Petach Tikva established (1878)

On this date in 1878, the first modern Jewish pilgrims moved to Petach Tikva. The name of Petah Tikva was chosen by its founders in 1878 from the prophecy of Hosea (2:15), "And I will give her vineyards from thence, and the Valley of Achor for an opening of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt." The first attempts at settling the land failed as malaria and crop failure drove them from the location. In 1883, with funding from Baron deRothschild, they moved back in again. In 1886, they suffered the first terror attack against Jews in pre-State Israel. Today, Petach Tikva is Israel's second largest industrial city, housing Israeli headquarters of Oracle Corporation, IBM, Intel, Alcatel-Lucent, ECI Telecom, and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmecuticals, as well as Israeli companies Teva, Osem, and Strauss. We are growing, we are living, we are thriving. We are unstoppable.