September 27

Lancaster, Pennsylvania began life as a planned city carved out of the Penn Family’s holdings in, oddly enough, Pennsylvania. James Hamilton laid out the plan for the new city in 1734. The town was chartered as a borough in 1742 and incorporated as a town in 1818. For an incredibly brief period, Lancaster was the capitol of the newly emerging United States of America. The revolutionaries had been forced to leave Philadelphia when it was over run by British troops. They then set up shop in Lancaster on the 27th in 1777. Not wanting to over stay their welcome, the next day when the American troops left Lancaster, they took their capitol with them. So there!

Lancaster is the birthplace of the first battery powered wrist watch, the Hamilton Electric 500, made by the Hamilton Watch Company. Will the joy never cease? The Rodda Candy Company first made peeps, that delightful sugar enhanced treat, which have a shelf life slightly longer than uranium 235, in Lancaster.