Trumpeter and band leader Louis Armstrong announced his arrival in Baltimore by giving away 300 bags of coal in a poor black neighborhood. He offered the coal to those who appeared at the Royal Theatre’s doors on the morning of Dec. 11, 1931. Armstrong would play concerts at the theater starting...
Readers: Think you know your Baltimore? Try answering our weekly trivia question. Some weeks will be ridiculously easy, some weeks a bit more challenging. Put your best guess in the “answer” field and hit “submit.” Or comment on Instagram: @retrobaltimore. If you’d like to be recognized for a correct...
When Army and Navy butt heads Dec. 8, give the Midshipmen the edge on looks, at least. Their football helmets will bear the logo of a goat. Not just any old goat. The emblem on their headgear, gloves and cleats will be — for the first time — that of Navy’s goat, Bill, as a tribute to the purebred...
The passing of former President George H.W. Bush on Friday evening gives us cause to relive a moment when Baltimore was the center of media attention — and a seat of U.S. and British power. In May 1991, then-President Bush and Queen Elizabeth II attended an Orioles game at old Memorial Stadium...
Baltimore and the surrounding area sure has changed a lot in its centuries-long history. But many traditions and landmarks from decades ago are still around today, give or take a few variations.More
Before she was on her way to another tenure as speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi was known in Baltimore as Nancy D'Alesandro, daughter of Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. Here's a look back through The Baltimore Sun archives of Nancy's time growing up in Baltimore.
Readers: Think you know your Baltimore? Try answering our weekly trivia question. Some weeks will be ridiculously easy, some weeks a bit more challenging. Put your best guess in the “answer” field and hit “submit.” Or comment on Instagram: @retrobaltimore. If you’d like to be recognized for a correct...
If you’re pining for the primordial days when Christmas wasn’t so commercial, consider this: By the late 1800s, Christmas shopping was big business in Baltimore. And the Baltimore Sun was its cheerleader. An 1895 editorial in The Sun described Christmas shopping as “trade converted into poetry…...
Readers: Think you know your Baltimore? Try answering our weekly trivia question. Some weeks will be ridiculously easy, some weeks a bit more challenging. Put your best guess in the “answer” field and hit “submit.” Or comment on Instagram: @retrobaltimore. If you’d like to be recognized for a correct...
For decades, the mood of Thanksgiving celebrations for hundreds of area private-school families has depended on the result of a single football game, the near-century-old tilt between Loyola Blakefield and Calvert Hall. It was simple: If your school won, the turkey tasted especially good. If it...
Readers: Think you know your Baltimore? Try answering our weekly trivia question. Some weeks will be ridiculously easy, some weeks a bit more challenging. Put your best guess in the “answer” field and hit “submit.” Or comment on Instagram: @retrobaltimore. If you’d like to be recognized for a correct...
World War I left America with newfound might. As if to prove it, on Nov. 16, 1918 — five days after hostilities ceased — Navy’s football team went out and thrashed its opponent, 127-0. Pity Ursinus College, from Collegeville, Pa., the victim of that rout at Farragut Field in Annapolis. Navy, coached...
Readers: Think you know your Baltimore? Try answering our weekly trivia question. Some weeks will be ridiculously easy, some weeks a bit more challenging. Here’s last week’s trivia: QUESTION: Baltimore-born Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker from 2007 to 2011, and current House Minority Leader, attended...
Abby Scherr didn’t know most of the people at her wedding, and couldn’t understand what was said at the ceremony. Nearby, a war raged on. “It felt like I was in ‘The Twilight Zone,’ ” says Scherr, who now lives in New Freedom, Pa., with her husband, Neno Uljarevic. It’s been 25 years since Scherr,...
Readers: Think you know your Baltimore? Try answering our weekly trivia question. Some weeks will be ridiculously easy, some weeks a bit more challenging. Here’s last week’s trivia: QUESTION: Where did Baltimore’s nickname “Charm City” come from? ANSWER: The nickname "Charm City" traces its origins...
The football teams of Baltimore City College and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute will meet on Nov. 2 at Morgan State University in what’s being billed as their 130th annual clash. The game, for Baltimoreans, had been a Thanksgiving Day tradition for decades until the date was changed in 1993. But...
Around midnight on Oct. 26, 1958, Alvin Cohen and Phillip Small were taking a drive by Loch Raven Reservoir in Towson when they said a great, iridescent, egg-shaped object appeared above a bridge. The young men inched closer and the car stopped dead — no headlights, no engine, no ignition, as if...
Readers: Think you know your Baltimore? Try answering our weekly trivia question. Some weeks will be ridiculously easy, some weeks a bit more challenging. Here’s last week’s trivia: QUESTION: How did Baltimore beer Colt 45 get its name? ANSWER: It’s named not after the handgun, but rather after...
In 1937, neighbors protested the construction of a new Sears, Roebuck & Co. store on Harford Road and North Avenue, fearing it would bring traffic jams and lower property values to what was then a residential stretch of Northeast Baltimore. The store opened over residents’ objections the following...
Readers: Think you know your Baltimore? Try answering our weekly trivia question. Some weeks will be ridiculously easy, some weeks a bit more challenging. Here’s last week’s trivia: QUESTION: What popular former Oriole player shares a name with a famous 19th-century explorer? ANSWER: Boog Powell,...