 1524: Giovanni de Verrazano explores the Chesapeake Bay area
1608: British Captain John Smith arrives in the area, and is the
first European to do so
1622: William Claiborne establishes a trading post on Kent Island,
and it becomes the first permanent European settlement
1633: Cecil Calvert Lord Baltimore II: arrives and takes
possession of the land granted to him by King Charles I
1649: Maryland grants religious freedom to all Christians, when
they pass the Act of Religious Toleration. Significant amount of settlers
arrive over the next 10 years
1692: An appointed Royal governor takes control over the Maryland
colony
1694: The capital of the colony moves to the new city of Annapolis
1729: Baltimore is founded
1754: A young George Washington participates in the building of
Ft. Mt. Pleasant, in an effort to keep the French out of the area
1767: Maryland's official borders with Pennsylvania and Delaware
are finally decided by the surveyors, Mason and Dixon, and it would later be
called The Mason Dixon Line
1774: Maryland choices its delegates to the Continental Congress
1776: Maryland troops participate in the Battle of Long Island,
helping to save Washington's forces
1778: Due to unruly crowds in Philadelphia, the Capital of the new
United States was moved to Annapolis
1788: Maryland becomes the seventh U.S. State
1814: While the British were attacking Fort McHenry, during the
War of 1812, Frances Scott Key, a local lawyer and poet, composed the
Star-Spangled Banner
1828: Construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad the
nation's first: begins
1862: The Battle of Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, was
the most costly battle during the Civil War, as more than 23,000 troops were
killed or wounded on one single day
1845: U.S. Naval Academy established at Annapolis
1872: The Radical Republicans hold their national convention in
Baltimore
1889: Johns Hopkins Hospital opens
1904: Baltimore severely damaged by out-of-control fire
1912: The Democratic National Convention is held in Baltimore, and
Woodrow Wilson is nominated for president
1920s-30s: Maryland refuses to enforce the national Prohibition
laws, and was soon given the nickname of Free State
1952: The Chesapeake Bay Bridge opens
1980: Harborplace opens in Baltimore, and helps begin the complete
renovation of that city's harbor
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