Maryland State Facts, Symbols and History
Maryland Fast Facts
Capital: Annapolis (popularity). 36,603 (2011 est.)
Maryland population: 5,884,563 ( 2012 est.) (19th)
Maryland Quarter: The Maryland Quarter, 2nd quarter in the Year 2000 Programs 50 State Quarters® series, features the unusual dome of the Maryland State House surrounded by White Oak leaf clusters and its nickname, “Old Line State.”The Maryland State House Dome is the nation’s largest wooden dome built without nails. The State Legislature Building was home to Maryland’s colonial legislature and the nation’s first peacetime capital. The Treaty of Paris was ratified here, ending the war of independence.Leaf clusters from the official state tree, White Oak. Nickname, Old Line State, in honor of its “line troops” that won praise from George Washington, Continental Army Commander-in-Chief, during the Revolutionary War.
On April 28, 1788, Maryland became the Nation’s seventh state.
Language: English, others
Largest Cities: (by population) Baltimore, Columbia, Silver Spring, Dundalk, Wheaton-Glenmont, Ellicott City
Name: Maryland was named for Queen Henrietta Mary, wife of King Charles I of England.
Statehood: April 28, 1788 (7th state)
Symbols of Maryland
- Bird: Baltimore Oriole
- Shellfish: Maryland blue crab
- Dog: Chesapeake Bay Retriever
- Fish: sea bass (striped bass)
- Flag of Maryland
- flower: rudbeckia
- Gemstone: Patuksan River Stone
- Motto: “Fatty Maskie Parole Femine” (strong deeds, gentle words)
- Nickname: old line state
- Reptile: tuberculate turtle
- Song: “Maryland, my Maryland”
- State seal
Maryland is a small state in the eastern United States, one of the so-called Mid-Atlantic states and one of the 13 states that made the American Revolution. Population – 5,828,289 people (2011 data). The capital is Annapolis, the largest city is Baltimore. See cities and towns in Maryland.
Official nicknames “Old Line State”, “Cockade State”, “Free State” (Old Line State, Cockade State, Free State).
The area of Maryland is 32.16 thousand square meters. km (42nd place among the states), of which about 21% is water. The state is located on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Its territory is divided into the East Bank (on the Delmarva Peninsula) and the West Bank. In the north, Maryland borders with Pennsylvania along the Mason-Dixon line, in the northeast – with Delaware, in the south and west – with Virginia and West Virginia (the border runs along the Potomac, as well as with Washington, DC. In the east, the territory is washed by the waters Atlantic Ocean.
- AbbreviationFinder: Demonstrates how the two-letter acronym of MD stands for Maryland and a list of frequently used abbreviations related to the state of Maryland.
The eastern regions of Maryland make up the Coastal Lowland, in the west is the so-called “Line of Falls”. The climate is temperate and humid.
In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazano visited the east coast of North America at the head of a French expedition. In 1526, the Spaniards arrived in the Chesapeake Bay.
The first English explorer of the area was Captain John Smith of Virginia in 1608. In 1631, William Clairborne founded the first trading settlement here.
In 1632, Charles I granted George Calvert, Irish Baron Baltimore, a patent to settle the land between the 40th parallel and the south coast of the Potomac – the future Province of Maryland. In the same year, the baron died, and the land went to his son, Kelicius Calvert. On March 25, 1634, the English colonists founded the settlement of St. Mary here.
In 1649, the colony’s legislature passed America’s first religious freedom act, the Maryland Toleration Act. From 1692 to 1715 Maryland was ruled by royal governors. In 1694, the provincial capital was moved to Providence, which was renamed Annapolis in 1708 in honor of Queen Anne Stewart.
In 1715 the province was again taken over by the Calverts. To settle territorial disputes between Maryland and Pennsylvania, the ruler of the colonies, Calvert and Penn, appointed two officials – Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who drew the border between the colonies. Since then, the Mason-Dixon line has been considered the de facto border between the southern and northern states of the United States.
In 1765, the citizens of Maryland opposed the Stamp Act. On July 3, 1776, Maryland announced that it was no longer subject to the king, and four months later became the first of the colonies to adopt its own constitution as a state. Although there was no fighting within the state, fighters from Maryland were active in the Revolutionary War.
On April 28, 1788 Maryland became the seventh state of the United States. In 1791, the state gave land to the federal government to create the metropolitan District of Columbia.
During the war of 1812 – 1814. The British tried to capture Baltimore and bombarded Fort McHenry, which was defending the city. It was then that Francis Scott Kay wrote the poem “Star Banner”, which became the words of the US national anthem.
During the Civil War, Marylanders were divided. After Virginia seceded from the Union, President Lincoln instituted military rule in Maryland to prevent the secession of the state located near the city of Washington. Bloody battles took place in the state (in South Mountain, Antietam and Monocasey).
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Maryland’s GDP in 2005 was $246 billion (15th among states). To a large extent, the modern economy of Maryland depends on the service sector, transport, construction and information technology (proximity to the capital of the state and the presence of large seaports affect. In addition, many federal organizations are stationed in Maryland, in particular NASA, the National Security Agency, the Commission on Security consumer products, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), etc.
The state has significant coal reserves, but its production has fallen significantly since the beginning of the 20th century. There are enterprises for the extraction of stone and sand. Agriculture is developed, in particular tobacco growing.
