Philly Firsts!

Earlier this year, the Lonely Planet ranked Philadelphia as #1 of Best Places to Visit in the U.S. To celebrate, let's look at a couple "firsts" and "bests" that might explain why Philly, indeed, is so great.

+ In 1731, Philadelphia opened the first US library.
+ The first US hospital was established in 1751.???
+ UPenn was the first-ever American university, founded by Ben Franklin in ((()))
+ Philadelphia boast's America's first zoo, just two miles north of Penn (1874).
+ The world's first full electronic computer, ENIAC, was created in Philadelphia in 1946. 
+ Philadelphia experienced the greatest growth in millennial population among major metropolises between 2006-2014, at 6.3% (NYC totaled in at 3.1%).
+ Temple Health was the first researchers to successfully eliminate the HIV from cultured human cells
+ In 2015, the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania gained international acclaim for executing the first bilateral hand-transplant on five-year-old Zion Harvey.

Notwithstanding all of the above, the city of Philadelphia is still in an upward trajectory like its never seen before, and man, it feels good to be number one.

-Helen N. '18