Maryland Trivia & Tidbits - Page 10

Looking for Maryland trivia? Try our list Maryland little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Mathematician Benjamin Banneker, born in 1731 in Baltimore County, is thought to be the nation’s first African-American scientist. At 58, he took up the study of astronomy, accurately predicting solar and lunar eclipses.

first appeared: 8/31/2003

Preakness, an ungainly 3-year-old colt, swept to a history-making victory at Pimlico Race Track’s inaugural race in 1870. Fittingly, the Maryland Jockey Club named its newest stakes, The Preakness, after its first winner.

first appeared: 8/24/2003

The Chincoteague Wild Pony Swim, in which horses from Assateague Island swim to nearby Chincoteague Island for an auction each July, takes place in Virginia, not Maryland. Thanks to reader Bernice Kneller for catching our mistake.

first appeared: 8/17/2003

The College Park (pop. 24,657) Airport, the nation’s oldest continuously operating airport, was established in 1909 when Wilbur Wright trained military officers there in the government’s first airplane.

first appeared: 8/10/2003

The town of Accident (pop. 353) is named for a tract of land marked off “by accident” by two surveyors claiming the same property. The land was patented to William Deakins Jr. in 1786.

first appeared: 8/3/2003

Spiro T. Agnew, Richard Nixon’s outspoken point man and the nation’s 39th vice president, was born in Baltimore on Nov. 9, 1918.

first appeared: 7/27/2003

Pure white stalactites and stalagmites can be found in Crystal Grottoes Caverns in Boonsboro (pop. 2,803). In the Lake Room, a reflecting pool mirrors stalactites hanging from a 16-foot ceiling.

first appeared: 7/20/2003

Bethesda is home to the National Library of Medicine, established in 1836 as a source of information for health professionals.

first appeared: 7/13/2003

National Colonial Farm in Accokeek (pop. 7,349) replicates life on an 18th-century tobacco plantation. The farm also is a leader in historic plant preservation.

first appeared: 7/6/2003

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co., chartered in 1827 and still running today, is reported to be the nation’s oldest passenger line.

first appeared: 6/29/2003

Annapolis (pop. 35,838) was the nation’s capital for nine months in 1783 and 1784. First settled in 1649, the town became the state capital in 1694. The 1783 Treaty of Paris was ratified there to end America’s war of independence with Great Britain.

first appeared: 6/22/2003

Aberdeen (pop. 13,842) is the site of the 55,000-acre Aberdeen Proving Ground, established in 1917. Military ordnance was developed and tested here under simulated combat conditions.

first appeared: 6/15/2003

Harvard College in Boston held the nation’s first amateur bicycle race in 1878. C.A. Parker, a member of Harvard’s Class of 1880, won the three-mile sprint.

first appeared: 6/15/2003

Chesapeake Bay is considered the world’s largest blue crab fishery. Crabbers catch upwards of 50 million pounds of the crustacean each year, a haul worth $55 million.

first appeared: 6/8/2003

In 1932, while his wife was a patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital, author F. Scott Fitzgerald rented a home outside Baltimore, where he completed Tender is the Night, his fourth novel.

first appeared: 6/1/2003

The 4-mile William Preston Lane Memorial (Bay Bridge) joins the western part of Maryland to the Eastern shore by crossing the Chesapeake Bay.

first appeared: 5/25/2003

Maryland earned its nickname, the “Free State,” for refusing to enforce the Prohibition Act. The moniker was used by The Baltimore Sun in a mock-serious editorial suggesting that the state should secede rather than support prohibition.

first appeared: 5/18/2003

On June 6, 2002, high winds toppled the 460-year-old Wye Oak in Wye Mills (pop. 900). Reportedly the oldest white oak in the eastern United States, it measured 31 feet around.

first appeared: 5/11/2003

The Chincoteague (pop. 4,000) Wild Pony Swim has been an annual tradition since 1925. It began when island townspeople decided to round up wild ponies from neighboring Assateague Island, selling some to raise money for fire equipment.

first appeared: 5/4/2003

Believed to be 10,000 years old, the Battlecreek Cypress Swamp in Prince Frederick (pop. 8,884) is the nation’s northernmost bald cypress stand. Capable of living 1,000 years, the tree is virtually rot-proof under water.

first appeared: 4/27/2003

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