In 1774, the first post office in the United States was established in Baltimore, Maryland.1)
The words to “The Star-Spangled Banner” were written by Francis Scott Key after seeing the flag still flying at Fort McHenry in Maryland's Baltimore Bay after the British attacked the fort during the War of 1812.2)
Between Washington, DC and Baltimore, the world's first telegraph connection was established. The first telegraph message was sent from Washington, DC to Baltimore.3)
The United States Naval Academy was founded at Annapolis, Maryland in 1845.4)
King William's School, the first school in the United States, was constructed in Annapolis in 1696.5)
Garrett Park, Maryland, enacted legislation in 1898 making it unlawful to kill any songbird or tree inside municipal borders.6)
Maryland has 4,431 miles of tidal shoreline, including the islands that are part of its borders.7)
Maryland is frequently referred to as “America in miniature” due to its diversified landscape. Maryland has lovely coasts and sandy dunes, marshlands filled with wildlife, and pine-covered mountains. 8)
From 1783 to 1784, Annapolis, Maryland, was the temporary capital of the United States.9)
Maryland observes Maryland Day on March 25 to commemorate the day in 1634 when colonial immigrants first set foot on her beaches.10)
With an average violent crime rate of 1,417 per 100,000 population, Baltimore, Maryland, is one of the most dangerous cities in the United States.11)
St. Mary's City, Maryland's colonial capital city, was established by its founders to embody their ideal of separation of church and state. The mayor's residence was built in the middle, with the statehouse and jail on one side and a Catholic church and school on the other.12)
Puritans revolted and gained control of Maryland's government from 1655 until 1658. They made Anglicanism and Catholicism illegal and relentlessly attacked Maryland's Catholics, burning down all Catholic churches in the whole southern area.13)
Edgar Allan Poe, Dashiell Hammett, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Upton Sinclair, Gertrude Stein, and W.E.B. Dubois were all famous Maryland writers.14)
Elizabeth Ann Seton of Maryland was the first native-born North American to be canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.15)
In the mid-1700s, the British government sent tens of thousands of English prisoners to Maryland to serve their sentences.16)
Frederick Douglas, the famous abolitionist, was born and educated in Maryland.17)
Emily Post, the preeminent etiquette writer in the United States, was born in Maryland.18)
Maryland was the first state to declare walking as a state sport.19)
Maryland was founded by British colonist George Calvert, often known as First Baron Baltimore. Calvert died before the property could be occupied, and it came to his son Cecil, Second Baron Baltimore, to build the settlement.20)
In exchange for awarding the Calverts a charter to establish a new colony, King Charles I requested that the colony be named after his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria. As a result, it was known as Terra Mariae, or “Mary-land”.21)
The early colonists of Maryland sought to avoid conflict with the Native American Piscataways who lived there, so they asked the chief for permission to settle, which he granted.22)
One of George Calvert's primary motivations for establishing the Maryland colony was his desire to openly practice Roman Catholicism. In 17th-century England, Catholics were persecuted and their lives were made extremely unpleasant.23)
Under the command of Cecil Calvert, two ships, The Ark and The Dove, set sail from England in 1633, bringing Maryland residents seeking religious freedom. In 17th century England, ade was extremely tough.24)
The Maryland State Capitol is the state's oldest surviving statehouse that is currently in operation.25)
The Wire, a critically praised HBO drama, is set in Baltimore, Maryland.26)
In 1905, a horse-drawn cart was used to establish the first bookmobile in Washington County, Maryland.27)
In 2002, Harold Benjamin Dean, a convicted killer, became the first and only person to escape from Maryland's supermax jail. He squeezed through an 8-inch by 22-inch window and climbed over the razor wire with a clothes rope.28)
Maryland's state sport is jousting. Lacrosse is the official state team sport.29)
Maryland's official drink is milk.30)