Baltimore City is the first American city to install public gaslight. The innovation is born when Rembrandt Peale brings gaslight to his museum galleries in 1816. The Baltimore mayor and other dignitaries are so impressed with Peale’s gaslighting demonstration, they soon found a company in 1817 to light the streets as a means to lower crime. The ancestor of the present Baltimore Gas and Electric Company is born.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper publishes first short story by a black woman.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, born in Baltimore, abolitionist, suffragist and writer, in 1859 publishes the first short story, then a novel by a Black woman.
