Pittsburghers never dropped the "H" from their city's name. They simply lobbied to have the rest of the country spell it the right way.

The "H" in Pittsburgh goes back to November 27, 1758, when General John Forbes renamed Fort Duquesne "Pittsbourgh" in honor of William Pitt. The Scottish "bourgh" is a form of the word "borough." The name was spelled "Pittsburgh" in nearly every major document that references the city in the early years, including a 1769 survey of the "Manor of Pittsburgh," a 1784 laying out of the "Town of Pittsburgh," and an 1804 provision to the charter for the "Borough of Pittsburgh." (The original charter is no longer in existence, but there's no reason to suspect that the city's spelling was changed between the 1794 charter and its 1804 modification.)

"Pittsburg" does appear in the Act incorporating the city (the "H" was dropped by the printer) and in a few random newspaper articles. These were either mistakes or non-traditional spellings. There was no call to actually rename the city until a policy statement by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1890. This policy - aimed at standardizing city and town names - called for the "H" to be dropped in place names that ended in "burgh."

Following the Board on Geographic Names policy, the United States Post Office dropped the "H" in Pittsburgh officially from 1890 to 1911, but Pittsburghers didn't. The "H" was present in all city ordinances and council minutes throughout the time period. After concerned citizens voiced their opinion for the traditional spelling, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names reversed its decision in 1911, making "Pittsburgh" once again the official spelling.

The spelling changes apparently caused some confusion. In 1921, ten years after "Pittsburgh" became official again, Pittsburgh First, a publication of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, published an article noting that the question of how to spell Pittsburgh "recurs … with surprising frequency."

Pittsburgh's "H" is not only historical, it's unique. Sixteen other Pittsburg's throughout the U.S. are spelled without it.