Short answers, pulled from the story.
Hugh Henry Brackenridge secured a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature for what became the University of Pittsburgh in 1787. The institution began as a small preparatory school in a log cabin on the American frontier.
A Great Fire in 1845 destroyed most university buildings along with records and files across twenty square blocks of downtown Pittsburgh. Classes temporarily moved to Trinity Church while a new structure rose on Duquesne Way before that second building also burned down four years later in 1849.
Jonas Salk established his Virus Research Lab in the basement of what is now Salk Hall during the early twentieth century. The vaccine declared effective by 1955 reduced polio incidence in the United States by ninety-five percent within eleven years.
Pennsylvania designated the university as state-related in 1966 making it part of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education. Public funds covered approximately seven percent of operating budgets while offering tuition discounts to Pennsylvania residents.
The University adopted the panther mascot in fall 1909 becoming the first college to do so. Football teams claimed nine national championships with eighty-eight players selected as first-team All-Americans since competitive play began in 1890.