1631 The first European settlement is established by trader William Claiborne.
1632 Charles I granted the second Lord Baltimore a charter for the land north of Potomac.
1633 The Ark and Love arrive in Chesapeake Bay with 200 colonist.
1634 Leonard Calvert led English settlers to the new colony and founded the city of St. Mary's.
1664 A law is passed allowing slavery in Maryland.
1691 William and Mary declared Maryland a royal colony.
1695 Annapolis is made the capital city.
1729 Baltimore was founded.
1767 Maryland's northern boundary is set by the Mason-Dixon Line.
1787 The Annapolis Conference takes place as a prelude to the summoning of the constitution convention.
1788 Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the constitution.
1791 Maryland ceded land along the Potomac for the building of Washington DC.
1814 The Battle of Blandensburg is lost by US forces.
1814 The British attack Fort Henry. Francis Scott Key writes "The Star-Spangled Banner."
1828 Work was begun on the first railroad- the Baltimore and Ohio.
1844 The first telegraph linked Washington and Baltimore.
1845 The US Naval Academy then called the Naval School opened at Annapolis.
1861, sixteen people die on the street of Baltimore when Southern sympathizers attack the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment.
1862 The most deadly battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Antietam, is fought near Sharpsburg.
1904 Much of downtown Baltimore is destroyed by fire.