WQED is a public television station that was founded in 1954 as the brainchild of the Pittsburgh mayor, David L. Lawrence.

A friend and supporter of President Harry Truman, Lawrence wanted to have 12% of television programming dedicated to educational television. At the time, the FCC had put a freeze on issuing licenses since there were so many applicants. After much arm-twisting and corporate-wrangling, WEQD began broadcasting on April 1, 1954.

Among the notable productions to come out of WEQD is Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the iconic and radical children's program that featured Fred Rogers as the soft-spoken and profoundly compassionate story-teller/moral paragon. The show ran from its initial start in 1966 until 2001 (through repeats and syndication).

The WEQD call letters refer to the latin phrase Quod erat demonstrandum which means "what has been shown."

Clever broadcasters, that group...

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Jonas Salk Hall is located on the University of Pittsburgh campus.

Constructed in 1941 in the Art Deco style, the building was previously owned by the city of Pittsburgh, and was called the Pittsburgh Municipal Hospital for Contagious Diseases.

In an obvious move of selfishness, the hospital was built by President Roosevelt's Public Works Administration (remember, that guy in the wheelchair who had polio).

In a move that would make an Ayn Rand acolyte's head spin, the research department at this facility was funded by that same selfish Roosevelt's private foundation- the National Foundation on Infantile Paralysis (later named the March of Dimes).

In 1948, enter Jonas Salk, skilled and dedicated research scientist. He put together a team and a laboratory in the basement of this address and got to work. Seven years later, polio is gone. Gone! Seven years!

When asked who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk replied "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" The estimated value, had the vaccine been patented, was roughly $7 billion.

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The opening scenes in the graveyard at the beginning of Night of the Living Dead, the George A. Romero classic that kicked off the zombie craze that we're still suffering through nearly fifty years later, were filmed at Evans City Cemetery thirty miles north of Pittsburgh.

Every October since 2008 Evans City has hosted The Living Dead Fest featuring a tour of filming locations followed by an outdoor screening of Night of the Living Dead in EDCO Park.

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Stephen Foster, songwriter of several traditional American songs such as "Oh! Susanna," "Camptown Races," "My Old Kentucky Home," and "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair," died at the North American Hotel on January 13, 1864 after a fever caused him to fall on a washbasin and shatter it with his head.

Foster is buried at the Allegheny Cemetery. He was 37 years old when he died.

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The owner of the bar quickly developed a friendship with director Gus Van Sant, and she portrayed Jesse the Bartender in the film.

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