Pithole is a ghost town in Cornplanter Township, Venango County, in the
U.S. state of Pennsylvania, about 6 miles (9.7 km) from Oil Creek State
Park and the Drake Well Museum, site of the world's first commercial
oil well. Pithole's sudden growth and equally rapid decline, as well as
its status as a "proving ground" of sorts for the burgeoning petroleum
industry, made it one of the most famous of oil boomtowns. Oil strikes
at nearby wells in January 1865 prompted a large influx of people to
the area that would become Pithole, most of whom were land speculators.
The town was laid out in May 1865, and by December was incorporated
with an approximate population of 20,000. At its peak, Pithole had at
least 54 hotels, 3 churches, the third largest post office in
Pennsylvania, a newspaper, a theater, a railroad, the world's first
pipeline and a red-light district "the likes of Dodge City's." By 1866,
economic growth and oil production in Pithole had slowed. Oil strikes
around other nearby communities and numerous fires drove residents away
from Pithole and, by 1877, the borough was unincorporated. The site was
cleared of overgrowth and was donated to the Pennsylvania Historical
and Museum Commission in 1961. Pithole was listed on the National
Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pithole%2C_Pennsylvania>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1865:
With their supply trains destroyed by Union troops one day earlier,
Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General
Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean House near the Appomattox Court House in
Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Appomattox_Court_House>
1917:
World War I: The Canadian Corps began the first wave of attacks at the
Battle of Vimy Ridge in Vimy, France.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge>
1948:
Fighters from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups attacked
Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, killing over 100.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Yassin_massacre>
1969:
The "Chicago Eight" pleaded not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy
to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago,
Illinois, US.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Seven>
1999:
President of Niger Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara was shot to death by
soldiers in Niamey.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Bar%C3%A9_Ma%C3%AFnassara>
2003:
Invasion of Iraq: Coalition forces captured Baghdad and the statue of
Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square was toppled .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firdos_Square_statue_destruction>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
eddy (n):
A current of air or water running back, or in an opposite direction to,
the main current
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eddy>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
All their life was spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according
to their own free will and pleasure. They rose out of their beds when
they thought good: they did eat, drink, labour, sleep, when they had a
mind to it, and were disposed for it. None did awake them, none did
offer to constrain them to eat, drink, nor to do any other thing; for
so had Gargantua established it. In all their rule, and strictest tie
of their order, there was but this one clause to be observed,
DO WHAT THOU WILT.
Because men that are free, well-born, well-bred,
and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur
that prompteth them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them from
vice, which is called honour.
--François Rabelais
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Rabelais>