1909

Matthew Henson becomes the first person in the world to reach the North Pole.

1913

Underground Railroad conductor, Union spy and nurse, Harriet Tubman dies in New York.

1930

Blanche Calloway (Cab Calloway's older sister) is the first female to head a successful all-male band.

1939

The Centenary Biblical Institute was transformed from a seminary into Morgan State College. (In 1975, it will become a university.)

1948

The Baltimore County Medical Society is the first American Medical Association affiliate in a Southern state to drop its bars against black membership.

1948

Blacks are given the right to study law at state institutions by the United States Supreme Court.

1948

Kweisi Mfume was born on October 24 in Baltimore, Maryland. He later would become a Congresman for the U.S. House of Representatives.

1949

Kurt L. Schmoke is born on December1 in Baltimore, Maryland.

1950

Juanita Jackson Mitchell is the first African-American graduate of the University of Maryland Law School.

1954

Thurgood Marshall serves as Linda Brown's lawyer during the famous Brown vs. Board of Education Trial.

1957

The Civil Rights Act is passed by the United States Congress.

1958

Irma Dixon and Verda Freeman Welcome become the first African-American women to be elected to the Maryland House of delegates.

1962

Verda Freeman Welcome becomes the first African-American woman to be elected to the state Senate.

1967

Frederick Douglass becomes the first civil rights leader to be honored on a postage stamp.

1967

Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court.

1967

A Supreme Court ruling ensures school districts must end all forms of segregation immediately.

1970

Milton B. Allen is the first African-American elected states attorney for the city of Baltimore.

1970

Parren J. Mitchell becomes the first African-American elected to the United States Congress for Maryland. He represents Baltimore, the Seventh Congressional District.

1971

Roland Nathaniel Patterson is the first African-American appointed superintendent of schools in Baltimore.

1976

Oprah Winfrey becomes co-anchor and reporter for WJZ-TV in Baltimore, becoming the first African-American woman in the country to hold that position.

1977

Aris T. Allen is the first African-American chair of the state Republican party.

1978

Harriet Tubman becomes the first African-American woman honored on postage stamp. She received the honor again in 1996 when a second stamp was issued.

1978

Aris T. Allen is the first African-American to run for state office.

1984

Bishop Robinson is the first African-American commissioner of the Baltimore police.

1987

Kurt Lidell Schmoke becomes the first African-American elected mayor of Baltimore.

1991

Vera Hall becomes the first African-American woman chair of the Democratic Party of Maryland.