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.
Edgar Allan Poe dies in Baltimore
Poet Edgar Allan Poe dies mysteriously in Baltimore in 1849. He is found on an election day, presumably drunk, taken to a hospital where he dies three days later. His monument and tomb are in downtown Baltimore.
