In 1828, a duel is fought between students Samuel Carr of South Carolina and William Martin of the Eastern Shore over the affections of Mary Polk, stepdaughter of medical school founder and first dean Dr. John B. Davidge. The men settle their dispute at the Bladensburg dueling grounds when Carr, an experienced duelist, kills Martin with a bullet between the eyes. He is expelled from school and leaves the state with Miss Polk whom he soon weds. Carr returns several years later and resumes his medical studies, graduating in 1834.


A rendering of the duel, by Erin Dolan

In 1923, Theresa Ora Snaith becomes the first woman to graduate from the medical school. Snaith transferred to Maryland from the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia at the end of her second year. She joins a pediatric group practice at Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital in Weston, West Virginia, where she practices until her death in 1961.

In 1993, Kenneth P. Johnson, MD, professor and chairman of the department of neurology, is the key investigator in a clinical trial that leads to FDA approval of Betaseron, the first drug ever approved specifically to treat Multiple Sclerosis by reducing the number of attacks and delaying the natural course of the disease.