The U.S. Capital moves to Washington, D.C.
Louisiana Purchase.
Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Robert Fulton builds his first steamboat.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad begins operation.
Niles, Barton & Wilmer, LLP is established in Baltimore City as Brown & Brune by George William Brown and Frederick W. Brune.
Elias Howe invents the sewing machine.
George William Brown serves as Mayor of the City of Baltimore at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Revenue Act of 1862 includes a legacy or inheritance tax.
The Revenue Act of 1862 is modified and includes a succession tax on bequests of real estate, which established the first gift tax in the U.S.
George William Brown takes an active part in the Constitutional Convention.
Randolph Barton and Skipwith Wilmer come to Baltimore and establish the law practice of Barton & Wilmer.
Thirteenth Amendment is ratified.
Fourteenth Amendment is ratified.
Belle Babb Mansfield becomes the first woman lawyer in the United States.
After the Civil War, the legacy and succession taxes are repealed.
George William Brown is elected as Chief Judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City.
Fifteenth Amendment is ratified.
Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone.
Thomas Edison invents an electric lightbulb that burns for 40 hours.
Brooklyn Bridge is completed.
Interstate Commerce Act.
North American Women’s Suffrage Association is founded.
The Heard Act requires surety bonds on all federally funded projects.
The War Revenue Act imposes a controversial legacy tax (the precursor to the Federal estate tax) on personal property.
The legacy tax is repealed after the Spanish-American War ended.
The National Child Labor Committee is formed.
NAACP is founded.
The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments are ratified.
Carlyle Barton and Judge Alfred Niles form the firm of Niles & Barton.
Eighteenth Amendment is ratified prohibiting alcoholic beverages.
Nineteenth Amendment grants Women’s Suffrage.
First Commercial radio broadcast.
Judge Alfred Niles, along with Arnold W. Knauth, helps found the American Maritime Cases, which is the premier maritime case reporting service in the United States.
Charles Lindbergh flies from New York to Paris solo.
Bell Telephone and the U.S. Department of Commerce conduct the first long distance use of television.
Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff.
The gift tax is reintroduced and accepted as a part of the U.S. transfer tax system.
New Deal begins.
The Miller Act is passed, requiring that general contractors post performance and payment bonds for federally-owned projects that exceed $2,000 (the amount was later increased to $25,000 and most recently to $100,000).
The Revenue Act of 1935 introduces the option for an alternate valuation date for estates after the date of death.
Konrad Zuse builds the first freely programmable computer.
Gans & Haman, a predecessor firm to Niles, Barton & Wilmer, was the first firm to keep time records.
The Marshall Plan.
The Revenue Act of 1948 established estate and gift tax marital deductions.
NATO Treaty signed.
Brown vs. Board of Education.
Elvis Presley releases "Heartbreak Hotel," his first gold record.
Ampex introduces the first commercially successful videotape recorder.
Congress passes the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to protect men and women from sex-based wage discrimination.
Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is created by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 protects individuals between 40 and 65 years of age from employment discrimination.
Two firms merge to become the existing Niles, Barton & Wilmer, LLP.
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his “I have a dream” speech.
The Beatles come to America for the first time to appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
Medicare, Clean Air, and Immigration Acts.
National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded.
Astronauts land on the moon.
Roe vs. Wade
The Equal Employment Opportunity Act is amended to improve Title VII’s effectiveness.
Congress passes the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to protect qualified individuals with disabilities from employment discrimination.
The Tax Reform Act unifies estate and gift taxes and introduces the generation-skipping transfer tax.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 clarifies that discrimination based on pregnancy is unlawful sex discrimination.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Economic Recovery Tax Act allows for unlimited marital deduction, full value pension benefits and a change in the tax base.
The Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 requires that employees’ spouses between 65 and 69 years in age receive the same group health plan treatment as employees’ spouses under the age of 65.
The Challenger explosion.
Congress removes the upper age cap of 70 from the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Niles, Barton & Wilmer returns to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor district, moving to the firm’s current location at Harborplace Towers.
Congress amends the Immigration and Nationality Act with the Immigration Reform and Control Act.
The Americans with Disabilities Act is signed into law protecting individuals with disabilities in employment, public services, public accommodations, and telecommunications.
Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
Congress reinstates an exemption that allows state and local governments to use age as a basis for hiring and retiring law enforcement officers and firefighters in the Age Discrimination in Employment Amendments of 1996.
The Taxpayer Relief Act adds a family-owned business deduction if the business makes up at least 50% of the total gross estate.
The DVD-Video format is introduced in the United States.
The Higher Education Amendments of 1998 allow colleges and universities to offer age-based retirement incentives for tenured faculty members.
Formation of the European Union.
Construction begins on the International Space Station.
Global concerns over the “Y2K bug.”
Changes to the Federal Miller Act benefit subcontractors and suppliers.
The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 makes significant changes to the transfer tax system that expire in 2011.
September 11th attacks.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court construes common collapse policy language, which expands collapse coverage to include imminent collapse.
Niles, Barton & Wilmer forms a Diversity Committee to identify opportunities and review standards and policies to promote diversity within the firm.
Niles, Barton & Wilmer is accepted into the Law Firm Alliance as the exclusive law firm for the state of Maryland.
Niles, Barton & Wilmer holds its first Women’s Committee event, providing an opportunity for women to meet, network and share ideas.
Niles, Barton & Wilmer expands in the areas of Commercial Real Estate and Estates and Trusts.
Niles, Barton & Wilmer hires its first marketing director.
The “Bad Faith” statute, establishing a duty of good faith on first party carriers, comes to Maryland.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court holds that a Waiver of Subrogation provision in a construction contract is enforceable even though the insurer did not approve of or have notice of the provision. Insurers must protect themselves from such waivers.
The Federal Minimum Wage is increased.
Niles, Barton & Wilmer celebrates its 170th anniversary.
The Personal Information Protection Act requires that Maryland businesses implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices to protect personal information that they own or license.
The Concurrent Causation Clause is upheld by U.S.D.C. for the District of Maryland, rejecting an “efficient proximate causation” analysis.
The National Defense Authorization Act amends the Family and Medical Leave Act to provide new leave rights for families of servicemembers.
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals makes a decision that impacts employer practices regarding accrued, but unused leave. The Governor signs legislation enacted by the General Assembly that has the effect of retroactively reversing the Court opinion.
The Maryland Court of Appeals makes a decision in the case of Condominium Insurance that may radically alter insurance responsibilities among unit owners, condo associations and carriers.
Niles, Barton & Wilmer assists in the sale of Ireland’s prestigious Ashford Castle.
Niles, Barton & Wilmer supports Baltimore inner city youth as a mentoring firm for CLIA (Community Law in Action).
Provisions in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 expire.
recommendations must be implemented, creating new jobs and opportunities for Maryland and surrounding areas.
Local presence, global depth.