Editing University of Pennsylvania (section)

=== Founding Date ===

Penn officially uses '''1740''' as its founding date. That year, a group of Philadelphians began constructing a large preaching hall for George Whitefield, a traveling Anglican evangelist. The building was the largest in Philadelphia at the time, but the project stalled due to insufficient funding.

When Franklin established his academy in 1749, the trustees acquired this unfinished building on Fourth Street. Because Franklin's institution inherited and completed the 1740 structure, the university claims 1740 as its founding year. Other significant dates in Penn's early history include:

* '''1749''' - Franklin convenes the first Board of Trustees
* '''1751''' - First classes taught
* '''1755''' - Collegiate charter granted
* '''1757''' - First graduating class
* '''1765''' - First medical school in the American colonies established
* '''1779''' - First American institution designated a "university"