Maryland, setting for The Wire and famous for its crab cakes, is full of surprises and fun facts. Here are 50 things you don’t know about Maryland:
1. Maryland is 42nd in size among the states.
2. Maryland was named for Queen Henrietta Maria of England.
3. Maryland was essentially a possession of Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore.
4. Maryland’s flag is the only one to bear a cross at the top of the flagpole. This is because Lord Baltimore was a Roman Catholic.
5. In 1791 Maryland gave up some of its land to the federal government. This land became Washington, D.C.
6. The highest point in Maryland is Hoye Crest with an elevation of 3,360 feet above sea level.
7. It became a state on April 28, 1788 and is the 7th state.
8. In 1649 Maryland passed a religious toleration act.
9. The Second Continental Congress met in Baltimore between 1776 and 1777.
10. Union forces routed the Confederates at Antietam Creek in 1862.
11. George Washington resigned his commission as Commander in Chief at Annapolis in 1783.
12. Maryland remained a wet state during Prohibition from 1919 to 1933.
13. Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon completed their survey of the land in 1767. The border between Maryland and Pennsylvania was thenceforth known as the Mason-Dixon line.
14. The first governor of Maryland under the U.S. Constitution was William Smallwood, who served from 1785-1788.
15. The current governor is Martin O’Malley.
16. Maryland comprises an area of 10,577 square miles.
17. Annapolis is the capital, not Baltimore!
18. The United States Naval Academy is in Annapolis.
19. During the Civil War, Maryland remained loyal to the Union even though it’s a southern state.
20. The flag bears an adaptation of Lord Baltimore’s arms.
21. St. Mary’s City was the capital of Maryland between 1634-1694.
22. The state flower is the black-eyed Susan.
23. The state tree is the white oak.
23. The state bird is the Baltimore oriole.
24. The state dinosaur is the astrodon, which lived in Maryland during the early Cretaceous period.
25. The state gem is the Patuxent River stone, which is a type of agate.
26. The narrowest part of the state is about 1.83 miles wide.
27. The state song was written by James Ryder Randall. “Maryland, My Maryland,” is sung to the tune of “Der Tannenbaum.”
28. The construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began in 1828.
29. The native Americans who first inhabited Maryland were mostly the Algonkian and Susquehannock tribes.
30. In 1774, Marylanders burnt the ship Peggy Stewart and its cargo of tea in protest of the British Boston Port Bill. This bill was created in response to the Boston Tea Party.
31. The first Roman Catholic church built in the United States was Henry Latrobe’s Baltimore Basilica.
32. The highest ranking politician from Maryland was Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s first vice president.
33. In 1730 Maryland went to war with Pennsylvania. It was known as Cresap’s War.
34. The city of Anne Arundel was named after Lord Baltimore’s wife.
35. The state motto is, unofficially, “Fatti maschii, parole femine,” or “Masculine deeds and feminine words.”
36. Maryland’s two senators are Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin, both Democrats.
37. Notable people who were born in Maryland include Frederick Douglass, Billie Holiday, Thurgood Marshall, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Babe Ruth.
38. The De Rosset, the first ocean going steamship built in the U.S., was built in Baltimore in 1839.
39. The first words over a telegraph line were sent from Washington D.C. to Baltimore in 1844.
40. The first Europeans in Maryland settled on Kent Island around 1631.
41.Baltimore resident Mary Pickersgill made the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star Spangled Banner.”
42. Maryland’s State House is the oldest state house still in use in the United States.
43. As of 2013, Maryland had the most millionaires of any state per capita.
44. Maryland’s nickname is “The Old Line State,” because George Washington admired its troops of the line during the Revolutionary War.
45. The 234 foot tall Phoenix Shot Tower of Baltimore was the tallest building in the United States before the Civil War.
46. Baltimore City isn’t part of any one county and is counted as its own county for the census.
47. Among Baltimore’s sister cities are Bremerhaven, Germany, Genoa, Italy and Luxor, Egypt.
48. Friendship Airport opened in 1950 and was renamed after Thurgood Marshall in 2005.
49. Maryland has no natural lakes.
50. Camp David is near Thurmont, Maryland.