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Benjamin Banneker is among the first Americans who documented the lifespan of cicadas, researchers Asamoah Nkwanta and his wife, Janet Barber, found.
- In the early 1960s (with a nudge from the government, which offered do-it-yourself pamphlets), homeowners began constructing bunkers made of concrete and steel in their basements and backyards. Never mind their slim chance of survival; shelters gave folks hope against unseen horrors.
- Francis Xavier Bushman, one of Hollywood’s first superstars who was known as the “Handsomest Man in the World” and thrilled 1920s moviegoers with his performance in the famous chariot race scene from “Ben-Hur,” was born in Baltimore in 1883, and grew up in a rowhouse at Argyle Avenue and Mosher Street in the city’s Upton neighborhood.
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- Failing grades have doubled — and sometimes tripled — in school systems across the state, as the prolonged effects of learning from home take their toll on student achievement and well-being.
- A few years ago, Parkville resident Daniel Dean became fascinated with a site at Marshy Point Nature Center in Baltimore County.
- A construction fence recently went up around the old Odell’s disco palace as a renovation began on this North Avenue landmark.
- He’s 75 now, half a lifetime removed from his playing days, but there will still be a twitch in Jim Palmer’s right arm Thursday when baseball season arrives.
- The Pullman porter, whose gentle manner, endless smile, and willingness to please, was once one of America’s most recognized and ubiquitous figures when it came to the traveling public, but behind that welcoming demeanor lay years of racial prejudice, pain, suffering and indifference.
- More than 100 years ago, Baltimore health officials went door to door vaccinating city residents for smallpox. Those who refused to get “scraped,” or inoculated, could face fines, or even jail time.
Best of Retro Baltimore
- Fifty years ago next month, sports teams from New York and Baltimore met yet again -- this time, the Bullets vs. the New York Knicks in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals.
- They couldn’t silence Billie Holiday’s voice, a voice that took her from an Upper Fells Point alley to New York City concert halls and into the annals of history as a performer and civil rights icon.
- The path that would eventually take Brown to Broadway and acclaim, began at the old Frederick Douglass High School on Dolphin Street, where she was a student of the legendary music teacher W. Llewellyn Wilson, who also had instructed Cab Calloway.
- As a conductor of the Underground Railroad, Marylander Harriet Tubman based her operations in St. Catharines, a Canadian town in the province of Ontario just 15 miles from the U.S. border.
- Her name was Toots and she was queen of the ball. The bowling ball, that is. For parts of three decades, Elizabeth “Toots” Barger reigned over Baltimore’s duckpin world in the heyday of the sport.
- Baltimore missed out on a snow event Tuesday, but that does not mean that a small amount of white precipitation can’t bring the region to its knees.
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- Sally Harris, retired chair of what is now Stevenson University’s Communication Arts Division and a pioneer in the school’s drama department, has died at 93.
- On March 17 at 4 p.m., join Sun photojournalists as they look back on the past year and discuss how they were challenged with finding new and inventive ways to safely tell the stories of Baltimore during the pandemic.
- LaShauna Jones, her daughter, granddaughter and their hot dog company, Sporty Dog Creations, are injecting new life into the partially vacant building at 333 N. Charles St.
- A roundup of Howard County athletics contests for softball, baseball, lacrosse and tennis on Monday, May 10.
- Frequently asked questions about submitting an event to our calendar.
- Benjamin Banneker is among the first Americans who documented the lifespan of cicadas, researchers Asamoah Nkwanta and his wife, Janet Barber, found.