Persad Center, a counseling center for the LGBTQ+ community, recalled being frightened at the first parade because he didn’t know how the public would react. In the end, Forrester said the parade moved through their 4-mile trek with no problems besides the sweltering heat.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette covered the 1973 march, reporting that “a few cars stopped to heckle marchers,” but overall the parade remained a safe and welcoming place for the gay community of Pittsburgh.

Since then, Pittsburgh Pride has grown into a month of festivities. Pittsburgh held its 51st Pride festival this year from May 31-June 2. More than 260,000 people were in attendance, according to officials, creating a record-breaking turnout. First Lady Jill Biden even made a last-minute appearance and addressed the crowd with a speech.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

On July 7, 1987, August Wilson’s “Fences” took home four Tony Awards.

Three years after Wilson made his Broadway debut with “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Fences” won Best Play, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (James Earl Jones), Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play (Mary Alice) and Best Direction of a Play (Lloyd Richards). It was nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Play for both Frankie Faison and Courtney B. Vance. 

The play, which follows a former Negro Leagues player and his family in 1950s Pittsburgh, ran for 525 performances, closing on June 26, 1988.

Its Broadway revival in 2010 starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis was nominated for 10 Tonys, winning Best Revival of a Play, Best Actor in a Play and Best Actress in a Play. 

Washington and Davis won Oscars for their subsequent performances in the “Fences” movie, which was filmed in Pittsburgh.

Fourteen days after Wilson’s death in 2005, the Virginia Theatre on Broadway was renamed the August Wilson Theatre, making it the first Broadway theater to be named for an African American.

A GROUP OF KENNYWOOD’S SLOVAK DAY ORGANIZERS CA. 1938-1948 | COURTESY OF THE DETRE LIBRARY & ARCHIVES AT THE HEINZ HISTORY CENTER

From 1526 to 1918, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were considered part of the Habsburg Monarchy, which eventually became Austria-Hungary.

When World War I ended and Austria-Hungary was no more, Czechs and Slovaks were free to form their own democratic nation of Czechoslovakia — and they did so in Pittsburgh.

Nearly 1 million Czech and Slovak immigrants had come to the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and on May 31, 1918, a group of them came together in Pittsburgh’s East End to sign the agreement stating they’d be forming their own nation: The Pittsburgh Agreement.

The agreement was signed by numerous dignitaries, among them Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who would become the first president of the new nation, at the Loyal Order of Moose Building at 628-634 Penn Ave. 

Masaryk is depicted prominently in the Czechoslovak Room, one of 31 Nationality and Heritage Rooms in the Cathedral of Learning on Pitt’s campus; it was one of the first Nationality Rooms and opened in 1938, making it an anomaly among the rooms as it was built just 20 years after the country itself was formed.

COURTESY OF THE DETRE LIBRARY & ARCHIVES AT THE HEINZ HISTORY CENTER

The city of Pittsburgh owes the creation of the Nationality Rooms in part to the Masaryk family; Ruth Crawford Mitchell, who was asked by Pitt Chancellor John Bowman to coordinate the rooms’ creation beginning in 1926, had spent a summer in Czechoslovakia with Masaryk’s daughter, Alice, conducting a social survey of women’s conditions in the country after the First World War.

“These ideas and her experience over there informed her when she came to Pitt,” says Michael Walter, manager of education programs, Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Program. “If it wasn’t for her, the room program would not have been thought of.”

A blanket that Alice gave to Ruth is displayed in the Nationality Room, as is a photograph of Tomáš Masaryk and other immigrants taken in Philadelphia as he toured to drum up support for the new nation.

PHOTO COURTESY P3R

The first Pittsburgh Marathon was held on May 5, 1985. About 1,500 men and 221 women competed in that first race, with Lisa and Ken Martin crossing the finish line first.

The pair were the first — and only — husband and wife duo to win the race, which originally started in Highland Park and finished in Point State Park.

Then-mayor Richard Caliguiri announced the event on Oct. 4, 1984, saying Pittsburgh would join New York, Boston, Toronto and Chicago by hosting annual marathon races.

“I have felt all along that anything any other city can do, Pittsburgh can do,” Caliguiri said.

Caliguiri also established the Great Race, now known as the Richard S. Caliguiri City of Pittsburgh Great Race, as a “community fun run” in 1977.

The Pittsburgh Marathon went on hiatus in 2004 due to financial issues but was re-established in 2009 as the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon with nonprofit organization P3R taking over the race’s management.

There are eight “Soul Survivors,” men who have run every single Pittsburgh Marathon since 1985, registered to once again run 26.2 miles this year.

Numerous events are held throughout marathon weekend, including a half-marathon, a 5K, a kids marathon and a pet walk.

This content was provided by P3R. 

Twenty-six years removed from winning four NFL Championships in the 1970s, coach Bill Cowher led the Pittsburgh Steelers to their fifth Super Bowl championship by defeating the Seattle Seahawks on Feb. 5, 2006, at Ford Field in Detroit.

For the Steelers, the big plays in Super Bowl XL included running back Willie Parker’s Super Bowl-record 75-yard touchdown run and Antwaan Randle El’s 43-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward, the first time a wide receiver threw a touchdown pass in a Super Bowl, to clinch the game in the fourth quarter. Ward, who caught five passes for 123 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for 18 yards, was named Super Bowl MVP.

Soon after the game, reporters unleashed a torrent of criticism about the game’s officiating crew, leading NFL Films to rank it as one of the top 10 controversial calls of all time.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

105 years ago this week, the United States observed its first daylight saving time. Pittsburgher Robert Garland, who ran a nuts and rivets factory, proposed the idea as a way to increase industrial productivity and give people more time for recreational activities on summer evenings.

Farmers didn’t like the idea, arguing that their work was regulated by the sun and not Congress. The law was repealed in 1919 but several states and communities, primarily in industrial regions, continued to observe daylight saving time. More areas of the country followed daylight saving time during World War II.

In 1966, the Uniform Time Act made the biannual time switch the law of the land.

Just last week, the U.S. Senate passed a measure to make daylight saving time permanent across the country beginning in November 2023. If the bill is eventually approved and signed into law, it would mean no more falling back every year in the fall.

One would think Robert Garland would like the idea. Only time will tell if it becomes a reality.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

Famed physicist Albert Einstein chose Pittsburgh to give his first major speech in the United States 88 years ago this week. Einstein, already a celebrity by 1934, spoke to the American Mathematical Society Conference at Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University, in Oakland.

The physicist spoke in a theater that held only 400 people with another 600 trying unsuccessfully to get in.

“People clambered to see Einstein’s lecture because he was one of the world’s first rock stars,” Gregg Franklin, a professor of physics at CMU, wrote of the event. “In his words, Einstein’s famous E = mc2 equation tells us that ‘mass and energy are both manifestations of the same thing — a somewhat unfamiliar conception for the average mind.’”

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE JACOB RADER MARCUS CENTER OF THE AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES, CINCINNATI, OHIO. AMERICANJEWISHARCHIVES.ORG

Einstein’s brief visit to campus produced the only known photograph of him standing in front of a blackboard with a variant of his famous equation. The photograph was taken from a balcony of the Little Theaters, now known as Kresge Theatre at CMU.

According to Fred Gilman, the former dean of the Mellon College of Science, Einstein’s visit was one of a series of connections between Carnegie Tech and members of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

PHOTO BY DAVID WILSON VIA FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

In a venue where they played four Super Bowl-winning seasons, the Steelers ended their residency of Three Rivers Stadium 22 years ago this week with a 24-3 thrashing of the Washington Redskins.

Thousands of fans remained in the stands after the clock hit zero to watch a post-game ceremony that featured 50 former Steelers — among them Hall of Famer Franco Harris, Jack Ham and coach Chuck Noll. ⇓

Also this week in Pittsburgh history, Pitt hired Johnny Majors as its head football coach in 1972. Pitt had finished its previous season at 1-10 — four years later under Majors, the team recorded a perfect season and a national championship. Majors also recruited two of Pitt’s best players ever: Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett and quarterback Matt Cavanaugh.

Majors first training camp at Pitt was brutal. ⇓

Majors left Pitt for his native Tennessee in 1977, winning three SEC Championships there in 1985, 1989 and 1990. After being forced to resign in 1992, Majors returned to Pitt to coach four more seasons before retiring in 1996.

Majors died on June 3, 2020, at his home in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh’s Facebook page.

A crowd of 60,190 were on hand Nov. 13, 1999, when the Pitt Panthers defeated Notre Dame 37-27 to close out the era of Pitt Stadium. With nine seconds remaining on the clock, fans rushed onto the field to tear down the goalposts and to snatch up pieces of turf.

Ten years before that final game, then-athletic director Ed Bozik unveiled a massive overhaul to rebuild Pitt Stadium from the ground up. Luxury boxes and a dome were part of the $55 million plan. By the mid-1990s, the estimated renovation costs had ballooned and then-athletic director Steve Pederson decided it would be better to demolish the stadium and replace it with a convocation center and basketball arena, which was named the Petersen Events Center.

In 2000, Pitt played home games at Three Rivers Stadium before moving to Heinz Field.

The decision not to replace the stadium remains a point of contention today among some fans who believe Pitt should have an on-campus stadium. Others contend that Oakland isn’t accessible, there is little parking for a football crowd and there is no place to put a new stadium.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh’s Facebook page.

This story was updated on Nov. 7, 2022

Up to 30 million gallons of water flooded the 600 block of Stanwix Street and Fort Duquesne Boulevard Downtown when a 36-inch water main ruptured on Aug. 17, 2005. The break dumped more water on that area of Gateway Center than the floods of 2004 and 1996, according to the Tribune-Review.

Seven thousand people were evacuated from several office buildings, including the 350 residents of Gateway Towers who were without electricity until water could be pumped out of the basement and sub-basement. The building’s circuit box was completely submerged, and more than 200 cars in an underground parking garage were damaged.

The 90-year-old water main had last been repaired in 1986 when its insides were lined with cement.

In the middle of it was KDKA-TV, which managed to stay on the air and tell a big story from outside its front door. ⇓

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

PHOTOS BY RICHARD COOK

June 15, 2013, was a big day for hikers and bikers in Western Pennsylvania and beyond. The Great Allegheny Passage was finally complete.

Often referred to as the GAP, the 150-mile rail-to-trail connects Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Maryland. From there, it meets the C&O Canal towpath, allowing hikers and bikers to travel to Washington, DC.

SALISBURY VIADUCT

The trail was born on June 9, 1978, when the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy purchased 27 miles of the railroad property to connect Connellsville and Confluence. Seeing the growing popularity of the project, rail trail groups formed all along the corridor, and it became apparent that a continuous trail might be possible from Pittsburgh to Cumberland to Washington, D.C.  In 1995 the trail organizations consolidated and formed the Allegheny Trail Alliance.

The overall construction of the trail cost $80 million and volunteers continue to maintain it to this day.

From Point State Park, the trail — the majority of which is crushed limestone — slowly climbs 1,786 feet in elevation to its highest point at the Eastern Continental Divide before dropping 1,066 feet to the end of the GAP in Cumberland.

KEYSTONE VIADUCT

The trail has become a source of revenue for towns along its path where bed-and-breakfasts, guest houses, campgrounds, hotels, restaurants, bars and grills, creameries and cafes have flourished. The GAP website estimates about a million people visit at least one portion of the trail each year.

Batman’s first pitch at the April 10, 2006 opener at PNC Park was nothing remarkable, but what actor Michael Keaton said prior to taking the mound still reverberates with fans today.

At the time, the Pirates were coming off 13 consecutive losing seasons and Keaton criticized then-owner Kevin McClatchy for not spending enough money to field a competitive team.

“I fear they will take advantage of the goodwill of the people who continue to show up,” Keaton told a group of reporters. “For my money, that’s disrespectful. At some point, you either have to write the check or do something and not assume, well, we’re OK.”

Keaton said he understood the economic reasoning behind overspending in baseball … but only to a point. “Look, I’d do it, too, if I were a businessman,” Keaton said. “But, at some point, you’ve got to win. I think fans have been gracious. And maybe not vocal enough. Maybe not vociferous enough with their displeasure. That’s my opinion.”

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

You always knew where Michelle Madoff stood on any given issue, not only by her words but also by her sometimes unconventional actions.

Madoff was elected to Pittsburgh City Council in 1978, to fill the unexpired term of Richard Caliguiri (Caliguiri ascended to the Mayor’s office to succeed incumbent Pete Flaherty, who had been appointed U.S. Deputy Attorney General by President Jimmy Carter).

On April 4, 1980, after a years-long fight to have Council’s restroom redesigned to be uni-sex, she hosted a “toilet party” for her supporters to celebrate her success. Sophie Masloff, the only other woman on council at the time, skipped the party, telling reporters, “What the hell do I care about her toilet? I got more important things to do.”

Madoff’s battles with former council President Eugene “Jeep” DePasquale were legendary. In 1983, DePasquale promised to kiss her behind, under the Kaufmann’s clock, if one of her proposals succeeded. When it did, Madoff along with a dozen reporters and 100 onlookers, famously waited at Fifth and Smithfield at high noon on Jan. 24, 1983, for DePasquale to show up. He skipped the event, later telling reporters, “I thought it would be undignified.”

Madoff is also remembered for her tip to the FBI that led to the arrest and conviction of former council president Ben Woods for racketeering, extortion, conspiracy and failing to pay income tax.

Failing to win a fifth term, Madoff moved to Las Vegas, where she met and married Fred Scheske. The couple moved to Peoria, Arizona, where she died of leukemia in 2013 at the age of 85.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

PHOTO: KDKA NEWSRADIO | AUDACY INC.

Long before the advent of social media, April Fool’s jokes were only shared by word-of-mouth, occasionally in print or on the radio. When it came to April Fool’s pranks, KDKA Radio’s John Cigna was a master.

On one April Fool’s day, he reported that a flying saucer had landed in North Park. Many apparently believed it. “My general manager didn’t even know it was a joke,” Cigna told the Post Gazette in 2001.

On another April 1, listeners awoke to the news that the Allegheny River had suddenly dried up while they were sleeping.

Another of his stunts was claiming there was an alligator roaming the sewer system. He urged listeners to collectively flush their toilets to get the critter out. That tall tale also had its share of believers.

“People were calling up at 11 o’clock in the morning, saying, ‘Should we continue to flush?’ It was crazy,” Cigna told the PG.

Cigna’s colorful radio career ended when he retired in 2001. He died in 2011 at the age of 75.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

PHOTOS: ALLEGHENY CONFERENCE ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PHOTOGRAPHS, 1892-1981, MSP 285, DETRE LIBRARY & ARCHIVES AT THE HISTORY CENTER.

Nearly 2 inches of rain fell in Pittsburgh on March 16, 1936. Combined with melting snow, the rain caused massive flooding; a day later, the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers rose to a peak of 46 feet at the Point, more than 20 feet over flood stage. More than half of the businesses Downtown ended up underwater.

It would be a week before the waters completely receded and by then, 62 people were dead, more than 500 were injured and another 135,000 were homeless.

Pictures of people using boats to navigate Downtown streets got the most attention, but the damage was just as extensive in many small towns along the rivers.

The 1936 Flood Control Act, which authorized the construction of a system of dams and reservoir projects by both the Army Corps of Engineers and riverfront communities, was passed as a result of the tragedy.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

Meteorologists described it as a hurricane of snow.

On Saturday, March 11, 1993, snow began falling shortly after midnight. By the end of the day, Pittsburgh had recorded 23.6 inches of snow, the largest single-day snowfall since such records began in 1948.

Despite the storm’s ferocity, the city managed to host its annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. With the exception of snowplows, the parade was one of the last things that were able to move. It would be days before the city dug out and nearly a week before schools could resume classes.

In 2018, KDKA TV looked back at what was called the storm of the century.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

PHOTO: U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES

The Pittsburgh Steelers were the first Super Bowl champions to visit the White House on Feb. 22. 1980, and they shared the stage with Pittsburgh’s other championship sports franchise that year, the World Series-winning Pittsburgh Pirates.

Pittsburgh Mayor Richard Caliguiri presented President Jimmy Carter with a Pirates baseball cap and a Terrible Towel. In his remarks,  the President recalled his visit to the Pirates’ locker room moments after the Bucs defeated the Orioles in Game 7 in Baltimore.

“I escaped without getting tramped, by the skin of my teeth. But it was one of those exciting, historic moments in sports when the entire nation was thrilled at a tremendous achievement. I’ve not forgotten those exciting moments.

“Also, of course, we’ve got the Pittsburgh Steelers, who’ve shown the same kind of spirit and unity and courage and commitment and ability. Four times in the last 10 years the Steelers have gone to the Super Bowl; I’ve forgotten how many times they won — [Laughter] — four times.”

The President also singled out some of the teams’ individual stars for what they did off of the field, including the late Roberto Clemente for his relief efforts for the people of Nicaragua and Rocky Bleier for his military service in Vietnam.

“He was wounded severely. Some doctors, I understand, even said that he would not recover. But now he’s been able to overcome a combat injury of very serious nature, and he’s played 10 rugged years of championship professional football.”

Eleven years later the Penguins traveled to Washington, becoming the first Stanley Cup team to visit the White House.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

PHOTO: DAVE DICELLO

In the early, dark days of World War II, the Pentagon announced that 1,000 soldiers would take up residence at the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh. The school added showers and toilets to the upper floors to accommodate the influx.

From 1942 to 1943, around 4,135 cadets were trained at Pitt, most of them enlisted in the Air Cadet Training Program. They lived and attended classes alongside 11,000 civilian students.

PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS

It was not the first time the university helped to train soldiers for war. Servicemen also attended classes on the Oakland campus in the early days of World War I, more than a decade before the first class was held at the Cathedral of Learning.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

PHOTOS BY RICHARD COOK

It wasn’t the biggest blizzard ever to hit Pittsburgh, but the storm dubbed “Snowmageddon” was a doozy that brought travel and business to a halt for days. It began the evening of Feb. 5, 2010, and continued throughout the following day, dumping up to 2 feet of snow in the region. The official snow total recorded at Pittsburgh International Airport was 21.1 inches.

Pittsburgh got off relatively easy. Parts of western Maryland and northern West Virginia saw snow totals in excess of 3 feet. Even though the storm hit on a weekend, most schools were unable to reopen by Monday.

The storm also became a political nightmare for former Mayor Luke Ravenstahl who had traveled to Seven Springs to celebrate his 30th birthday and was not seen in public until several days after the storm had passed. In subsequent days, he was heavily criticized for spending part of the snow emergency in the Laurel Highlands.

On Feb. 17, the mayor snapped at reporters during a news conference about the death of a Hazelwood man who was waiting for an ambulance during the blizzard.

“I don’t have a responsibility to tell you where I am every second of the day,” the mayor said. “I was in the city, I was working, and I was responding to a tragic situation.” Asked why his staff did not disclose his whereabouts, the mayor said the information was withheld “just to kind of prove a point, that you all need to be more responsible.”

More snow fell that month and by the end of February 2010, Pittsburgh had recorded 48.7 inches, its snowiest month ever.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

ESCAPED CONVICTS JACK AND ED BIDDLE WERE AMBUSHED BY ALLEGHENY AND BUTLER COUNTY POLICE ON FEB. 1, 1902. THE TWO BROTHERS LAY ON THE GROUND; DETECTIVE BUCK MCGOVERN (TO THE LEFT) POINTS HIS RIFLE AT THEM | PHOTO: DETRE LIBRARY & ARCHIVES / SEN. JOHN HEINZ HISTORY CENTER

In 1901, Canadian natives Ed and Jack Biddle formed the “Chloroform Gang”; the brothers and their fellow partners in crime used chloroform to knock out burglary victims throughout Pittsburgh. What was supposed to be a nonviolent heist on April 12, 1901, turned deadly when the brothers shot and killed a Mount Washington grocer. The Biddles were caught, tried, convicted and sentenced to hang.

While awaiting their fate in the Allegheny County Jail, they were frequently visited by the warden’s wife, Kate Soffel. It wasn’t uncommon for her to visit prisoners, but she spent an uncommon amount of time with the Biddle boys, says John Schalcosky, president of the Ross Township Historical Society.

“They were very, very good-looking guys,” he says. “And they were very charming.”

According to newspaper accounts, Ed was so good-looking that the ladies of Allegheny County opined his innocence. And he was so charming that Mrs. Soffel — a mother of four married to one of the city’s most prominent justice figures — fell in love with him; she agreed to help the brothers escape and run away with them.

(R-L) ED BIDDLE, JACK BIDDLE AND KATE SOFFEL

Mrs. Soffel smuggled saws to the Biddles’ cell to cut through the iron bars and even brought them one of the warden’s guns. Early in the morning of Jan. 30, 1902, the brothers began their escape.

After overpowering three guards and shooting one of them, the inmates, dressed in the jailers’ suits, left the prison and to rendezvous with Soffel. The trio hopped on a trolley to West View. From there, they stole a one-horse sleigh in Ross Township and continued north, says Schalcosky.

Buck McGovern — the detective who originally brought the Biddle brothers in — launched a massive search effort and alerted detectives in Butler that the brothers might be trying to make it back to Canada. In the early morning of Feb. 1, 1902, police ambushed the trio in Butler.

“This is Buck McGovern with his big posse of people coming for them with big rifles,” says Schalcosky. “They ended up panicking and having a big shootout.” The brothers were hit multiple times. As detectives approached them, Kate Soffel lay nearby; she had shot herself.

Jack and Ed died three days after the shooting. Soffel spent 20 months in Western Penitentiary and died of typhoid fever in 1909.

The story of the Biddle Brothers and the warden’s wife inspired the 1984 movie “Mrs. Soffel,” starring Diane Keaton as Kate, Mel Gibson as Ed Biddle and Matthew Modine as Jack.

Watch the trailer⇓

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

PHOTO BY DAVE DICELLO TAKEN JAN. 8, 2014

On Jan. 19, 1994, Pittsburgh recorded its coldest temperature ever. Early that morning, the mercury dropped to minus 22 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Later, when the sun came up, it warmed all the way to minus 3 degrees, matching the record for the coldest high temperature in Pittsburgh.

That high temperature of minus 3 only happened two other times — once in 1982, and before that, in 1899.

It was so cold that then-Gov. Robert Casey declared a state emergency and urged workers to go home early. The demand for electricity was so high that in some parts of the state, utilities engaged in “rolling blackouts” to prevent the entire grid from shutting down.

That bitter day occurred during a major cold snap that year when, for four days in a row, the low temperature dropped below zero. During the peak of the 1994 cold snap, temperatures stayed below zero for 52 straight hours. That is the longest time period on record with temperatures below zero.

Temperatures that cold are rare in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh only sees a maximum temperature below zero about once every 10 years, and temperatures drop to minus 10 degrees or below about once every five years.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

Super Bowl III was the first championship game to bear the trademark “Super Bowl” name. Played on Jan. 12, 1969 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, the game pitted the AFL Champion New York Jets against the NFL Champion Baltimore Colts. The Jets were 19½ points underdogs.

Three days before the game, Jets quarterback Joe Namath stunned reporters and fans alike by personally guaranteeing his team’s victory. Those who scoffed at the prediction could only shake their heads when the Jets stunned the Colts 16-7.

Three men with deep Pittsburgh-area connections played key roles in what’s considered one of the greatest upsets in sports history.

Namath, who was born in Beaver Falls, led his high school football team to the WPIAL Class AA championship with a 9-0 record.  Namath also was a standout guard in basketball and outfielder in baseball and after graduation, received offers from several Major League baseball teams including the Pirates, Yankees, Indians, Phillies and Reds. Explaining that his mother wanted him to get a college education Namath accepted a football scholarship from Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant at the University of Alabama. Namath led the Crimson Tide to a National Championship in 1964. A year later, drafted by the Jets, he was named AFL Rookie of the year.

On the other side of the field in Super Bowl III was another Pittsburgh native, Johnny Unitas, who was considered one of the greatest NFL players of all time. Unitas, a graduate of St. Justin’s High School in Pittsburgh, attended the University of Louisville where injuries hampered his performance during his senior year. The Steelers drafted Unitas in the ninth round, but he was cut by head coach Walt Kiesling who didn’t think Unitas was smart enough to quarterback an NFL team. The Colts thought he had potential and signed Unitas in 1956. A year later, his first as a full-time starter, Unitas led the league in passing yards, touchdown passes and was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. He would earn MVP honors again in 1964 and 1967 and lead the Colts to championship titles in 1958, 1959, 1968 and Super Bowl V. Injured during Super Bowl III, Unitas came off the bench, engineering the Colt’s only touchdown drive late in the game.

The final Pittsburgh connection to Super Bowl III was a defensive backfield coach named Chuck Noll. A day after the loss to the Jets, Noll interviewed for the head coaching job with the Steelers.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

PHOTO © 2012 PITTSBURGH PENGUINS/JOE SARGENT

At the end of the 1997 season, Mario Lemieux retired from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Months later, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, becoming the ninth player in history to have the mandatory three-year waiting period waived. Having cemented his legacy as one of the sport’s greatest players, Lemieux couldn’t sit still. Two years after leaving the team as a player, he returned as the majority owner of the financially struggling team.

Twenty-one years ago this week, he completed his comeback by returning to the ice, scoring a goal and three points against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Civic Arena.

It took him just 33 seconds in the first period to score an assist. Watch⇓

Lemieux announced his second and permanent retirement from hockey on Jan. 24, 2006.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh Facebook page.

One of the Christmastime releases in theaters the week of December 22, 1995, was “Sudden Death,” set in the Civic Arena and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Powers Boothe.

PM Film Critic Sean Collier describes the plot this way: “The Penguins are playing the Blackhawks for the Cup, the Vice President is watching from the owners’ box and the crowd is going wild; unfortunately, a highly trained team of terrorists is planning on holding the veep hostage, with the arena wired to explode. Only a Pittsburgh fire marshal, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme (with a very un-yinzer accent), can save the day.”

There are plenty of familiar faces in the movie, including Mike Lange, Paul Steigerwald and Pens mascot Iceburgh. Howard Baldwin, chairman of the Penguins at the time, was one of the film’s backers.

Filming the final helicopter crash involved hundreds of emergency workers, nine cameras and a 400-foot crane that could pick up and lower the helicopter into the arena.

Critics weren’t blown away by the film, which holds a 50% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. At the box office, it finished in eighth place on its opening weekend. The film would eventually gross nearly $64 million worldwide with it being more popular overseas than in the U.S.

Watch the trailer⇓

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh’s Facebook page.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

Dec. 7, 1941 would go down in history as one of the pivotal moments of World War II. But it began as just an ordinary Sunday in Pittsburgh, with a gathering of the anti-war, anti-Roosevelt “America Firsters” at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland. 

The rally was sponsored by the America First Committee, an isolationist pressure group that hoped to discourage support for America’s involvement in the war already raging in Europe. It had garnered the attention of some 2,500 Pittsburghers, but just minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin, a journalist informed organizers that Japan had attacked Hawaii and the Philippines.

In that moment, the world changed, and the Pacific War was born. But America First organizers, steadfast in their mission to keep the United States out of the war and discourage aid to Britain in its fight against Hitler, dismissed the news as a hoax. The meeting proceeded uninhibited. 

The Bellevue Methodist Church Choir sang and speakers demanded neutrality. C. Hale Sipe, a former state senator who resided in Butler County, took to the microphone and denounced President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a war-monger. 

Enrique Urrutia, a colonel who lived in Oakland and arrived at the rally in civilian clothes, had heard radio reports from Pearl Harbor. Knowing that the news was not, in fact, a hoax, he stood up and shouted, “I wonder if the audience knows that Japan has attacked us and that Manila and Pearl Harbor have been bombed.”

But his words were largely silenced by the America Firsters near him, who perhaps mistook him for a run-of-the-mill heckler and yelled, “Throw him out!” Even before the colonel finished, the ruckus clamored through the hall. 

Police escorted Urrutia to the lobby, where he called the gathering “a traitors’ meeting.” From the dais, draped with a “no-war” banner, speakers dismissed Urrutia as an interventionist.

“Don’t be too hard on this bombastic man,” Sipe quipped. “He is only a mouthpiece for Franklin Delano Roosevelt — only another springboard for the warmongers.”

But try as they may to dismiss the word of Pearl Harbor as “fake news,” the America First Committee — and the rest of the world — would wake up Monday morning to headlines relaying a declaration of war.

In the Post-Gazette, the Dec. 8 edition provided a bold headline atop the front page and 10 stories about the attacks, Roosevelt’s plans, movements of Japanese troops, the sinking of a Japanese carrier and the reaction of war opponent Charles Lindbergh, which was titled, “Lindbergh Has Nothing to Say.”

Another headline on the front page read, “Heavy Loss Reported To Army and Navy In Attack On Hawaii,” and in the local section, it was reported that military recruiting offices were set for a rush.

The event at Soldiers & Sailors was covered in great detail, too. The newspaper reported on Urrutia’s interruption and said that after the colonel was escorted out, North Dakota Sen. Gerald Nye took to the podium for his address. When a reporter handed him a note saying that Japan had declared war on the U.S., Nye spoke for another 15 minutes before the journalist’s message sunk in.

Eventually, Nye paused.

“I have before me the worst news that I have encountered in the last 20 years,” he told the audience. “I don’t know exactly how to report it to you, but I will report it just as a newspaperman reported it to me.”

He read accounts of the attack to an audience stunned into silence.

“I can’t somehow believe this,” he added. “But I suppose I must.” 

The rally ended there — and for the duration of the war and well beyond – the America First movement did, too.

These were heady days for the University of Pittsburgh football program 46 years ago this week.

On Nov. 26, 1976, Pitt crushed rival Penn State 24-7 at Three Rivers Stadium. Running back Tony Dorsett rushed for 173 yards. Four days later, he won the Heisman Trophy as college football’s all-time leading rusher (6,082 yards).

Dorsett’s final college game was on New Year’s Day 1977, when the Panthers defeated Georgia 27-3 to win the National Championship.

Later that year, Dorsett was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year when he ran for 1,007 yards for Super Bowl champions the Dallas Cowboys. During his 12 years in the NFL, Dorsett rushed for 12,739 yards and scored 91 touchdowns. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Dorsett, now 67, announced in 2013 that he had signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain condition. Researchers have linked CTE to memory loss, dementia and depression.

Watch more⇓

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh’s Facebook page.

ON HIS SECOND TRIP: In 1754, Washington helped kick off the French and Indian War when he provoked a skirmish with French soldiers. He and his men were subsequently attacked (and many of his soldiers slaughtered) at the hastily built Fort Necessity in Fayette County.

ON HIS THIRD TRIP: As the war continued, he returned with Gen. Edward Braddock and colonial troops in 1755, bound for Fort Duquesne at the Point. His group was surprised and soundly defeated near what is now Braddock borough at the Battle of Monongahela.

ON HIS FOURTH TRIP: Washington was with Gen. John Forbes when British soldiers built a road across Pennsylvania in 1758 to convince the French at Fort Duquesne to get out of town. The outnumbered French fled.

ON HIS FIFTH TRIP: He wasn’t just a soldier. Washington was a farmer and investor, too, and he owned real estate in the area, including acres near Canonsburg and what is now Perryopolis. In 1770, he stopped in Connellsville, visited Fort Pitt, dropped in on a friend in Etna (then called Pine Creek) and took a canoe ride down the Ohio.

ON HIS SIXTH TRIP: In 1784, Washington did some research for Virginia Gov. Thomas Jefferson, who wanted him to investigate whether a canal linking the Potomac River system to the Ohio might be feasible.

ON HIS SEVENTH TRIP: In 1794, Washington — then President — led a force of 12,000 American soldiers as far as Bedford, when he found it necessary to put an end to the Whiskey Rebellion. This was the “first and only time a sitting American president led troops in the field,” according to historian Joseph Ellis.

But George Washington’s first visit, when he was only 21, may be the most remarkable. He volunteered to do some frontier diplomacy with the French, who were building forts in this part of the world.

ON HIS FIRST TRIP: Washington was a surveyor and a diplomatic messenger, coming first to the Forks of the Ohio — which he thought wonderfully suitable for a fort. After meeting with natives and brave residents of this wild territory, he and a small group set off in wretched November weather to the French outpost at Venango and then to Fort LeBoeuf, near Erie. The French weren’t intimidated by this young colonial major with his message from the British powers.

Within days of winning his first election in 1977, Pittsburgh Mayor Richard Caliguiri unveiled his plans for the second installment of former Mayor David L. Lawrence’s plan for urban revitalization. Renaissance II began as the city suffered through a widespread economic slump driven by the loss of thousands of industrial jobs, mostly in the steel industry.

The economic downturn was among Caliguiri’s greatest challenges as mayor, but his efforts helped initiate Pittsburgh’s transition to a more diversified economy. Those efforts earned Caliguiri Pittsburgher of the Year honors for 1987.

New developments that arose from Renaissance II included improvements to PPG Place, One Oxford Centre and the BNY Mellon building. There also were developments at Station Square, the institution of the Pittsburgh Technology Center, and construction of the light rail system.

Caliguiri also established The Great Race in 1977, which was renamed in his honor after his death in 1988.

Learn more about the city’s past at The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh’s Facebook page.