Pittsburgh was named for William Pitt, even though Pitt never set foot in Pennsylvania.
Pitt’s actions as a British war minister during the French and Indian War led to the city’s founding.
He committed money and troops to the war; he mapped out a strategy that included the capture of Fort Duquesne, located where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers combine to form the Ohio.
After this French fort fell in November 1758, a British one was built, Fort Pitt, or Pittsburgh. The city of Pittsburgh still stands on that spot.