1. On February 24, 1943, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was opened, connecting the Eastern and Western Shores of Maryland. At the time, it was the world's longest continuous over-water steel structure.

2. In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ordering the construction of the U.S. Navy's first experimental ironclad ship, named "Monitor." Its design would revolutionize naval warfare in the Civil War and beyond.

3. On February 24, 1909, the first Women's Suffrage Parade was held in Baltimore, led by suffrage activists Mary Church Terrell and Mary Jackson. The event was a milestone in the fight for women's right to vote.

4. In 1986, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra was founded in Hagerstown, with its inaugural concert held on February 24 of that year. The orchestra has since become a beloved cultural institution in the state.

5. On February 24, 2009, the state of Maryland passed a landmark law allowing same-sex marriage, making it the eighth state in the country to do so. The bill was later repealed by voters in a referendum, but same-sex marriage was eventually legalized again in Maryland in 2012.