Portal:Maryland

William McSherry SJ (July 19, 1799 – December 18, 1839) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who became the president of Georgetown College and a Jesuit provincial superior. The son of Irish immigrants, McSherry was educated at Georgetown College, where he entered the Society of Jesus. As one of the first Americans to complete the traditional Jesuit course of training, he was sent to Rome to be educated for the priesthood. There, he made several discoveries of significant, forgotten holdings in the Jesuit archives, which improved historians' knowledge of the early European settling of Maryland and of the language of Indian tribes there.

McSherry became the first provincial superior of the Jesuits' Maryland Province from 1833 to 1837, and laid the groundwork for the sale of the province's slaves in 1838. He then briefly became the president of Georgetown College in 1837, and was simultaneously made provincial superior for a second time in 1839, despite suffering illness to which he would succumb several months later. (Full article...)

• November 1, 2007 - Westboro Baptist Church ordered to pay US$11 million to family of fallen US soldier
• September 30, 2007 - Interview with gay marriage movement founder Evan Wolfson
• September 1, 2007 - Four jackpot winners confirmed in US 'Mega Millions' lottery drawing
• May 20, 2007 - Horse racing: Curlin wins 2007 Preakness Stakes

March 17

Deaths

• 1908 - William Pinkney Whyte

The drug raid at the residence of Cheye Calvo, then-mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, was a controversial action taken by the Prince George's County Sheriff's Office and Police Department on July 29, 2008. The raid was the culmination of an investigation that began in Arizona, where a package containing 32 pounds (15 kg) of marijuana was intercepted in a warehouse, addressed to the mayor's residence. Instead of confiscating the package, police allowed it to be delivered. Upon arrival, a SWAT team raided the house and held Calvo and his mother-in-law at gunpoint, and shot and killed his two dogs, one as it attempted to run away.

The event gained national and international media attention. While the Calvos were cleared of wrongdoing, the police were accused by the Calvo family and civil rights groups of lacking a proper search warrant, using excessive force, and failure to conduct a proper background investigation of the home being raided—the investigation was so cursory that the sheriff's office was unaware that Calvo was the mayor. Despite the criticisms, no action has been taken against the officers or their respective police departments. In August 2010, Sheriff Michael A. Jackson stated that: "We've apologized for the incident, but we will never apologize for taking drugs off our streets. Quite frankly, we'd do it again. Tonight." (Full article...)

Baltimore, also known as Baltimore City, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the 30th-most populous U.S. city with a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, while the Baltimore metropolitan area at 2.86 million residents is the 22nd-largest metropolitan area in the nation. The city is also part of the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area, which had a population of 9.97 million in 2020. Baltimore was designated as an independent city by the Constitution of Maryland in 1851. Though not located under the 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 once 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 to the Henry Fite House from December 1776 to February 1777 prior to the capture of Philadelphia to British troops, which permitted Baltimore to serve briefly as the nation's capital before it returned to Philadelphia. The Battle of Baltimore was pivotal during the War of 1812, culminating in the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, during which Francis Scott Key wrote a poem that became "The Star-Spangled Banner", which 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...)

• ...that unlike most other American courts, the judges on the Maryland Court of Appeals wear crimson (not black) robes, and neck bands, reminiscent of British court dress?
• ...that Kent Island was founded in 1631 as part of Virginia, three years before St. Mary's City was founded?

• ...that the Thomas Viaduct (pictured) over the Patapsco River was the first multi-span masonry railroad bridge in the United States when it was constructed between 1833 and 1835?