Maryland History Timeline

Maryland History 1900's

1900 The first passenger train from Washington, D.C., arrives at Chesapeake Beach, a new resort town with a casino and race track. Today, Chesapeake Beach and its sister city, North Beach, are known more for boutiques, eateries and quiet beach fun

1904 Downtown Baltimore destroyed by "The Great Baltimore Fire"

1909 Wilbur Wright conducts flight training for military aviators at a new airfield and hangar in College Park, recognized today as the world’s oldest continually operating airport

1930 Baltimore jazz singer Cab Calloway first records “Minnie the Moocher,” with the song becoming a hit one year later and turning “hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-ho” into a world-famous catch phrase

1933 A four-day storm in Ocean City cuts an inlet that becomes a permanent link between the ocean and bay, signaling the dawn of the town’s prominence as a sportfishing center

1936 University of Maryland School of Law admits first African-American

1945 Baltimore Sun journalist Philip Wagner opens Boordy Vineyards, the first of more than 20 bonded wineries now operating in the state

1947 Misty of Chincoteague, a critically acclaimed children’s book written by Marguerite Henry, brings national attention to the free-roaming ponies of Assateague Island

1950 American “diva” Rosa Ponselle becomes Artistic Director of the fledgling Baltimore Civic Opera Company, eventually coaching such artists as Beverly Sills and Placido Domingo

1952 The 4.3-mile-long William Preston Lane, Jr., Memorial Bridge (Chesapeake Bay Bridge) opens with dual spans that link the western and eastern shores of the bay. It is among the world’s longest over-water structures

1967 Thurgood Marshall becomes first African-American Justice of the Supreme Court

1967 Alex Haley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Roots, pays an emotional visit to the Annapolis City Dock to stand where his ancestor, Kunta Kinte, arrived 200 years earlier on board an African slave ship. A statue of Haley now marks the site

1978 James Michener’s epic novel, Chesapeake, begins its 18-week run on top of the Publisher’s Weekly best-seller list. For two years, Michener lived on the Eastern Shore and feasted on crab cakes while working on his book

1980 Baltimore celebrates the grand opening of Harborplace, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex central to the city’s Inner Harbor redevelopment

1985 Maryland begins an environmental program to clean up the Chesapeake Bay

1988 “Hairspray,” a film written and directed by Baltimorean John Waters, enjoys critical and popular success upon its release, and is adapted more than a decade later as a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical

1992 Oriole Park at Camden Yards officially opened

1995 Baseball’s “Iron Man,” Cal Ripken, Jr., takes the field at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and plays in his record-setting 2,131st straight game. The streak reaches 2,632 games before he takes a day off

1995 Annapolis celebrates its 300-year anniversary as the capital of Maryland​​​​​