History UsefulNotes / Baltimore

* Music/ToriAmos (the song quoted at the top of the page was her entry in an Orioles theme song contest she won when she was 16)

** ''Film/{{Avalon}}''

Fans of the city's pro football team, the Ravens, have a strong rivalry with those of the UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}} Steelers and aren't too fond of the Washington Commanders either, who actually play in Maryland barely an hour's drive from the city. Part of the reason why the rivalries with the Steelers and Commanders are so strong in Baltimore is because they both gained significant fanbases in the city in the decade the city was without a football team, which infuriates both fans of the Ravens and old loyalists to their predecessor, the Baltimore Colts (named for the aforementioned horse racing tradition of the city). Speaking of which, don't mention the Indianapolis Colts[[note]]now based in a hotbed for another type of racing, that being auto racing as the home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; though Indy is within reasonable driving distance of Louisville, another horse racing hotbed[[/note]] or former owner Robert Irsay [[BerserkButton if you value your teeth]]. Irsay moved out the storied franchise of Baltimore in the dead of night in 1984, after the city refused to front the bill for stadium improvements, leaving fans feeling stabbed in the back.[[note]]The retaliation against the company that moved the team's equipment, Mayflower Movers, was so strong that the company is still unable to get work in the state.[[/note]] For what its worth, a fan in UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} would accuse a Ravens fan still mad at this of being a huge {{hypocrite}} since the Ravens were originally the Cleveland Browns before ''they'' jumped ship to Baltimore.

In baseball, Baltimore is home to the Orioles of MLB's American League, who have a long-standing rivalry with the New York Yankees (who were actually the ''original'' Orioles for two years before moving to Bronx in 1903), the New York Mets (Baltimore tends to hold deep grudges in sports; the dislike of the Mets is due to a "bad call" in the 1969 World Series), the Cleveland Guardians (several nasty postseason meetings; see the deep grudges thing) and the Washington Nationals, though both the Mets and Nats are rarely played against (being in the National League). Since 1992, the Orioles have played in Orioles Park at Camden Yards, a refurbished train yard that turned into the first of the retro ballparks created in the '90s and '00s. The Orioles have also had an impressive list of who's who, being the first top-flight team Baltimore native Babe Ruth played on, and the exclusive team of Cal "Iron Man" Ripken Jr., who played the most consecutive games.

* In the 2000s and 2010s, a small part of Maryland's politics have been looking for ways to attract the film industry to do shoots in the city and in the state in general. Maryland being a small size has a surprisingly diverse topography, which affords film makers the ability to get a good bulk of subbed locations with little travel time to location sites. Early, Baltimore was even discussed as Hollywood of the East. The problem comes with taxation, which cost Maryland several of these film locations. It wouldn't be as embarrassing if two films (''Film/{{Annapolis}}'' and ''Film/{{Hairspray}}'') weren't set in the state. This is changing, as noted in House of Cards below.

* [[Series/ADifferentWorld Jada]] [[Franchise/TheMatrix Pinkett]] [[WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}} Smith]]

* [[Series/TheAddamsFamily John Astin]]Born and reared in Baltimore, and lives there today, where he teaches drama at Johns Hopkins and for years was the Master of Ceremonies for Baltimore's yearly Edgar Allen Poe celebration at the Poe House.

* [[Series/TheAddamsFamily John Astin]]

* Creator/JohnAstin Born and reared in Baltimore, and lives there today, where he teaches drama at Johns Hopkins and for years was the Master of Ceremonies for Baltimore's yearly Edgar Allen Poe celebration at the Poe House.

As a port city, Baltimore was quite important during things like the colonization of America, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. In fact, for a few decades in the early 19th century, Baltimore was the second biggest city in the entire United States, behind only UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity.[[note]]It bears noting that Baltimore passed UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} for this honor only due to much of that city being divided into multiple independent townships that were consolidated in 1854, at which point Philly easily regained the top spot.[[/note]] Because Maryland was founded as a religious sanctuary for Catholics in England, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore is the oldest in the United States and is a major stopping point for Popes when they visit the country. Pope John Paul II famously held mass in Camden Yards in his 1995 visit. Because of this, it's not uncommon for people from the Baltimore Area to be depicted as Catholics in media and having gone to Catholic School. Babe Ruth and Creator/TomClancy both attended local Catholic Schools.

Fort [=McHenry=] also was famous (or infamous) for turning its cannons on the citizens of Baltimore during the Civil War, done to keep the city, a major trade port which served as an outpost of the slave trade, from defecting to the Confederacy and thus surround Washington with hostiles. In fact, had it not been for this incident, which was memorialized in the song "Maryland, My Maryland," the war could have turned out very differently. Incidentally, this put Baltimore and Maryland as a whole into an odd little identity crisis over whether it was a northern or southern state. This still persists to this day, and it's not uncommon to see memorials to the brave Maryland Troops on both sides of Civil War battlefields. In Gettysburg, there is even a case of a Union Maryland monument directly across the battle line from a Confederate monument.

Unfortunately for the rest of Maryland, people from out of state tend to use "Baltimore" and "Maryland" interchangeably, despite the cultural diversity of the state, and in particular despite the fact that the city is unrepresentative of the state as a whole, which has a very low murder and poverty rate that would be even lower without Baltimore. The most populous and arguably the most economically important county in Maryland, Montgomery County, is not even in the Baltimore metropolitan area; it is in the D.C. area. Thing is, Baltimore is the only jurisdiction specifically established by the Constitution of Maryland (all other cities, towns and counties were established by ordinary legislation). It used to be suggested from time to time to amend the state constitution to rejoin the city and Baltimore County, although such proposals always drew strong opposition from Baltimore County. The last such proposal was made in 1999 and withdrawn in less than a month.

Fans of the city's pro football team, the Ravens, have a strong rivalry with those of the UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}} Steelers and aren't too fond of the Washington Football Team either, who actually play in Maryland barely an hour's drive from the city. Part of the reason why the rivalries with the Steelers and Washington are so strong in Baltimore is because they both gained significant fanbases in the city in the decade the city were without a football team, which infuriates both fans of the Ravens and old loyalists to their predecessor, the Baltimore Colts (named for the aforementioned horse racing tradition of the city). Speaking of which, don't mention the Indianapolis Colts[[note]]now based in a hotbed for another type of racing, that being auto racing as the home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; though Indy is within reasonable driving distance of Louisville, another horse racing hotbed[[/note]] or former owner Robert Irsay [[BerserkButton if you value your teeth]]. Irsay moved out the storied franchise of Baltimore in the dead of night in 1984, after the city refused to front the bill for stadium improvements, leaving fans feeling stabbed in the back.[[note]]The retaliation against the company that moved the team's equipment, Mayflower Movers, was so strong that the company is still unable to get work in the state.[[/note]] For what its worth, a fan in UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} would accuse a Ravens fan still mad at this of being a huge {{Hypocrite}} since the Ravens were originally the Cleveland Browns before ''they'' jumped ship to Baltimore.

In baseball, Baltimore is home to the Orioles of MLB's American League, who have a long-standing rivalry with the New York Yankees (who were actually the ''original'' Orioles for two years before moving to Bronx in 1903), the New York Mets (Baltimore tends to hold deep grudges in sports; the dislike of the Mets is due to a "bad call" in the 1969 World Series), the Cleveland Indians (several nasty playoffs meetings; see the deep grudges thing) and the Washington Nationals, though both the Mets and Nats are rarely played against (being in the National League). Since 1992, the Orioles have played in Orioles Park at Camden Yards, a refurbished train yard that turned into the first of the retro ballparks created in the '90s and '00s. The Orioles have also had an impressive list of who's who, being the first top-flight team Baltimore native Babe Ruth played on, and the exclusive team of Cal "Iron Man" Ripken Jr., who played the most consecutive games.

Artistically speaking, Baltimore is home of the Series/BaltimoreRockOperaSociety, the [[http://www.bsfa.org/ Baltimore School for the Arts]], the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and the [[http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/ Peabody Institute]].

Baltimore City is also the home of [[http://jhu.edu/ Johns Hopkins University]], [[http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/ Johns Hopkins Hospital]], the Domino Sugar refinery (known locally as "the sugar factory"), and the Inner Harbor, a tourist location of shops, restaurants, boat slips, and the National Aquarium. It is no longer the home of [=McCormick=] & Company, the spice maker, who moved out to Hunt Valley, a suburb of Baltimore. To celebrate the anniversary of their move, during 2007, [=McCormick=] was running ads in newspapers and magazines to tell people that if you still had a can of [=McCormick=] Spice that in the manufacturer's identity field, said "Made by [=McCormick=] & Co, Baltimore MD" instead of "Made by [=McCormick=] & Co., Hunt Valley, MD" your can of spice was over 20 years old.

* In the ''Franchise/HannibalLecter'' franchise, the titular doctor practised in Baltimore and was a member of the city's social elite -- who unwittingly chowed down on banquets made from the flesh of his victims. Once the truth comes out and Lecter is incarcerated, the Baltimore elite are said to suffer a sudden rash of alcoholism, institutionalisation, and crippling anorexia.

[[AC:Live Action Television]]

* ''Series/{{Roc}}'': An early 90's sitcom starring Charles S. Dutton. (set in Baltimore, filmed in a studio in Los Angeles)

* Wrestling/StacyKeibler - Former Ravens Cheerleader, Wrestling/{{WWE}} "Manager"

* Creator/JadaPinkett-Smith - attended high school with Tupac.

* Cal "Iron Man" Ripken

* Music/ToriAmos

Fans of the city's pro football team, the Ravens, have a strong rivalry with those of the UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}} Steelers and aren't too fond of the Washington Football Team either, who actually play in Maryland barely an hour's drive from the city. Part of the reason why the rivalries with the Steelers and Washington are so strong in Baltimore is because they both gained significant fanbases in the city in the decade the city were without a football team, which infuriates both fans of the Ravens and old loyalists to their predecessor, the Baltimore Colts (named for the aforementioned horse racing tradition of the city). Speaking of which, don't mention the Indianapolis Colts[[note]]now based in a hotbed for another type of racing, that being auto racing as the home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; though Indy is within reasonable driving distance of Louisville, another horse racing hotbed[[/note]] or former owner Robert Irsay [[BerserkButton if you value your teeth]]. Irsay moved the storied franchise moved out of Baltimore in the dead of night in 1984 after the city refused to front the bill for stadium improvements, leaving fans feeling stabbed in the back.[[note]]The retaliation against the company that moved the team's equipment, Mayflower Movers, was so strong that the company is still unable to get work in the state.[[/note]] For what its worth, a fan in UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} would accuse a Ravens fan still mad at this of being a huge {{Hypocrite}} since the Ravens were originally the Cleveland Browns before ''they'' jumped ship to Baltimore.

* UsefulNotes/WashingtonMetro: The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), the bus and subway operator for Washington, DC, has a policy that they will not permit any filming of any movie in the subway system where violence occurs. If someone gets shot in film taking place a subway in Washington, DC, it will not be allowed to be filmed there. Typically the producer will travel 65 miles to downtown Baltimore, where the Maryland Transit Authority has no problem allowing a movie where someone is shot at to be filmed in the Baltimore subway system. The movie ''Film/TheJackal'' (the one with Creator/BruceWillis) has a scene involving a firefight in the subway, supposedly in Washington, but the subway fight was filmed in Baltimore.
* In ''Film/ForRicherOrPoorer'', Baltimore subbed for New York City for street scenes. The bulk of the film was filmed in the small town of Wetminister, MD, which is about 40-minutes from Downtown Baltimore, just south of Pennsylvania, which was subbing for Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which is just north of the Maryland Border.
* ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'' uses Johns Hopkins University's main "Homewood" campus for many of its Harvard scenes, thanks to Harvard's famous prohibition against filming on campus.

* [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames Michael Phelps]] aka ''The Baltimore shark''.

* The Beltway Snipers: John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, a pair of serial/spree killers active and captured in 2002.[[note]]Except Not Really. The Beltway Snipers were active around the DC Beltway, not the Baltimore Beltway and are often properly referred to as the D.C. Beltway Snipers. That said, they were never tried for their crimes in D.C. because the Beltway only runs through D.C. for length best measured in feet. It's the shortest stretch of Interstate Highway between borders of two separate states. Their crimes were entirely within Maryland and Virginia.[[/note]] The pair inspired a series of RippedFromTheHeadlines stories, most notably a Season One episode of CSI:Miami and a one off gag in ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' justifying why the team's first mode of transportation was a white van [[note]]Complicating the capture of the perpetrators was that the initial attacks just happened to have white vans, often associated with home maintenance and utility services, that were leaving near the scene at the time of the attack. The snipers heard this report and made sure their future targets were killed by White Vans... they drove away in a blue four door sedan.[[/note]]

Unfortunately for Baltimore, the city is most likely to appear in modern media because of its high crime rate. Both ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' and ''Series/TheWire''--helmed by former ''Baltimore Sun'' journalist Creator/DavidSimon[[note]]A D.C.-born Baltimorean who, for the record, cares deeply about the city and regards his two most famous works as tough love for his beloved home[[/note]]--focused on the high crime and corruption in the city and, by and large, did a good job portraying it. The annual murder rate typically goes above triple digits before June; this is factoring in that crime in the city is on a downturn. This has lead many people both in and out of the city calling it "Harm City" or "Bodymore, Murderland". When Osama bin Laden was killed, Stephen Colbert noted that if the capitol of Pakistan was Washington D.C., then the bin Laden compound was in Baltimore... then observed that you were more likely to get shot in Baltimore. Since the Freddie Gray Riots in 2015 (two riots, one lesser known that took place on a Saturday and caused Camden Yards to refuse people from leaving the stadium as the riot was one block over and the more well known one the following Monday), the murder rate has gotten much worse. With an average of one murder a day, Baltimore may not boast the most murders per day (that honor goes to Chicago) but it holds the most murders relative to the population. To put this in perspective, in 2016, Chicago had just north of 700 murders compared to Baltimore's 300+. However, Baltimore is a smaller city and, had it had a population similar to that of Chicago, would have had an estimated 1,000 plus murders. And those are just the people who die. The number of people who are the victims of violent crime is incredibly high and the only reason that the shooting victims to murder ratio is so low is some of the worst parts of the city just happen to be near some of the best hospitals in the country. So the good news is if you're shot in Baltimore, you're more likely to survive. The bad news is you're more likely to get shot in Baltimore! It's gotten so bad that the UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks have started sending combat surgeons to train in area hospitals because it's the closest thing in the states they have to actual injuries they are likely to face in the field. So the reputation in media, while unfortunate, is not unfounded.

* ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet is about the Baltimore Police Department.

* The American version of ''[[Series/HouseOfCardsUS House of Cards]]'', although set in DC, is largely filmed in Baltimore, thanks to the similar look-and-feel of the locations, and because of Maryland's tax credits.

Fans of the city's pro football team, the Ravens, have a strong rivalry with those of the UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}} Steelers and aren't too fond of the Washington Football Team either, who actually play in Maryland barely an hour's drive from the city. Part of the reason the Steelers and Washington are both so detested in Baltimore is because they both gained significant fanbases in the city in the decade they were without a football team, which infuriates both fans of the Ravens and old loyalists to their predecessor, the Baltimore Colts (named for the aforementioned horse racing tradition of the city). Speaking of which, don't mention the Indianapolis Colts (now based in a hotbed for another type of racing, that being auto racing as the home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; though Indy is within reasonable driving distance of Louisvlle, another horse racing hotbed) or former owner Robert Irsay [[BerserkButton if you value your teeth]]. Irsay moved the storied franchise moved out of the city in the dead of night in 1984 after the city refused to front the bill for stadium improvements, leaving fans with the distinct feeling they had been stabbed in the back.[[note]]The retaliation against the company that moved the team's equipment, Mayflower Movers, was so strong that the company is still unable to get work in the state.[[/note]] For what its worth, a fan in UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} would accuse a Ravens fan still mad at this of being a huge {{Hypocrite}} since the Ravens were originally the Cleveland Browns before ''they'' jumped ship to Baltimore.

As a port city, Baltimore was quite important during things like the colonization of America, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. In fact, for a few decades in the early 19th century, Baltimore was the second biggest city in the entire United States, behind only UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity.[[note]]It bears noting that Baltimore passed UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} for this honor only due to much of that city being divided into multiple independent townships that were consolidated in 1854, at which point Philly easily regained the top spot.[[/note]] Because Maryland was founded as a religious sanctuary for Catholics in England, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore is the oldest in the United States and is a major stopping point for Popes when they visit the country. Pope John Paul II famously held mass in Camden Yards in his 1995 visit. Because of this, it's not uncommon for people from the Baltimore Area to be depicted as Catholics in media and having gone to Catholic School. Babe Ruth and Creator/TomClancy both attended local Catholic Schools.

Culturally, Baltimore is known for two things: Crabs, which ''must'' be covered in large quantities of Old Bay Seasoning and ''must'' be Maryland Blue Crab, none of that stuff you get in Florida. The other is the... unique accent of city natives. Be prepared to be called "Hon'" A LOT, and learn to say goodbye to hard consonant sounds and hello to drawn out vowels. ("Baltimore" is pronounced by natives as "Bawl'imer" (or "Balw-mer" or "Ball-tee-mo") more often than not, as examples.) Baltimore is also the birthplace of National Bohemian Beer, or "Natty Boh" as Baltimoreans call it.

Unfortunately for Baltimore, the city is most likely to appear in modern media because of its high crime rate. Both ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' and ''Series/TheWire''--helmed by former ''Baltimore Sun'' journalist Creator/DavidSimon[[note]]A D.C.-born Baltimorean who, for the record, cares deeply about the city and regards his two most famous works as tough love for his beloved home[[/note]]--focused on the high crime and corruption in the city and, by and large, did a good job portraying it. The annual murder rate typically goes above triple digits before June; this is factoring in that crime in the city is on a downturn. This has lead many people both in and out of the city calling it "Harm City" or "Bodymore, Murderland". When Osama bin Laden was killed, Stephen Colbert noted that if the capitol of Pakistan was Washington D.C., then the bin Laden compound was in Baltimore... then observed that you were more likely to get shot in Baltimore. Since the Freddie Gray Riots in 2015 (two riots, one lesser known that took place on a Saturday and caused Camden Yards to refuse people from leaving the stadium as the riot was one block over and the more well known one the following Monday), the murder rate has gotten much worse. With an average of one murder a day, Baltimore may not boast the most murders per day (that honor goes to Chicago) but it holds the most murders relative to the population. To put this in perspective, in 2016, Chicago had just north of 700 murders compared to Baltimore's 300+. However, Baltimore is a smaller city and, had it had a population similar to that of Chicago, would have had an estimated 1,000 plus murders. And those are just the people who die. The number of people who are the victims of violent crime is incredibly high and the only reason that the shooting victims to murder ratio is so low is some of the worst parts of the city just happen to be near some of the best hospitals in the country. So the good news is if you're shot in Baltimore, you're more likely to survive. The bad news is you're more likely to get shot in Baltimore! It's gotten so bad that the UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks have started sending combat surgeons to train in area hospitals because it's the closest thing in the states they have to actual injuries they are likely to face in the field. So the reputation in media, while unfortunate, is not unfounded.

Unfortunately for the rest of Maryland, people from out of state tend to use "Baltimore" and "Maryland" interchangeably, despite the cultural diversity of the state, and in particular despite the fact that the city is unrepresentative of the state as a whole, which has a very low murder and poverty rate that would be even lower without Baltimore. The most populous and arguably the most economically important county in Maryland, Montgomery County, is not even in the Baltimore metropolitan area; it is in the D.C. area.

Baltimore is the only jurisdiction specifically established by the Constitution of Maryland (all other cities, towns and counties were established by ordinary legislation). It used to be suggested from time to time to amend the state constitution to rejoin the city and Baltimore County, although such proposals always drew strong opposition from Baltimore County. The last such proposal was made in 1999 and withdrawn in less than a month.