In 1681, the area now known as the state of Pennslyvania was given, by means of a royal proprietorship, to an English Quaker by the name of William Penn. King Charles II of England, as payment of a debt to Penn's father ( Admiral Sir William Penn) named the territory after Penn, and added the word "Sylvania" (meaning woodlands). The addition of "sylvania" was requested by the younger Penn.Thereafter, both the British and the French sought to assert their control over the region.
In early1754, Captain William Trent began contruction of a tiny fort at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. This fort was named "Fort Prince George".
In mid-April of that same year, the fort was surrendered to a combined force of French and Indians, commanded by Captain Contrecoeur. The French then proceeded to build a log fortification which they named Fort Duquesne, in honor of the French colonial governer.
In late 1758, abandoned by their Indian allies, and facing a much larger force of British and colonialists, the French blew up and abandoned Fort Duquesne. Three days later, Brigadier General John Forbes, commander of the British forces in the area, renamed the site "Pittsburgh" in honor of William Pitt, the British Secretary of War at that time.
September 1759 saw the British begin construction of Fort Pitt, the largest British fortificaton on the frontier. Fort Pitt was besieged in June,1763, by chief Pontiac and the confederacy of indian tribes united under his leadership. The siege was broken in August of that year when the indians were defeated in the battle of Bushy Run. Indian unrest in the area continued until July 1766, when cheif Pontiac finally agreed to a peace treaty.

Pittsburgh proper was set out by John Campbell in 1764, in the area around Fort Pitt. The area has since become known as the Golden Triangle.
August 31, 1778, saw an agreement between Penslyvania and Virginia over the Mason Dixon Line, thereby bringing to an end a long standing boundary dispute. With the boundary dispute settled, and the end to the indian wars, a wave of settlers moved into the area. The first United States cencus in 1791, gave Pittsburgh a population of 376, and the whole Allegheny County, a population of 10,309.

As early as 1792, the steel industry began to become of age in the Pittsburgh area, with George Anschutz building a blast furnace in what would later become know as "Iron City', and eventually "The Steel City". The first iron produced west of the Alleghenies came from the Alliance Furnace on Jacob's Creek in 1789.

Pittsburgh was incorporated as a city on March 18, 1816.
April 10, 1845, what was known as the Geat Fire, destroy close to 1000 buildings, all within the heart of the city. The area burned was 56 acres in size.

The year 1859 saw the drilling of the first oil well ever drilled, and the start of the petrolium industry in America. On August 27, Edwin L. Drake struck oil in his well which he was drilling in Titusville, northeast of Pittsburgh. Oil production from this oil field peaked between 1860 and 1870, during which millions of barrels of oil were ferried by riverboats to the city of Pittsburgh for refining.

It was Pittsburgh's iron factories that supplied the Union Army with materials, ships and armor plating during the Cival War.

In my humble opinion, the most significant piece of Pittsburgh history happened in 1869 when the first H.J. Heinz plant opened in Sharpsburgh, just north of Pittsburgh. Founder Henry John Heinz would go on to become nationally known as "The Pickle King". By 1919, the H.J. Heinz Company consisted of 25 factories, employing over 6,000 employees, and was the nation's largest producer of ketchup, vinegar and pickles. Today the H.J. Heinz Company Inc, is a worldwide company and produces hundreds of food products throughout the world.........and.......has its headquarters here in Pittsburgh :-).

The year 1880 saw the population of Pittsburgh rise to 156, 389 and the population of Allegheny County to355, 869
November 1886 brought the aluminum age to Pittsburgh when the Pittsburgh Reduction Co began smeltering alumimun in the Iron City.
By 1900, the cities' population had reached 321,616. The population of Pittsburgh peaked in 1950 when it soared to over 675,000. Since the 1950's, the cities' population has declined to the numbers of the beginning of the century.

Pittsburgh today is host to many giant corporate headquarters. It is a major financial center, home to many research facilities and laboratories, and has a flourishing tourism industry. Many international companies also work in and out of Pittsburgh.