HAPPY H DAY.

H

Today is H Day, the annual celebration of the day in 1911 when Pittsburgh won its H back after two decades of enduring the federal government’s insistence on spelling it “Pittsburg.” In honor of this illustrious anniversary, here is an H.

Comments

  1. Thru! says:

    Did the Pittsburgh-without-the-h spelling come out of the spelling reform movement? Spelling reform/simplification was much-talked-up but never-quite-popular-enough movement of about that time, I think.

    • Dr. Boli says:

      It certainly grew in the same intellectual climate. In the same era, the Board also decided that all names ending in -borough should be spelled -boro, and—most baffling to non-Americans—adopted the dogma that possessive names must be spelled without an apostrophe, like Pikes Peak or Donaldsons Crossroads. (Dr. Boli suspected at the time, and still suspects, that the convenience of telegraph operators was an important consideration in that latter decision.)

  2. Belfry Bat says:

    Uzza!!!

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