• The Pennsylvania Assembly ordered the bell from Whitechapel Foundry in 1751 to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of William Penn's 1701 Charter of Privileges.
• The bell arrived in Philadelphia on September 1, 1752 but was not hung until March 10, 1753.  It cracked when it was tested for sound.
• Two workers named John Pass and John Stow were given the cracked bell to melt down and recast, but nobody was pleased with the sound of the bell, so it was recast a second time.
• The name "Pennsylvania" is spelled "Pensylvania" on the bell.
• Centered on the bell are the words "Pass" and "Stow", the names of the two foundry workers who recast the cracked bell.
• On July 8, 1776, the Liberty Bell rang out summoning citizens to Independence Hall to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon.
• During the British occupation of Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell was taken down and hidden in the floorboards of the Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania, so it could not be taken by the British and melted down and used for cannon.
• There is disagreement about when this crack appeared on the Bell, but it is agreed that the final expansion of the crack, which rendered the Bell unringable, was on Washington's birthday in 1846.
• The Liberty Bell Pavilion was opened in 1976 in preparation for the nation's bicentennial celebrations.

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