The city of Baltimore dates from 1729 and was named after the founding
proprietary governor of the Province of Maryland—Lord Baltimore in the
Irish House of Lords. During the American Revolution, the city played a
key role in defeating Britain as a leading supply center for American
patriots and a major center for shipbuilding. Shipbuilding in Baltimore
continued into the War of 1812. It was during this war that Baltimore
impacted the rest of the nation when Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star-
Spangled Banner" after the courageous defense of Fort McHenry in 1814.

After the War of 1812, Baltimore thrived as a major shipping and
manufacturing city with its natural harbor on the Chesapeake Bay,
National Road (now U.S. Route 40) and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
In 1841, the city of Baltimore separated from Baltimore County becoming
an independent city, a status it holds to this day.

When the United States went through the Civil War, Maryland was a
slave-holding state, but did not secede from the Union. This is primarily
due to Union troops that occupied the city to make sure that Washington,
D.C. was not surrounded by Confederate territory.

After going through three wars, Baltimore's troubles were still not over. In
1904, a fire destroyed over 1,500 downtown buildings forcing the city to
rebuild. Such an independent spirit ran through Baltimore that the city's
Mayor refused to accept aid from anyone stating that, "Baltimore will take
care of its own, thank you." During the rebuilding, downtown was
redesigned to attract more residents and the reconstruction spurred modern
efforts to revive the city and make it a better-planned, better-experienced
city.

Today, Baltimore is a leader in urban renewal and has a predominantly
service-based economy with Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins
Hospital being the largest employer in the city. Baltimore's days as a
primarily industrial city are over, but the city's independent spirit and
industrious nature has made it a leader in medical research.