1. Gabriel
Duvall, who lived at Marietta Mansion in
Glenn Dale, was appointed as Supreme
Court Justice by President
James Madison in 1811.
2. Goddard Space Flight Center, the principal
science center of NASA, was established in Prince
George’s County in 1959.
3. The University of Maryland at
College Park was established in 1856 as the Maryland
Agricultural
College; the campus was originally part of the
Riversdale plantation. Famous residents of Riversdale
include Charles Benedict Calvert, founder
of Maryland Agricultural College, Senator
Hiram Johnson, and Senator Hattie
Caraway, the first woman elected to
the Senate.
4. The first documented unmanned
hot-air balloon ascent in America was launched
in June 1784 in the Town of Bladensburg.
5. College
Park Airport is the world’s
oldest continually operated airport. It is
home to the first military pilots,
trained by Wilbur Wright, for
the government’s
first aeroplane, the first Postal Air
Mail Service and the first female passenger in
an airplane
in the
U.S.
6. North Brentwood is the
first African-American community in Prince George’s
County and was incorporated in 1924.
7. President
Lincoln’s assassin fled Ford’s Theatre
to Surratt House in Clinton.
8. Commodore
Joshua Barney sank his flotilla at Bladensburg
rather than have it captured by the British as
they stormed the capitol in the War of
1812.
He was later released and praised by his captors
for his bravery and dedication in battle.
9. Those losing their lives
at the Dueling Grounds in Colmar Manor include
Naval
hero Stephen Decatur, Gen. Armistead
Mason, defending a woman’s
honor, Daniel Key, son of Francis Scott
Key,
in an argument about the speed of steamboats.
10. The nation’s first community
planned and built as a federal venture in housing
(now a National Historic Landmark) was Greenbelt,
MD.
11. Jim Henson, who grew up in
Hyattsville and graduated from UMD, is known
for Creation of the Muppets.
12. Eight Prince
Georgians have served as governor of Maryland.
