BALTIMORE CITY, MARYLAND

HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY

• 1600 - 1699
• 1700 - 1799
• 1800 - 1899
• 1900 - 1999
• 2000 -

Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine, 2400 East Fort Ave., Baltimore, Maryland, July 2016. Photo by Sarah A. Hanks.

1801. Baltimore General Dispensary founded.

1801, July 27-1805, March 4. Robert Smith (1757-1842) of Baltimore served as U.S. Secretary of the Navy.

1802. Daniel Coker ministered to black Methodists, Baltimore.

1803, Dec. 24. Elizabeth Patterson (1785-1879) of Baltimore married Jerome Bonaparte (1784-1860), brother of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), in Baltimore.

1805, March 3-Aug. 6. Robert Smith (1757-1842) of Baltimore served as U.S. Attorney General.

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. College of Medicine of Maryland, nation's first public medical school, chartered at Baltimore by the General Assembly.

Interior, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 409 Cathedral St., Baltimore, Maryland, November 2015. Photo by Sarah A. Hanks.

1808. Elizabeth Seton opened female academy, Baltimore.

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

1809. Second Courthouse opened in Baltimore at Church (now Lexington) St. and Washington Square.

1809, March 6-1811, April 1. Robert Smith (1757-1842) of Baltimore served as U.S. Secretary of State.

Archbishop John Carroll (1735-1815) Bicentennial Memorial (1976), by Felix de Weldon (1907-2003), on southside of Duvall Wing, Prince George's County Courthouse, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, October 2009. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

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

1812. College of Medicine of Maryland rechartered 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 part-owner and privateer 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. 15. British forces retreated from Baltimore, ending the Battle of Baltimore and the Chesapeake Campaign.

Entrance to Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland, August 2010. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

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).

Major George Armistead statue (1914), by Edward Berge, Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine, 2400 East Fort Ave., Baltimore, Maryland, July 2016. Photo by Sarah A. Hanks.

Major Armistead (1780-1818) commanded American forces during Battle of Baltimore at Fort McHenry, Sept. 13-14, 1814, and remained as Fort commander until his death.

1816. Locust Point annexed to City of Baltimore.

1816, June 11. Rembrandt Peale demonstrated gas lighting at his museum.

1816, June 13. Rembrandt Peale formed Gas Light Company of Baltimore, first gas company in country.

1816, June 17. Baltimore City Mayor and Council passed ordinance creating Gas Light Company of Baltimore.

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

1817, Feb. 3. Baltimore boundaries extended north to East Ave.

1817, Feb. 5. General Assembly incorporated Gas Light Company of Baltimore (Chapter 251, Acts of 1817).

1817, Feb. 7. Gas Light Company of Baltimore lit first gas streetlamp in country on corner of Market and Lemon Streets (now Baltimore & Holliday Streets).

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

1818, Jan. 1. Savings Bank of Baltimore chartered.

1818, June 2. 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 at Fell's Point, Baltimore.

1819, May 5. At First Independent Church of Baltimore, William Ellery Channing delivered sermon defining Unitarianism, which led to formation of American Unitarian Association in 1825

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

1824. Maryland Law Institute (now Francis King Carey School of Law) at University of Maryland, Baltimore, opened.

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

1824, Aug. 9. William Pinkney Whyte (1824-1908), Governor of Maryland, born in Baltimore.

1825. Marquis de Lafayette revisited Baltimore.

1825, Nov. 6. Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts (now Maryland Institute College of Art) held first exhibition, American manufacturing articles.

1825, Sept. 24. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911), abolitionist and writer, born in Baltimore.

1826, Jan. 10. Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts chartered.

1826. Levy Court abolished; Mayor and City Council take over Levy Court powers.

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

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

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

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, 901 West Pratt St. (at Poppleton St.), Baltimore, Maryland, May 2013. Photo by Adam N. Wexler.

1828, July 4. First earth turned for construction of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 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).

Phoenix Shot Tower, 801 East Fayette St., Baltimore, Maryland, February 2008. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

1828. Elizabeth Lange, Maria Balas, Rosine Boegue, and Theresa Duchemin opened Saint Frances School for Colored Girls (now Saint Frances Academy) in 5 St. Mary's Court, Baltimore.

1829, July 2. Elizabeth Lange, Maria Balas, Rosine Boegue, and Theresa Duchemin took their vows and established the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore, first order of African-American nuns in Roman Catholic Church.

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

1830. John M. Dyer and twelve others organized State's first Jewish congregation, Nidhei Israel (now Baltimore Hebrew Congregation), Baltimore.

1830. Peale Museum sold after exhibits moved and became Baltimore's first City Hall.

1830. Peter Cooper (1791-1883) 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.

1830, Sept. 30. John Lee Carroll (1830-1911), Governor of Maryland, born at "Homewood" in Baltimore.

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

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

1831, Sept. 26-28. Anti-Masonic Party Convention (the first national political convention) met in Baltimore.

1831, Dec. 12-16. National Republican Party Convention met in Baltimore.

1832, March 5. Baltimore and Port Deposite Rail Road chartered (Chapter 288, Acts of 1832).

1832, May 21-23. First Democratic Party National Convention met in Baltimore.

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

1834, March 24. Bank of Maryland failed.

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

1835, Feb. 13. Courthouse's roof and second story destroyed by fire.

1835, May 20-23. Democratic Party National Convention met in Baltimore.

1835, Aug. 6-9. Baltimore mobs rioted following months of inaction in wake of Bank of Maryland's closure and damaged houses of bank directors and Mayor Jesse Hunt, among others.

1835, Aug. 25. Washington Branch of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad opened.

1836. Washington College Hospital (1836-1851) opened.

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

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

1838, Sept. 3. Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery in Baltimore.

1838. Voter registration system initiated in Baltimore.

1839. David Carroll and Horatio N. Gambrill bought Whitehall Flour Mill in Hampden-Woodberry near the Jones Falls and converted it into textile mill for cotton duck, the canvas for ship sails.

1839. Washington Medical College renamed Washington University of Baltimore (1839-1851).

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 (now School of Dentistry), world's first dental college, founded in Baltimore.

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

1840, April 2. Washingtonian Total Abstinence Society (Washingtonian movement, Washington Temperance Society) founded in Baltimore.

1840, May 5-6. Democratic Party National Convention met in Baltimore. First convention at which a Party platform was adopted when delegates decided that federal government role not defined by Constitution should be decided by state government.

1844, Jan. Maryland Historical Society founded in Baltimore.

1844, May 1. First omnibus lines began operating in Baltimore.

1844, May 1. Whig Party National Convention met in Baltimore.

Maryland Historical Society, 201 West Monument St., Baltimore, Maryland, December 2006. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

1844, May 27-29. Democratic Party National Convention met in Baltimore.

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

Lloyd Street Synagogue, Lloyd St., Baltimore, Maryland, April 2008. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

1845. Baltimore Marine Hospital constructed at Fairfield.

1846. Cross Street Market opened in Federal Hill between Charles St. and Patpsco St.

1846. Hollins Market opened at Hollins St. and Arlington Ave.

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

1847. Improved Order of Red Men (secret fraternal society) formed Great Council of the United States in Baltimore.

1848, May 22-25. Democratic Party National Convention met in Baltimore.

1849, Oct. 7. Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore.

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

1850, Feb 18. President St. railroad station (Philadelphia, Wilmington, & Baltimore Railroad), Baltimore, opened.

1850, June 3. Calvert St. railroad station (Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad), Baltimore, opened, largest railroad terminal in country.

1851. Washington University of Baltimore closed.

1851, June 9. Charles J. Bonaparte (1851-1921), U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Secretary of the Navy, born in Baltimore.

Tombstone of Edgar Allan Poe & Maria Clemm, Westminster Presbyterian Cemetery, West Fayette St. & Greene St., Baltimore, Maryland, August 2018. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

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

1852. Baltimore boundaries extended.

1852. Loyola College (now Loyola University Maryland), Baltimore, founded.

1852, April 24. Merchants and Miners Transportation incorporated in Baltimore to begin coastal shipping service.

1852, June 1-5. Democratic Party National Convention met in Baltimore.

1852, June 17-20. Whig Party National Convention met in Baltimore.

1852, July 22-1853, March 7. John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) of Baltimore served as U.S. Secretary of the Navy.

1852, July 27-29. Statewide convention of free blacks, Baltimore.

1852, Nov. 18. Evangelical groups formed Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), Baltimore.

1853. Henry Sonneborn, Baltimore, began manufacturing clothing.

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

1854. Union Protestant Infirmary (now MedStar Union Memorial Hospital) established.

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

1855. Mary Whitridge, Baltimore-built clipper ship, sailed from Cape Henry to English Channel in record-setting 12 days and 7 hours.

1856. Hebrew Benevolent Society, Baltimore, incorporated.

Model showing horses pulling train car between President St. & Camden Stations, Baltimore, Baltimore Civil War Museum at President St. Station, 601 South President St., Baltimore, Maryland, May 2016. Photo by Sarah A. Hanks.

1856, Oct. & & Nov. 4. Election violence, known as Know-Nothing Riots, took place in Baltimore.

1857. Bank of Baltimore failed during Panic of 1857.

1857. Baltimore gentlemen formed Maryland Club.

1857. Washington College Hospital reopened as Church Home and Infirmary Hospital.

1857, Jan. 2. Martha Carey Thomas (1857-1935), president of Bryn Mawr College and founder of Bryn Mawr School for girls, born in Baltimore.

1857, Feb. Peabody Institute, first academy of music established in United States, founded in Baltimore by philanthropist George Peabody.

1859, July 26. First Baltimore horsecar line, began operating from Broadway to Baltimore St. and North St.

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

1860, May 9. Constitutional Union Party formed in Baltimore.

1860, June 18-23. Democratic Party National Convention (first assembled at Charleston, South Carolina, April 23 - May 3, 1860) reconvened in Baltimore

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

George Peabody (1795-1869) statue (1869), by William W. Story, before Peabody Institute, Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, Maryland, March 2009. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

A Baltimore merchant who moved to London, George Peabody became a philanthropist and diplomat. He established the first charitable foundations in America and England, and founded the Peabody Institute at Baltimore in 1857.

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

1861, June 27. Military arrested Baltimore's Marshall of Police George P. Kane and imprisoned him at Fort McHenry. Police Commission suspended.

1861, July 1. Military arrested Baltimore's Police Commissioners and imprisoned them at Fort McHenry.

Exhibit showing 6th Massachusetts Infantry attacked by Baltimore mob on April 19, 1861, Baltimore Civil War Museum at President St. Station, 601 South President St., Baltimore, Maryland, May 2016. Photo by Sarah A. Hanks.

1864, April 18. President Abraham Lincoln addressed Baltimore Sanitary Fair that was organized by Maryland women for U.S. Sanitary Commission.

1864, June 7-8. National Union Party [Republican Party] National Convention met in Baltimore.

1864, Nov. 1 Maryland slaves emancipated by Maryland Constitution of 1864. To celebrate, under direction of Baltimore City Council, five hundred guns were fired, bells were rung, and flags displayed "to attest the joy of the people at their great deliverance."

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

1865, July. Bank of Baltimore reorganized as National Bank of Baltimore.

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 and lobbied Congress to authorize an eight-hour work day.

1866-1869. Thomas G. Swann (1806-1883) of Baltimore served as Governor of Maryland.

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. Lavinia Dundore organized Maryland Equal Rights Society in Baltimore to work for suffrage.

1867, March 23. Washington University of Baltimore reorganized as Washington University (1867-1877) and Maryland Free Hospital established.

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 Race Course.

1871, Dec. Lafayette Market (now Avenue Market) opened at Pennsylvania Ave.

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

1872, Oct. 8. College of Physicians and Surgeons (1872-1915) incorporated in Baltimore.

1873, May 23. First Preakness Stakes, second race of Triple Crown, held at Pimlico Race Course.

1873, Sept. 21. School Sisters of Notre Dame established Notre Dame of Maryland Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies (now Notre Dame of Maryland University), Baltimore, first Catholic women's college in United States.

1874. Baltimore boundaries extended.

1875. Work began on east wing (now George Peabody Library) of Peabody Institute (completed 1878).

1875, Oct. 25. Designed by Baltimore architect George A. Frederick, new Baltimore City Hall dedicated, replacing old city hall in Peale Building, which formerly held the Peale Museum.

City Hall, 100 North Holliday St., Baltimore, Maryland, June 2006. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

1877, July 20-22. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad strike; workers went on strike along line, demonstrated in Cumberland, struck and rioted at Baltimore.

1877. Presbyterian Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital opened on Baltimore Street (closed & consolidated in 1960 with Hospital for the Women of Maryland to form Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore County).

1877. Washington University's franchise transferred to College of Physicians and Surgeons.

1878, March 27. Washington University merged into College of Physicians and Surgeons.

1878, Sept. 2-1889, Sept. 3. Male and Female Colored School no. 1, first Baltimore high school for African Americans, held in old City Hall (former Peale Museum).

1878, June 24. William K. Brooks with The Johns Hopkins University established Chesapeake Zoological Laboratory at Fort Wool, Hampton Roads.

1878, Aug. Young men of Baltimore Athletic Club returned from Newport, Rhode Island, with lacrosse sticks.

1878. Knights of Labor organized, Baltimore.

1879, Jan. Telephone exchange opened on corner of Baltimore & South Streets, Baltimore, first in State.

1880, July 1. Consolidated Gas Company of Baltimore formed from merger of Consumers' Mutual Gas-light Company of Baltimore City, Gas-light Company of Baltimore, and People's Gas Company of Baltimore.

1880. Electrical energy debuted in Maryland at Sun Building, Baltimore.

1881, Sept. Baltimore Medical College and its teaching facility, Maryland General Hospital (now University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus), incorporated (merged with University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1913).

1881, Oct. 10-12. Oriole Festival, an event similar to Mardi Gras, celebrated opening of Loch Raven Reservoir.

1882, Feb. 20. Woman's Medical College of Baltimore (1882-1910) incorporated.

1882, Sept 12-14. Second Oriole Festival held.

1882. Baltimore reformers won "good judges" election.

1882. Baltimore Orioles, owned by Harry R. Von der Horst, founded as a team in newly-formed American Association professional baseball league.

1882. Hospital for the Women of Maryland, 2nd women's hospital in nation, opened in Bolton Hill, Baltimore (closed & consolidated in 1960 with Presbyterian Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital to form Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore County).

1882. University of Maryland opens Dental Department (now School of Dentistry).

1882. Woman’s Industrial Exchange incorporated.

1883, Sept 11-13. Third Oriole Festival held.

1883. Colored High and Training School (now Frederick Douglass High School) opened, Baltimore.

1883. Baltimore Federation of Labor organized.

1884, Jan.-1885, March 27. Robert M. McLane (1815-1898) of Baltimore served as Governor of Maryland.

1884. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad opened 22-sided polygonal Passenger Car Shop (now Roundhouse), a design by E. Francis Baldwin and largest circular industrial building in world, Baltimore.

1885, Aug. 10. Baltimore to Hampden Line of Baltimore-Union Passenger Railway Company converted from horse-drawn to electric streetcars, first commercial electric street railway in country.

1885. Northeast Market established at East Monument St.

1885. Baltimore civic leaders established Baltimore Reform League.

1885. African American leaders established Mutual United Brotherhood of Liberty in Baltimore.

1885. Woman's College of Baltimore chartered by Methodists, later became Goucher College.

1885. Bryn Mawr School, Baltimore, founded by M. Carey Thomas.

1886. Linotype machine perfected by Ottmar Mergenthaler, Baltimore.

1886, Jan. 5. Enoch Pratt Free Library, the gift of Enoch Pratt, opened in Baltimore.

1889. Henrietta Szold opened night school for immigrants in Baltimore, first of its kind in nation.

1889, May 7. The Johns Hopkins Hospital dedicated in Baltimore.

1889, May 25. Lillie Carroll Jackson (1889-1975), civil rights activist, born in Baltimore.

1889, Dec. 14. Maryland University Hospital Training School for Nurses (now University of Maryland School of Nursing) opened at Baltimore.

Johns Hopkins Hospital, 600 North Wolfe St., Baltimore, Maryland, July 2012. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

1890. Morgan College (now Morgan State University) formed from Centenary Biblical Institute.

1890. German-born population of Baltimore City peaked (41,930 of 365,863).

1890. Harry S. Cummings, African American, won seat on Baltimore City Council.

1891. Charles H. Grasty assumed control of Baltimore Evening News.

1892, Aug. 13. Baltimore Afro-American founded by John H. Murphy, Sr.

1892, Dec. Sheppard Asylum for the mentally ill founded by Moses Sheppard, opened to patients; later became Sheppard-Pratt Hospital.

1893, Oct. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine opened in Baltimore, accepting women.

1894. Baltimore women formed Arundell Club.

1894. Provident Hospital, Baltimore, founded by William T. Carr and William H. Thompson.

1894. Baltimore Orioles won their first professional baseball championship.

1895. Maryland State Bar Association held first convention.

1895, Nov. Reformers carried Baltimore City and State elections.

1896-1900. Third Courthouse erected in Baltimore at Lexington St. and St. Paul St.

1896, Nov. 17. Herbert R. O'Conor (1896-1960), Governor of Maryland, born in Baltimore.

1897. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., planned west side of Roland Park (company organized 1891).

1897, Feb. Maryland Public Health Association formed, Baltimore.

1898. Baltimore obtained reformed city charter.

1898. Maryland Medical College of Baltimore (1898-1913) founded.

1899, Jan. Baltimore Municipal Art Society formed to beautify public buildings, streets, and open spaces.

1899, Dec. 1. Maryland Federation of Women's Clubs organized at Baltimore.

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