Your Maryland

Abolitionist “Captain” John Brown made quite an impression on Frederick Douglass when they first met, but, while bound by the same passion, the two men went on to fight to end slavery by very different means.

The story of the bombardment at Fort McHenry and the defense of Baltimore in 1814. 

Baseball phenom Jimmie Foxx got his start playing with the Easton Farmers in Queen Anne's County before breaking into the big leagues in the late 1920s with Connie Mack in Philadelphia.

On August 24, 1813, during the Battle of Bladensburg, Commodore Joshua Barney, along with 360 sailors and 120 Marines, defended Washington—fighting against the British hand-to-hand with cutlasses and pikes.

In August 1934, two young boys found a treasure trove of gold coins buried in the basement of a home located at 132 South Eden Street in East Baltimore. Their lives were never the same. 

In July, 1877, the overworked and underpaid railroad men of the B&O went on strike. The strike began in Western Maryland, and rolled east, picking up steam as it headed toward Baltimore.

In the summer of 1925, H. L. Mencken traveled to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, to cover the trial of John Scopes, who challenged the law against teaching evolution in schools.

In 1836, a young aspiring doctor from the colony of Maryland in Liberia came to Baltimore to study medicine, only to be met with prejudice and intolerance. 

In the spring of 1700, the pirate ship "La Paix" terrorized merchant ships in the Chesapeake region under an impressive blood red flag.

In February 1848, Chesapeake Bay boat captain Daniel Drayton was offered a few hundred dollars to go to Washington and pick up 76 people escaping from slavery and take them to freedom in Pennsylvania. Things did not go well.

In 1840, William Gilmor held a tournament, replete with jousting, a quintain, and guests clad in Medieval garb, at his Vineyard estate in Baltimore, which was located near 29th Street and Greenmount in the Waverly neighborhood in Baltimore.

Before he would be forever associated with the 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, Roger B. Taney defended outspoken Hagerstown abolitionist Jacob Gruber.

The story of William Othello Wilson, a native of Hagerstown who served as a "Buffalo Soldier" with the Ninth US Calvary fighting the Sioux at Pine Ridge before retiring to a "quiet life" back home in Maryland.

A little known story of one of the brave souls who helped to battle the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904.

During the War of 1812, Maryland militiamen, led by Joseph Stewart, captured the long boat belonging to the HMS Dauntless as it lay trapped in ice.

In 1906, Upton Sinclair causes an uproar when he publishes his book "The Jungle," a shocking expose of the conditions in the meat packing industry.

On January 30, 1956, a devastating fire broke out at Arundel Park during a church fundraiser and oyster roast.

During the Civil War, Hetty Cary, known as "the most beautiful girl in the South," supported the Southern cause with her fellow "Monument Street Girls" in Baltimore, moved to Richmond, and had a tragic, brief marriage to a Confederate general.

A little known story behind the scenes of the making of the Hollywood blockbuster "King Kong" and its ties to Maryland.

Before he made a name for himself in the vaudeville scene in New York, Eubie “Mouse” Blake got his start playing honkytonk music in the pool halls, saloons, and brothels of East Baltimore.

During the Revolutionary War, Charles Wilson Peale served with, and painted portraits of, many great leaders fighting for independence from England, including George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. 

On December 2nd, 1859, abolitionist John Brown met his end at the gallows in Charlestown, Virginia.

On November 19th, at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, one of America's greatest orators of the time, Edward Everett, gave a grand speech. But it was Abraham Lincoln’s brief address, consisting of only 272 words, which will be remembered forever.  

In 1893, Mary Garrett, daughter of B&O Railroad magnate John Work Garrett, used her fortune to fund the nation's first co-educational medical school at Johns Hopkins. 

In June, 1932, desperate veterans, who had been promised a "bonus" for their service in WWI with the Allied Expeditionary Forces in France, marched on Washington, DC, to demand payment.

In the 1870's, horse racing began at a track in Pimlico with a series of exciting sweepstakes races.

In 1851, Maryland farmer Edward Gorsuch formed a posse and tried to retrieve some runaway slaves that had fled over the Pennsylvania border. It did not end well.

In 1902, Joe Gans, a black boxer from Baltimore, became Lightweight Champion of the World. 

Francis Scott Key writes the Star Spangled Banner whilst aboard a truce ship in the harbor where he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry.