Portal:Baltimore
The Baltimore Portal

Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a total population of 585,708 at the 2020 census, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. Baltimore was designated as an independent city by the Constitution of Maryland in 1851. Baltimore is the most populous independent city in the United States. As of 2020[update], the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was 2.84 million, the 20th-largest metropolitan area in the country. The city is also part of the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area, which had a 2020 population of 9.97 million, the third-largest in the country. Though Baltimore is not located within or under the administrative jurisdiction of any county in the state, it forms part of the central Maryland region, together with the surrounding county that shares its name.
The land that is present-day Baltimore was used as hunting ground by Paleo-Indians. In the early 1600s, the Susquehannock began to hunt there. People from the Province of Maryland established the Port of Baltimore in 1706 to support the tobacco trade with Europe and established the Town of Baltimore in 1729. During the American Revolutionary War, the Second Continental Congress briefly moved its deliberations from present-day Independence Hall in Philadelphia to Henry Fite House on West Baltimore Street from December 1776 to February 1777 prior to the fall of Philadelphia to British troops, which permitted Baltimore to serve briefly as the nation's capital before it returned to Philadelphia in March 1777. The Battle of Baltimore was pivotal during the War of 1812, culminating in the failed British bombardment of Fort McHenry, during which Francis Scott Key wrote a poem that became "The Star-Spangled Banner" and was designated as the national anthem in 1931. During the Pratt Street Riot of 1861, the city was the site of some of the earliest violence associated with the American Civil War. (Full article...)
Selected article -

The Baltimore Light RailLink (formerly Baltimore Light Rail, also known simply as the "Light Rail") is a light rail system serving Baltimore, Maryland, United States, and its northern and southern suburbs. It is operated by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA Maryland). In downtown Baltimore, it uses city streets. Outside the central portions of the city, the line is built on private rights-of-way, mostly from the defunct Northern Central Railway, Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad and Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway. The system had a ridership of 5,015,100, or about 15,200 per weekday, as of the fourth quarter of 2024. (Full article...)
Selected picture -
Fort McHenry, which served as the inspiration for The Star-Spangled Banner
Categories
WikiProjects
Selected biography -
Florence Eilau Bamberger (October 19, 1882 – December 18, 1965) was an American pedagogue, school supervisor, progressive education advocate, and author. Influenced by the ideas of John Dewey, she researched, lectured, and wrote extensively on the concept of child-centered education. She spent most of her career as a professor of education in the department of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, and was the first woman to attain a full professorship at that university. From 1937 to 1947 she served as director of Johns Hopkins' College for Teachers. After her retirement, she taught in private elementary schools in Baltimore, Maryland. (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... that the writer of "Crabs for Christmas" joked that it contributed to Baltimore's population decline?
- ... that Darryl De Sousa created a Baltimore Police Department unit to give lie detector tests to other units?
- ... that Charles J. M. Gwinn was the first state's attorney of Baltimore elected under the Maryland Constitution of 1851, which he had helped to draft?
- ... that one of the items on display at the Baltimore Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts was George Washington's shaving brush?
General images -
News
No recent news
Related portals
Topics
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus