1991: 25 years ago

The last baseball game was played at Memorial Stadium. The stadium, built in 1954, played host one final time on Oct. 6 to an Orioles ballgame, against the Detroit Tigers. Some 50,000 fans watched. And cried.

The TV comedy “Roc,” starring Baltimore native Charles Dutton and depicting blue-collar life for African-Americans in Baltimore, premiered on Fox.

The Naval Academy appointed, for the first time in its history, a female midshipman, Juliane Gallina, an honors student from Pelham, N.Y., to the rank of midshipman captain. The 4,500-member Brigade of Midshipmen's daily military activities and performance would be under the command of Gallina.

Kurt Schmoke was re-elected mayor of Baltimore. He ran against Clarence Du Burns in the primary and against Samuel Culotta in the general election.

On May 15, Queen Elizabeth II and President George H.W. Bush took in a couple of innings of baseball at Memorial Stadium as the Orioles played the Oakland Athletics.

The U.S. Census was released. 1990 census data showed Baltimore with a population of 736,014, a 6.5 percent decline since the previous census. Maryland's population grew to close to 4.8 million people, up 13.4 percent from a decade before.

“Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets” was published by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon, who had spent the year 1988 with the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit. In 1991, filmmaker Barry Levinson optioned the rights to the book and planned to turn it into a series for NBC.

The hospital ship USNS Comfort returned to Baltimore after eight months in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm.

The Baltimore Museum of Art exhibit “Claude Monet: Impressionist Masterpieces” opened. The hugely popular and profitable show was the result of a swap of Cone collection treasures from the BMA for Monet works from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

1966: 50 years ago

The second Bay Bridge was authorized by the General Assembly but defeated in a referendum. The next year, the act was quickly passed by the General Assembly and signed into by Gov. Spiro T. Agnew. Construction began in 1967 and the span opened to traffic in June 1973.

Republican Agnew beat Democrat George Mahoney in an ugly campaign for the governorship that included charges of racism on both sides.

The University of Maryland campus in Baltimore County opened. On Sept. 19, UMBC's first classes began with 750 students in attendance.

For the first time ever, a baseball was hit clear out of Memorial Stadium. On May 8, in a game against the Cleveland Indians, the Orioles' Frank Robinson clobbered a home run off pitcher Luis Tiant, sending the ball out of the stadium. For Memorial Stadium's remaining years, a flag with the word “HERE” flew in the spot marking where the ball left the ballpark.

Maryland ratified the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for succession to the presidency.

The Baltimore Orioles won the World Series, the first of the club's World Series wins. The O's beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in four consecutive games to take the title. (Frank Robinson was named World Series MVP.)

The old clubhouse at Pimlico Race Course went up in flames in an eight-alarm blaze. Much was lost, including the archives of the Maryland Jockey Club and the National Jockey Hall of Fame.

Frank Robinson, in his first season with the Baltimore Orioles, won the Triple Crown. The crown goes to the American League or National League player who leads his league in batting average, home runs and runs batted in for the season. Robinson chalked up a .316 batting average, 49 home runs and 122 RBIs.

1916:100 years ago

The State Board of Motion Picture Censors was authorized. All reels, films and pictures needed to be approved by the board. Any considered obscene, immoral or sacrilegious could be forbidden. The censor board — with its seals of approval — finally went out of business in 1981.

The Johns Hopkins University moved to Homewood in Baltimore.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was organized under founding conductor Gustav Strube. The BSO was originally city-funded. Its first concert took place at the Lyric.

Vagabond Players staged their first performance: a one-act play by H.L. Mencken. The players launched November 1916 in a storefront at the St. James Hotel on West Centre Street.

Bethlehem Steel bought the Maryland Steel Co. plant and announced a $50 million expansion in Maryland. It would become the world's largest steel mill.

The Baltimore Black Sox, a professional Negro Leagues baseball team, was formed. The franchise folded in 1934. Pitcher Leon Day was one of the top players on the team and would play as well for the Elite Giants, the Negro Leagues baseball team that moved into Baltimore in 1938.

The city's municipal anthem, “Baltimore, Our Baltimore,” written by poet and Baltimore Sun columnist Folger McKinsey as part of a citywide contest, was first performed on Feb. 22 at the Lyric Opera House.

Emerson C. Harrington, a Democrat, was inaugurated as the 48th governor of Maryland on Jan. 12.