1788. April 28—Maryland ratified Federal Constitution.

1791. Maryland ceded the District of Columbia to the United States.

1792. September—Rev Thomas John Claggett consecrated the first

Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland.
1810. Property qualification for Electors abolished.
1314. September 12—Battle of North Point.

1814. Bombardment of Fort McHenry, during which Francis Scott
Key wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner," September 13.

1824. Religious tests for office removed.

1825. Jewish disabilities removed.
1828. July 4—Cornerstone of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad laid by

Charles Carroll of Carrollton.

1836. Obed Hussey, of Baltimore, the Inventor of the first reaper
and mower, cut the first field of grain ever harvested by a
reaper (180 acres of wheat, oats and timothy), on the farm
of Gen. Tench Tilghman, near Oxford, Talbot County, Md.,
under the auspices of the Board of Agriculture for the
Eastern Shore of Maryland. Owen Dorsey, of Howard
County, Maryland, invented the first successful side-rake
reaper attachment.

1837. Governor's Council abolished and the office of Secretary of

State created.

1841. The Eastern Shore Land Office abolished.

1844. First telegraph line In the world built between Baltimore and

Washington.

1845. United States Naval Academy established at Annapolis.
1851. July 4—Second State Constitution adopted.
1851. Office of Chancellor abolished and a Commissioner of the Land

Office created.

1864. October 12—Third State Constitution adopted.
1867. September 18—Fourth State Constitution adopted.
1879. New foundation placed under State House and Interior of

building modernized.

1901. Court of Appeals building completed.

1902. Annex to State House commenced. Occupied by Legislature of

1904.

1906. The historic old Senate Chamber restored by Governor Edwin

Warfield