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BALTIMORE CITY, MARYLAND

HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY


1729. Baltimore Town established by charter.

1731. Baltimore Company began ironmaking on Patapsco River.

1745. Assembly combined Jones Town and Baltimore Town.

c. 1750. John Stevenson shipped cargo of flour to Ireland, first in an export trade that spurred development of Baltimore.

1752. John Moale sketched Baltimore Town.

1755. French-speaking Catholics arrived in Baltimore from Nova Scotia.

1763. First volunteer fire company, later Mechanical Company, formed in Baltimore.

1768. Baltimore County seat moved from Joppa to Baltimore Town.

1769. First smallpox hospital in colonies established by Henry Stevenson, Baltimore.

1773. Assembly united Fell's Point and Baltimore Town.

1773. William Goddard began printing Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser.

1774, Aug. Baltimoreans shipped cargo of corn, rye, and bread to people of Boston.

1774, Dec. Mordecai Gist formed Baltimore Independent Cadets.

1776, March. Whig Club formed in Baltimore.

1776, Dec. 20-1777, March 4. Continental Congress met at Baltimore.

1778. Count Casimir Pulaski raised independent troops, Baltimore.

1780. Baltimore became port of entry.

1784, June. Edward Warren, Baltimore, made first balloon ascension in United States aboard balloon designed by Peter Carnes, Bladensburg.

1784, Dec. Methodist Christmas Conference, Baltimore, established Methodist Episcopal Church in America.

1785. German Evangelical Reformed congregation under Philip William Otterbein built United Brethren Church, Baltimore.

1785, Aug. China trade began with John O'Donnell's arrival at Baltimore with cargo from Canton, China.

1787. Toll roads connecting Baltimore with Frederick, Westminster, Hanover, and York authorized by General Assembly.

1787. Friends' Yearly Meeting, Baltimore, condemned slavery.

1788, May 1. Parade and festival (following ratification of federal constitution) gave name to Federal Hill, Baltimore.

1789. Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Poor Negroes and Others Unlawfully Held in Bondage formed at Baltimore.

1790, Aug. 15. By papal direction, Bishop Charles Walmsley consecrated John Carroll as bishop of Baltimore, St. Mary's Chapel of Lulworth Castle, Dorset, England.

1792. African Americans formed Sharp Street Methodist Church, Baltimore.

1793. Refugees from Haitian slave uprising arrived in Baltimore.

1794. First of many yellow fever epidemics struck Baltimore.

1794. Baltimore Equitable Society, first fire insurance company in Maryland, formed.

1795. Bank of Baltimore established.

1796. Baltimore City incorporated.

1797, Sept. David Stodder's shipyard at Harris Creek, Baltimore, launched U.S. Frigate Constellation.

1799. Construction began on Fort McHenry, Baltimore.

1799. Alexander Martin established Baltimore American and Daily Advertiser.

1802. Daniel Coker ministered to black Methodists, Baltimore.

1804. Baltimore Water Company formed (chartered 1792).

1806. Construction started for Basilica of the Assumption, America's first Roman Catholic cathedral. Designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, main section completed 1818.

1806. Maximilien Godefroy designed first Gothic Revival structure in United States, St. Mary's Seminary Chapel, Baltimore (completed 1808).

1807, Dec. 18. University of Maryland chartered at Baltimore as the College of Medicine of Maryland.

1808. John Carroll became Archbishop of Baltimore, first Catholic Archbishop in United States.

1808. Elizabeth Seton opened female academy, Baltimore.

1809. Washington Cotton Manufacturing Company, Mount Washington, first in State, incorporated.

1811. Alexander Brown & Sons opened as investment banking firm, Baltimore.

1811, Sept. 7. Hezekiah Niles began publishing in Baltimore Niles' Register, a national newspaper.

1812. College of Medicine chartered as University of Maryland, Baltimore.

1812, June 27. Mob attacked Alexander Contee Hanson, editor of Baltimore Federal Republican, and party.

1812, Dec. 12. Thomas Kemp, Fell's Point, launched Baltimore Clipper Chasseur, later famous under command of Thomas Boyle.

1813, June 13. Chesapeake, first steamboat on Chesapeake Bay, traveled between Baltimore and Annapolis.

1814, Aug. Rembrandt Peale opened Baltimore Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts, designed by Robert Cary Long, Sr.

1814, Sept. 12. British repulsed by local militia at Battle of North Point. Commemorated annually as Defenders' Day.

1814, Sept. 13. Bombardment of Fort McHenry inspired Francis Scott Key to write "Star-Spangled Banner."

1814, Oct. 14. British fleet left Chesapeake Bay for Jamaica.

1815. Charles Reeder established steam-engine manufactory and foundry, Federal Hill.

1815, July. Baltimoreans laid cornerstone for Robert Mills' Washington Monument (completed 1829).

1815, Sept. Baltimoreans laid cornerstone for Maximilien Godefroy's Battle of North Point Monument (completed 1825).

1816. Rembrandt Peale demonstrated gas lighting at his museum.

1816. Delphian Club, a literary group, organized, Baltimore.

1817. Maryland auxiliary of American Colonization Society formed at Baltimore.

1817, Feb. Gas Light Company incorporated to provide streetlights in Baltimore, first such firm in country.

1818. National Road completed from Cumberland to Wheeling, now West Virginia.

1818. Savings Bank of Baltimore, first of its kind in State.

1818. Maryland Agricultural Society organized, Baltimore.

1819, April 2. John Stuart Skinner published at Baltimore, The American Farmer, first agricultural journal in United States.

1819, April 26. Independent Order of Odd Fellows organized in Baltimore.

1822. Isaac McKim milled flour with steam power, Baltimore, first such operation in country.

1824. Benjamin Lundy published at Baltimore the Genius of Universal Emancipation, an anti-slavery newspaper.

1825. Marquis de Lafayette revisited Baltimore.

1825. Maryland Institute held first exhibition.

1826, Jan. 10. Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts (Maryland Institute College of Art) chartered.

1826. Thomas Kensett began canning oysters in Baltimore.

1827, Feb. 28. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad chartered.

1827, July. Boonsboro citizens erected monument to George Washington, South Mountain.

1828. Maryland and Virginia Steam Boat Company offered regular Baltimore to Norfolk service.

1828. Maryland Penitentiary directors appointed committee to recommend plans for expansion.

1828, June. Baltimore Shot Tower begun.

1828, July 4. First earth turned for construction of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (chartered Feb. 1827) and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

1828, Dec. Peter Cooper, Columbus O'Donnell, and William Patterson form Canton Company, Baltimore.

1829. Work began on Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad (completed to Pennsylvania line 1832).

1829. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's Carrollton Viaduct, first masonry railroad bridge in country, crossed Gwynn's Falls.

1829. John M. Dyer and twelve others organized State's first Jewish congregation, Nidhei Israel, Baltimore.

1829, July 2. Oblate Sisters of Providence established in Baltimore as first order of African-American nuns in Roman Catholic Church.

1829. Oblate Sisters of Providence opened school for black children, Baltimore.

1830. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Station at Mount Clare, first in United States.

1830. Peter Cooper and other investors started Canton Iron works, earliest planned industrial area in country at Canton, Baltimore.

1830, Aug. 28. Race at Baltimore between Peter Cooper's Tom Thumb locomotive and a train pulled by horse on Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

1831. Howard heirs donated land for parks to extend north, south, east, and west of Washington Monument, Baltimore.

1831, Feb. Maryland State Colonization Society formed in Baltimore.

1832. First omnibus lines began operating in Baltimore.

1832, March 5. Baltimore and Port Deposite Rail Road chartered.

1833, Oct. Baltimore Saturday Morning Visitor published Edgar Allan Poe's "Ms. Found in a Bottle," winner of fifty-dollar prize.

1835. Improved Order of Red Men (secret fraternal society) organized Great Council of Maryland, Baltimore.

1835, Aug. 6-8. Baltimore mobs demonstrated against Bank of Maryland and its directors .

1835, Aug. 25. Baltimore and Washington Railroad opened.

1837, May 17. Baltimore Sun began publication under Arunah S. Abell.

1838. Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery in Baltimore.

1838, Feb. 12. Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Company formed.

1838. Voter registration system initiated in Baltimore.

1839. David Carroll and Horatio Gambrill opened textile mills, Hamden-Woodberry.

1839, Oct. 20. Baltimore City Council established Male Central High School (now Baltimore City College).

1839, Nov. 14. Mercantile Library Association established in Baltimore.

1840, Feb. 1. Baltimore College of Dental Surgery founded.

1840, March 18. Baltimore Steam Packet Company (Old Bay Line) chartered.

1840, April 2. Washington Temperance Society founded in Baltimore.

1841, Jan. Maryland College of Pharmacy founded.

1844, Jan. Maryland Historical Society founded in Baltimore.

1844, May 24. Samuel F. B. Morse demonstrated telegraph line, sent first telegraph message from Washington, DC, to Baltimore.

1845. Lloyd Street Synagogue constructed in Baltimore, first Maryland synagogue, a Robert Cary Long, Jr., design.

1845. Baltimore and Cuba Smelting and Mining Company, Baltimore, begins operations.

1846. James Corner opened first transatlantic packet line, Baltimore to Liverpool.

1848. John Nepomucene Neumann, Redemptorist priest, built Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Baltimore.

1850. Baltimore railroad stations at President St. (Philadelphia, Wilmington, & Baltimore Railroad) and Calvert St. (Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad).

1850. Sun Iron Building built, Baltimore's first all-iron structure.

1851. Three-masted clipper Seaman, Baltimore, established speed record for sail (94 days) from San Francisco to Cape Henry.

1852. Loyola College, Baltimore, founded.

1852. Boston Steamship Company (later Merchants and Miners Transportation) began coastal shipping service, Baltimore.

1852, July. Statewide convention of free blacks, Baltimore.

1852, Nov. Evangelical groups formed Young Men's Christian Association, Baltimore.

1853. Henry Sonneborn, Baltimore, began manufacturing clothing.

1853. Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick Railroad organized, later became Western Maryland Railroad.

1854-1859. Rise of Know Nothing Party. Baltimore riots named city "Mobtown."

1855. Mary Whitridge, Baltimore-built clipper ship, set transatlantic sailing record (12 1/2 days) never broken.

1856. Camden St. Station (Baltimore & Ohio Railroad), Baltimore, opened.

1856. Hebrew Benevolent Society, Baltimore, incorporated.

1856, Oct.-Nov. Election violence, Baltimore.

1857. Baltimore gentlemen formed Maryland Club.

1857, Feb. Peabody Institute founded in Baltimore by philanthropist George Peabody (affiliated with The Johns Hopkins University in 1977). It was first academy of music established in United States.

1859. First horsecar line, Baltimore.

1860. Irish-born population of Baltimore City peaked (15,536 of 212,418).

1860, May. Constitutional Union Party formed in Baltimore.

1860, Oct. 19. Druid Hill Park opened, Baltimore.

1861. Peabody Institute (later west wing) opened in Baltimore.

1861, April 19. Sixth Massachusetts Union Regiment attacked by Baltimore mob.

1861, May 13. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's Union forces occupied Baltimore.

1861, June. Military arrested Baltimore police board members.

1865. Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company, first black-owned business in State, established in Baltimore by Isaac Myers.

1866. First library of Peabody Institute opened in Baltimore.

1866, Aug. 20. National Labor Union, the first national labor union in America, organized in Baltimore.

1867. Centenary Biblical Institute chartered under auspices of Methodist Episcopal Church; later became Morgan State University.

1867. Isaac Freeman Rasin won election to clerkship, Baltimore City Court of Common Pleas.

1867, Nov. 27. Knights of Pythias formed in Baltimore.

1868. Regular steamship service between Baltimore and Bremen inaugurated by Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and North German Lloyd.

1869, July. Isaac Myers and black caulkers in Baltimore formed national black labor union.

1870. University of Maryland School of Law reopened.

1870, May. Baltimore African Americans parade to celebrate passage of Fifteenth Amendment to U.S. Constitution.

1870, Oct. 27. Maryland Jockey Club sponsored racing at Pimlico track.

1872.Western Maryland Railroad completed line, Hagerstown to Baltimore.

1873, Sept. 21. School Sisters of Notre Dame established Notre Dame of Maryland Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies, later to become College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Baltimore, first Catholic women's college in United States.

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 Maryland Manual On-Line, 2015

July 1, 2015

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