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Maryland History Timeline

Maryland History 2000's

2001 The Baltimore Ravens defeat the New York Giants, 34-7, in Super Bowl XXXV. It is one of many national championships won by Baltimore sports teams in football, baseball, indoor soccer and lacrosse

2004 “Opening Night at the Hippodrome,” highlighted by the Baltimore premier of “The Producers,” marks the rebirth of the 90-year-old theater/performing arts center

2004 Swimmer Michael Phelps of Towson becomes the first American to win eight medals (six of which are gold) in a single Olympic Games

2004 Maryland celebrates its Flag Centennial (100 years)

2005 Annika Sorenstam claims victory in the first McDonald’s LPGA championship to be held at Bulle Rock, a public golf course in Havre de Grace

2006 Kimmie Meissner, a Harford County high school student, becomes the 2006 World Figure Skating Champion in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

2007 Paying homage to Capt. John Smith’s Chesapeake Bay expeditions of 1608, “modern explorers” on board a 28-foot shallop complete a four-month voyage that also celebrates the creation of America’s first all-water National Historic Trail

2008 Michael Phelps won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, Phelps took the record for the most first-place finishes at any single Olympic Games. Five of those victories were in individual events, tying the single Games record.

2012 Michael Phelps in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, he won four gold and two silver medals, making him the most successful athlete of the Games for the third Olympics in a row.

2013 The Baltimore Ravens defeat the San Francisco 49ers, 34-31, in Super Bowl XLVII.

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

Maryland History 1800's

1806 The Historic National Road, which will stretch from Maryland to the Ohio River, is commissioned as America’s first federally funded highway. Construction begins in Cumberland five years later

1813 British raid Havre de Grace during the War of 1812

1814 British burn Washington and bomb Fort McHenry; Francis Scott Key writes the "Star- Spangled Banner"

1826 Public schools established by law; Jews given right to vote and to hold public office

1828 Building begun on the C&O Canal and the B&O Railroad

1829 C&O Canal opened

1830 B&O Railroad establishes first passenger rail. The B & O Railroad's first 13 miles of track connect Baltimore to Ellicott City, where America’s first railroad terminal opens in 1831

1833 The seven-arch Monocacy Aqueduct is completed, becoming the largest structure on the C&O Canal. Measuring more than 500 feet in length, it has survived both hurricanes and Confederate attacks

1837 Baltimore Sun begins publication

1838 Disguised as a sailor, Frederick Douglass boards a train to Havre de Grace an finds freedom from slavery. The Eastern Shore native later gains international fame as an orator and statesman

1844 World's first telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington established

1845 The school that would become the U.S. Naval Academy is established at Fort Severn, Annapolis, with seven professors and 40 midshipmen

1849 Destined to write nevermore, Edgar Allan Poe dies while traveling in Baltimore. He is laid to rest at a memorial grave in the Westminster Burying Ground in Baltimore

1850 One year after escaping slavery in the Cambridge area, Harriett Tubman becomes a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad and rescues numerous family members and friends

1850 C&O Canal completed from Georgetown to Cumberland

1861 First bloodshed of Civil War occurs in Baltimore

1862 Confederate forces defeated at Antietam. Remembered as the “Single Bloodiest Day of the Civil War,” the Battle of Antietam takes place in Sharpsburg, with casualties numbering more than 23,000

1864 Maryland abolishes slavery

1865 Dr. Samuel Mudd, a Waldorf-based physician, treats John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg after Booth assassinates President Abraham Lincoln and flees into Southern Maryland

1867 Present Maryland Constitution adopted

1875 The present-day Thomas Point Shoal Light, one of the most recognizable symbols of Maryland, is completed. It is the Chesapeake Bay’s only screwpile light still in its original location

1876 Johns Hopkins University founded

1886 Enoch Pratt Free Library opens in Baltimore

1895 Baseball slugger George Herman “Babe” Ruth is born in Baltimore, near the present site of Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Maryland History 1700's

1708 England’s Queen Anne grants Annapolis its City Charter

1727 Maryland Gazette founded the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States

1729 Baltimore founded

1767 Mason-Dixon Line established as Maryland's northern boundary

1776 Four Marylanders sign the Declaration of Independence

1783 Annapolis became the nation's capital from November 1783 until August 1784; George Washington resigned his commission in the State House

1784 Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris in the State House officially recognizing the United States as an independent and sovereign nation and George Washington resigned his commission in the State House

1786 Annapolis Convention called for meeting to discuss new form of government

1788 Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the U. S. Constitution

1791 Maryland donates land for the new capital, Washington D.C.

Maryland History 1600's

1608 Captain John Smith explores the Chesapeake Bay

1631 English trading post established on Kent Island

1632 Maryland Charter granted to Cecilius Calvert by King Charles I. The colony was named Maryland for Queen Henrietta Maria (1609-1669), wife of Charles I (1600—1649).

1633 Ark and Dove sail from the Isle of Wight, England

1634 Ark and Dove arrive at St. Clements Island; St. Mary's City founded

1649 "An Act Concerning Religion" passed; Puritans founded Providence (now Annapolis)

1664 Slavery allowed by law in Maryland

1695 Annapolis becomes the capital of Maryland