B&O Railroad Launches: America's Passenger Era Begins
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad launched its first passenger service, instantly shrinking travel time between the Atlantic coast and the Ohio River Valley. This concrete shift from horse-drawn carriages to steam power sparked a nationwide rail boom that reshaped American commerce and settlement patterns within two decades.
May 23, 1830
196 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on May 23
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Florence executed the radical friar Girolamo Savonarola by hanging and burning him in the Piazza della Signoria. His death silenced the primary critic of the Me…
Flames consumed the radical friar Girolamo Savonarola in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria after the Pope excommunicated him for his fiery denunciations of cleri…
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon null and void, ending the King’s first union. This ecclesiastical ruling severed…
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