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History
Pre-settlement
The Baltimore area was inhabited by Native Americans since at least the 10th millennium BC, when Paleo-Indians first settled in the region. One Paleo-Indian site and several Archaic period and Woodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from the Late Woodland period. In December 2021, several Woodland period Native American artifacts were found in Herring Run Park in northeast Baltimore, dating 5,000 to 9,000 years ago. The finding followed a period of dormancy in Baltimore City archaeological findings which had persisted since the 1980s. During the Late Woodland period, the archaeological culture known as the Potomac Creek complex resided in the area from Baltimore south to the Rappahannock River in present-day Virginia.
17th century
In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was sparsely populated, if at all, by Native Americans. The Baltimore County area northward was used as hunting grounds by the Susquehannock living in the lower Susquehanna River valley. This Iroquoian-speaking people "controlled all of the upper tributaries of the Chesapeake" but "refrained from much contact with Powhatan in the Potomac region" and south into Virginia.
Pressured by the Susquehannock, the Piscataway tribe, an Algonquian-speaking people, stayed well south of the Baltimore area and inhabited primarily the north bank of the Potomac River in what are now Charles and southern Prince George's counties in the coastal areas south of the Fall Line.
European colonization of Maryland began in earnest with the arrival of the merchant ship The Ark carrying 140 colonists at St. Clement's Island in the Potomac River on March 25, 1634. Europeans then began to settle the area further north, in what is now Baltimore County. Since Maryland was a colony, Baltimore's streets were named to show loyalty to the mother country, e.g. King, Queen, King George and Caroline streets. The original county seat, known today as Old Baltimore, was located on Bush River within the present-day Aberdeen Proving Ground. The colonists engaged in sporadic warfare with the Susquehannock, whose numbers dwindled primarily from new infectious diseases, such as smallpox, endemic among the Europeans. In 1661, David Jones claimed the area known today as Jonestown on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream.
18th century
The colonial General Assembly of Maryland created the Port of Baltimore at old Whetstone Point, which is now Locust Point, in 1706 for the tobacco trade. The Town of Baltimore, on the west side of the Jones Falls, was founded on August 8, 1729, when the Governor of Maryland signed an act allowing "the building of a Town on the North side of the Patapsco River". Surveyors began laying out the town on January 12, 1730. By 1752 the town had just 27 homes, including a church and two taverns. Jonestown and Fells Point had been settled to the east. The three settlements, covering 60 acres (24 ha), became a commercial hub, and in 1768 were designated as the county seat.
The first printing press was introduced to the city in 1765 by Nicholas Hasselbach, whose equipment was later used in the printing of Baltimore's first newspapers, The Maryland Journal and The Baltimore Advertiser, first published by William Goddard in 1773.
Baltimore grew swiftly in the 18th century, its plantations producing grain and tobacco for sugar-producing colonies in the Caribbean. The profit from sugar encouraged the cultivation of cane in the Caribbean and the importation of food by planters there. Since Baltimore was the county seat, a courthouse was built in 1768 to serve both the city and county. Its square was a center of community meetings and discussions.
Baltimore established its public market system in 1763. Lexington Market, founded in 1782, is one of the oldest continuously operating public markets in the United States today. Lexington Market was also a center of slave trading. Enslaved Black people were sold at numerous sites through the downtown area, with sales advertised in The Baltimore Sun. Both tobacco and sugar cane were labor-intensive crops.
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In 1774, Baltimore established the first post office system in what became the United States, and the first water company chartered in the newly independent nation, Baltimore Water Company, 1792.
Baltimore played a part in the American Revolution. City leaders such as Jonathan Plowman Jr. led many residents to resist British taxes, and merchants signed agreements refusing to trade with Britain. The Second Continental Congress met in the Henry Fite House from December 1776 to February 1777, effectively making the city the capital of the United States during this period.
Baltimore, Jonestown, and Fells Point were incorporated as the City of Baltimore in 1796–1797.
19th century
The city remained a part of surrounding Baltimore County and continued to serve as its county seat from 1768 to 1851, after which it became an independent city.
The British bombardment of Baltimore in 1814 inspired the U.S. national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner", and the construction of the Battle Monument, which became the city's official emblem. A distinctive local culture started to take shape, and a unique skyline peppered with churches and monuments developed. Baltimore acquired its moniker "The Monumental City" after an 1827 visit to Baltimore by President John Quincy Adams. At an evening function, Adams gave the following toast: "Baltimore: the Monumental City—May the days of her safety be as prosperous and happy, as the days of her dangers have been trying and triumphant."
Baltimore pioneered the use of gas lighting in 1816, and its population grew rapidly in the following decades, with concomitant development of culture and infrastructure. The construction of the federally funded National Road, which later became part of U.S. Route 40, and the private Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B. & O.) made Baltimore a major shipping and manufacturing center by linking the city with major markets in the Midwest. By 1820 its population had reached 60,000, and its economy had shifted from its base in tobacco plantations to sawmilling, shipbuilding, and textile production. These industries benefited from war but successfully shifted into infrastructure development during peacetime.
Baltimore had one of the worst riots of the antebellum South in 1835, when bad investments led to the Baltimore bank riot. It was these riots that led to the city being nicknamed "Mobtown". Soon after the city created the world's first dental college, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, in 1840, and shared in the world's first telegraph line, between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., in 1844.
Maryland, a slave state with limited popular support for secession, especially in the three counties of Southern Maryland, remained part of the Union during the American Civil War, following the 55–12 vote by the Maryland General Assembly against secession. In February 1861, a plot in Baltimore to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln was foiled by agents of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Lincoln was able to pass through the city unnoticed, and arrived in Washington to be inaugurated a little more than a week later. Later, the Union's strategic occupation of the city in 1861 ensured Maryland would not further consider secession. The Union's capital of Washington, D.C. was well-situated to impede Baltimore and Maryland's communication or commerce with the Confederacy. Baltimore experienced some of the first casualties of the Civil War on April 19, 1861, when Union Army soldiers en route from President Street Station to Camden Yards clashed with a secessionist mob in the Pratt Street riot.
In the midst of the Long Depression that followed the Panic of 1873, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad company attempted to lower its workers' wages, leading to strikes and riots in the city and beyond. Strikers clashed with the National Guard, leaving 10 dead and 25 wounded. settlement movement work in Baltimore began in 1893 with the founding of the Lawrence House on West Lombard Street.
20th century
On February 7, 1904, the Great Baltimore Fire destroyed more than 1,500 buildings and left over 70 blocks of downtown Baltimore burned to the ground. Damage was estimated at $150 million in 1904 dollars. Rebuilding over the following years included improvements in firefighting equipment standards.
In 1910, Baltimore enacted a residential segregation ordinance that restricted African-Americans from moving into majority-White blocks, and White residents from moving into majority-Black blocks. It was the first ordinance of its kind in the United States and became a model for similar laws in other southern cities, although the U.S. Supreme Court later ruled such ordinances unconstitutional in Buchanan v. Warley (1917).
Baltimore expanded through annexations until 1918, when it acquired portions of Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County. A 1948 state constitutional amendment required a local vote in any area proposed for annexation, effectively preventing further expansion of the city's boundaries. During the mid-20th century, migration from the Deep South and white suburbanization changed the city's demographics: the Black share of the population rose from 23.8% in 1950 to 46.4% in 1970.
The Baltimore riot of 1968 followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. Public order was not restored until April 12, and National Guard and federal troops were sent into the city. In 1974, the city again faced major disruption when teachers, municipal workers, and police officers went on strike.
By the early 1970s, the Inner Harbor had declined into an area of abandoned warehouses. Redevelopment began with projects such as the Maryland Science Center in 1976, the Baltimore World Trade Center in 1977, and the Baltimore Convention Center in 1979. Harborplace opened in 1980, followed by the National Aquarium and the Baltimore Museum of Industry in 1981.
In 1992, the Baltimore Orioles moved from Memorial Stadium to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, near the Inner Harbor. The Baltimore Ravens later moved into M&T Bank Stadium, next to Camden Yards, in 1998.
21st century
Baltimore has seen the reopening of the Hippodrome Theatre in 2004, the opening of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in 2005, and the establishment of the National Slavic Museum in 2012. In April 2012, Johns Hopkins dedicated a $1.1 billion expansion of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, among the largest medical complexes in the United States, comprising the Sheikh Zayed Cardiovascular and Critical Care Tower and the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children's Center.
In September 2016, the Baltimore City Council approved a $660 million bond deal for the $5.5 billion Port Covington redevelopment project championed by Under Armour founder Kevin Plank and his real estate company Sagamore Development. Port Covington surpassed the Harbor Point development as the largest tax-increment financing deal in Baltimore's history and among the largest urban redevelopment projects in the country. The waterfront development includes a new headquarters for Under Armour along with shops, housing, offices, and manufacturing space.
In the early hours of March 26, 2024, the city's 1.6-mile (2.6 km) Francis Scott Key Bridge, which constituted a southeast portion of the Baltimore Beltway, was struck by a container ship and completely collapsed. A major rescue operation was launched with US authorities attempting to rescue people in the water. Eight construction workers, who were working on the bridge at the time, fell into the Patapsco River. Two people were rescued from the water, and the bodies of the remaining six were all found by May 7. Replacement of the bridge was estimated in May 2024 at a cost approaching $2 billion for a fall 2028 completion.
Parks and recreation
Baltimore has over 4,900 acres (1,983 ha) of parkland. The Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks manages the majority of parks and recreational facilities in the city, including Patterson Park, Federal Hill Park, and Druid Hill Park. Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park, the city's most extensive park, is also the second-largest urban woodland in the nation. The city is home to Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, a coastal star-shaped fort best known for its role in the War of 1812. As of 2015, The Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation organization, ranks Baltimore 40th among the 75-largest U.S. cities.
From Wikipedia’s article on Baltimore, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5