Missouri Timeline – Legends of America

1673	During their voyage down the Mississippi River in the summer of 1673, Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet were the first Europeans to visit what would later become Missouri.
1682	Explorer Rene-Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, claimed possession of the Louisiana Territory region for France near modern-day Venice, Louisiana, on April 9, 1682.
1700	Jesuit missionaries established the first European settlement in modern Missouri at the Mission of St. Francis Xavier near modern Des Peres in 1700. It was abandoned in 1703 due to its swampy location.
1714	Frenchman Etienne de Bourgmont builds a fort on the Missouri River near the mouth of the Grand River.
1719	Workmen for the Company of the Indies began digging for lead and silver in the Mine la Motte area as one of the first lead mines in North America in 1719. Due to the physical requirements, the following year Phillippe Francois Renault, the leading operator of the mine, brought the first enslaved people to colonial Missouri to work as forced laborers.
1723	Fort Orleans was built on the north bank of the Missouri River by Etienne de Bourgmont in modern Carroll County. It was abandoned six years later.
1750	Ste. Genevieve, the first permanent white settlement in Missouri, was founded in 1750.
1762	The Treaty of Fontainebleau, which would transfer French Louisiana to Spain, was signed on November 3, 1762.
1764	Pierre Laclede Liguest founded St. Louis along with his stepson Auguste Choteau and other fur traders on February 15, 1764.
1769	Louis Blanchette established St. Charles as a trading post in 1769.
1770	The Spanish government officially assumed control of the Territory of Louisiana on May 20, 1770, which had been ceded to them in 1762.
1773	Mine au Breton, later called Potosi, an early lead mining settlement, was founded by Francois Azor in 1773.
1787	The Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery in the territory north of the Ohio River on July 13, 1787. Some French slave owners in that area moved west of the Mississippi River into Spanish-controlled territory to avoid losing their enslaved people.
1789	Colonel George Morgan established New Madrid on February 14, 1789.
1793	Louis Lorimer and other French Canadians established Cape Girardeau as a trading post on January 4, 1793. Later that year, a land grant was granted to members of the Shawnee and Delaware tribes.
1798	To bring more American colonial settlers to the area, Spanish Lieutenant Governor Zenon Trudeau granted frontiersman Daniel Boone 1,000 arpents (acres) of land to settle in the Louisiana Territory on January 23, 1798.
	Daniel Boone
1800	Spain returned the Louisiana Territory to France with the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso on October 1, 1800.
	Moses Austin made the first sheet lead and cannonballs manufactured in Missouri
1803	The Louisiana Purchase between France and the United States was signed on April 30, 1803, doubling the size of the United States.
1804	William Clark, Meriwether Lewis, and the Corps of Discovery set out from St. Charles on May 21, 1804.
	The District of Louisiana was organized on October 1, 1804, under the administrative control of the governor of the Indiana Territory.
	The original five districts of Missouri were created on October 1, 1804, by proclamation from Governor William Henry Harrison: Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, St. Charles, St. Louis, and Ste. Genevieve.
	The Treaty of St. Louis was signed on November 3, 1804, in Portage des Sioux by William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory and District of Louisiana, and representatives from the Sac and Fox Indians ceding land in Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin to the United States Government.
1805	Nathan and Daniel Morgan Boone partnered with James and Jesse Morrison in 1805 to produce salt in modern Howard County. The Boone’s Lick Road from St. Louis to the Salt Lick, and later Franklin, was a significant contributor to the rapid settlement of the lower Missouri River Valley.
	The Territory of Louisiana was established with the seat of government at St. Louis on March 3, 1805.
1806	The District of Arkansas was established on June 26, 1806, becoming the sixth district of Missouri.
1807	The General Assembly of the Louisiana Territory enacted legislation on June 27, 1807, allowing enslaved persons to sue for their freedom.
1808	The first newspaper in Missouri, the Missouri Gazette, was first published on July 12, 1808, by Joseph Charless in St. Louis.
	The Treaty of Fort Clark, the first treaty with the Osage, was signed on November 10, 1808. It established Fort Osage in future Jackson County as a federal trade post where furs could be exchanged and specified payments for land. It also established Osage hunting rights within ceded lands and provided for dispute resolution.
1809	The Missouri Fur Company was organized in St. Louis in 1809. Prominent members of the company included Manuel Lisa, Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, and William Clark. The abundance of animal furs in the west played a key role in developing the Upper Louisiana territory.
	Trading Post by Charles Russell
1811	On December 16, 1811, an earthquake with an epicenter in southeastern Missouri was estimated to be a Richter scale magnitude of 7.5. The most powerful in U.S. history, east of the Rocky Mountains, the quake decimated over 200,000 square miles of land, including New Madrid. It rang church bells as far away as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Boston, Massachusetts. Subsequent quakes and aftershocks lasted into April 1812, displacing settlers in the region.
1812	The Territory of Louisiana was renamed the Territory of Missouri on June 4, 1812, after the Territory of Orleans became the State of Louisiana.
	The first session of the Missouri’s territorial General Assembly met in St. Louis on October 1, 1812. Every tax-paying white male could vote for members of a territorial House of Representatives. The upper house, the Legislative Council, consisted of nine members appointed by the President.
	Territorial Governor of Missouri, Benjamin Howard, issued a proclamation on October 1, 1812, making the previously established districts into counties.
1813	The original counties of Missouri were organized by law on December 31, 1813. The original counties were Arkansas, Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, and Washington.
1815	Lawrence County was established from Arkansas County on January 15, 1815. Most of Lawrence County became Lawrence County, Arkansas when the Arkansas Territory was created in 1819.
1816	Mid-Missouri’s first circuit court opened at Cole’s Fort on July 8.
	The New Madrid earthquakes spurred the country’s first Congressional disaster relief legislation, “An act for the relief of the inhabitants of the late county of New Madrid, in Missouri Territory, who suffered by earthquakes,” was signed on February 17, 1815. The act allowed displaced settlers to relocate their lands elsewhere in the territory.
1817	The steamboat Zebulon M. Pike, the first to navigate the Mississippi River above the mouth of the Ohio River, reached St. Louis on August 2, 1817.
1818	A petition to Congress from Missouri requesting statehood was presented by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Henry Clay, on January 8, 1818.
	The first U.S. Land Sale in Missouri was recorded at the St. Louis District Land Office on July 13, 1818.
	There are 10,000 slaves in Missouri.
1820	The Missouri statehood controversy became a national issue as slavery was debated during the “Missouri Compromise” on March 6, 1820. The Missouri Compromise allowed Maine to enter the Union as a free state and Missouri to enter as a slave state, with the provision the remaining portion of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36° 30’ line would have slavery “forever prohibited” thus keeping the balance of slave and free states equal in Congress.
	The first Missouri Constitutional Convention met at the Mansion House Hotel in St. Louis. Written in only 38 days, the first Missouri Constitution was adopted on July 19, 1820.
	Missouri’s first state election was held on August 28, 1820, and Alexander McNair was elected the first governor.
	Missouri’s first General Assembly began its session on September 18, 1820, at the Missouri Hotel in St. Louis.
1821	President James Monroe signed a proclamation on August 10, 1821, for Missouri to become the 24th state. The state capitol was located in St. Charles until a permanent location was designated.
	Santa Fe Trail
	William Becknell widened the Santa Fe Trail to a wagon road for trade in September 1821, allowing it to serve as a commercial highway. He then made the first trip along the trail to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
	Governor Alexander McNair signed the bill designating the site of the City of Jefferson as the seat of government on December 31, 1821.
1822	The bill to create the Missouri State Seal was adopted on January 11
1824	St. Regis Seminary opens in Florissant on May 11. It is the first Roman Catholic institution established in the country for the higher education of Native Americans.
	In the slave freedom suit Winny v. Whitesides, the Missouri Supreme Court established the judicial precedent of “once free, always free” on December 30, 1824.
1825	Massey Iron Works, the first commercially viable iron works in the United States west of the Mississippi River near modern-day Meramec State Park, was established and produced iron from 1827 to 1891. The Iron Works used water flow from a local spring and charcoal made from local forests to power kilns to process high-grade iron ore.
1826	The Missouri State Government permanently moved to Jefferson City on October 1, 1826.
	Jefferson City, Missouri in about 1855.
1829	Between 1830 and 1840, more than 38,000 Germans settled in the “Missouri Rhineland” area from St. Louis to Hermann, with more following in later decades. Much of this can be attributed to Henry Duden’s 1829 self-published promotional pamphlet touting the abundant lands in Missouri upon his return to Germany.
	The Missouri State Library was established by law on January 22.
1831	Mormon founder Joseph Smith settles with his followers in Independence.
1833	Dr. John Polk Campbell donated land in 1833 for the county seat of Greene County. The city of Springfield was incorporated in 1838.
1835	On March 19, 1835, the Missouri General Assembly passed an act that outlined funding for public schools in Missouri, established a Board of Commissioners, and provided at least six months of education each term.
1836	The Missouri State Penitentiary received its first prisoner. Wilson Eidson of Greene County was convicted of Grand Larceny on March 8, 1836. The Penitentiary was the first to open west of the Mississippi River.
	Senator Thomas Hart Benton verbally attacks abolitionists for sending petitions to the US Congress.
1837	President Martin Van Buren issued a proclamation on March 28, 1837, completing the annexation of the Platte Purchase area to Missouri, adding the northwestern portion of the state. Missouri was not allowed to expand the state due to the Missouri Compromise; however, the General Assembly petitioned Congress to acquire the area. This land was acquired through the Treaty of Chicago with the Potawatomi in 1835 and a Treaty with the Ioway and Sac and Fox in 1836.
	Missouri’s first capitol in Jefferson City was destroyed by fire on November 15.
1838	The Cherokee passed through Missouri on the “Trail of Tears” as part of the forced Indian removal in 1838. Coming from parts of North Carolina and Georgia, numerous groups of Cherokee trekked through the mountains, primarily between Jackson in Cape Girardeau County and Springfield, along three southern routes in the state before relocating to Indian Territory.
	Trail of Tears.
	As a result of conflict between Mormons and other white settlers in the western part of the state, Governor Lilburn Boggs issued an order on October 27, 1838, demanding “Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary.” Governor Christopher “Kit” Bond rescinded this order on June 25, 1976.
1839	The Geyer Act provided for the institution and support of a State University and the government of Colleges and Academies, created the foundation of Missouri’s public university system, and was approved on February 9, 1839.
	The Honey War, a bloodless territorial dispute over a 9.5-mile wide strip between the Iowa Territory and Missouri, erupted in 1839. Both sides’ militias faced a stalemate after a conflict regarding taxes on three bee trees. The U.S. Supreme Court would eventually determine the matter in State of Missouri vs. State of Iowa on April 6, 1849.
1840	The Slicker War of Benton and Polk Counties began in the old fashion tradition of a Hatfield and McCoy-type feud. The feud was between Hiram Turk and his three sons against Andy Jones and his four sons. What started as a family affair eventually drew more people into the “war” that would last several years.
1841	The State University, now called the University of Missouri, the first state university west of the Mississippi River, opened on April 14, 1841.
1842	The first organized Oregon Trail wagon train left from Elm Grove, Missouri, on May 16, 1842.
	A National Depression hits Missouri. Prices plummet, and foreclosures and bankruptcies rise.
	Carthage, named for the ancient city, was established along the Spring River just east of Joplin.
1844	The great Missouri flood destroys the Independence wharves, and Westport Landing gains most of the Santa Fe trade.
1845	The town of St. Joseph was incorporated on February 26, 1845. Joseph Robidoux established a trading post known as Blacksnake Hills in that location in 1826.
	Robidoux Row in St. Joseph, Missouri by the National Historic Buildings Survey.
1846	Dred and Harriet Scott, an enslaved couple in St. Louis, sued for their freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court on April 6, 1846, under Missouri’s “once free, always free” statutes. The suit was allowed based on their owner moving them to the free territory of Wisconsin before returning them to Missouri.
1847	State Hospital No. 1 was established in Fulton on February 16, 1847, as a hospital for the care and treatment of the “insane” and began receiving patients in 1851.
	The Missouri General Assembly passed “An Act respecting slaves, free negroes, and mulattos” prohibiting the education of Black people, free or enslaved, on February 16, 1847. This act also included that no other free persons of color could immigrate into the state, contradicting the Second Missouri Compromise.
	After Congress declared war on Mexico, over 1,350 Missourians volunteered to fight in the Mexican-American War. Alexander Doniphan, Colonel of the 1st Regiment Missouri Mounted Volunteers, led the troops to play a major role in several victories in northern Mexico, most notably the Battle of Sacramento River on February 28, 1847.
	St. Louis was connected to the East Coast by telegraph on December 20, 1847.
	Boatmen’s Bank, the oldest bank west of the Mississippi River established on October 18.
1848	Hermann celebrates its first “Weinfest.”
1849	With the discovery of gold in California in 1849, the Missouri towns of St. Louis, Independence, St. Joseph, and Westport Landing, in modern Kansas City, became primary points of departure for emigrants bound for California, establishing Missouri as the “Gateway to the West.”
	The second and most serious cholera epidemic struck Missouri in the spring and summer of 1849, and over 4,000 people died in St. Louis alone. That same year on May 17, 1849, a devastating fire destroyed most of downtown St. Louis and numerous steamboats along the riverfront.
	Westport Landing in Kansas City.
1850	The Town of Kansas (now Kansas City) was incorporated on February 4, 1850, after the Kansas Town Company, a group of 14 investors, settled the area.
1851	The Missouri School for the Deaf was established on February 28, 1851, and opened on November 5, later that year, in Fulton.
	Groundbreaking ceremonies for constructing the Pacific Railroad, the first railroad in Missouri, were held in St. Louis on July 4, 1851.
1854	President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act on May 30, 1854, allowing “popular sovereignty” in determining if a territory would be a slave state or a free state. This act set the stage for the violent Missouri-Kansas Border War, where the Missouri “Border Ruffians” and the Kansas “Jayhawkers” transformed a frontier fight over slavery into a national issue.
1855	The Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis, previously a private endeavor, became a state institution on February 24, 1855. In 1860, the Missouri School of the Blind became the first school in the United States to adopt the use of Braille, an alphabet consisting of raised dots.
	On August 30, the side-wheel steamboat Arabia leaves St. Louis and sinks at Westport Landing on September 5th
	On November 1, 1855, in the first major bridge collapse in American history, a train pulled by the locomotive O’Sullivan plummeted into the Gasconade River, killing 30 and wounding hundreds, many of which were prominent Missourians.
1857	U.S. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney handed down the Dred Scott decision on March 6, 1857. The case, Dred Scott v. Sanford, which originated in St. Louis, intensified the controversy regarding the expansion of slavery. Taney concluded that Scott lacked standing in court because he lacked U.S. citizenship.
1858	The Butterfield Overland Mail Company began using stagecoaches to transport mail and passengers on September 18, 1858. One of the routes began by train in St. Louis, switched to stagecoach in Tipton, before heading south to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then west to San Francisco.
	Butterfield Overland Mail Coach.
1859	The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was completed on February 13, 1859, making it the first railroad to cross Missouri.
1860	E. Anheuser & Co. was established in St. Louis in 1860. Eberhard Anheuser bought a struggling brewing company in 1852 and grew the business. Son-in-law Adolphus Busch would later join as company secretary and then become an administrator. E. Anheuser & Co. was renamed Anheuser-Busch in 1879 and was the first American brewery to use pasteurization, mechanical refrigeration, and refrigerated railroad cars to keep beer fresh.
	The short-lived Pony Express started its first run from St. Joseph to Sacramento, California, on April 3, 1860. The last run was on October 24, 1861.
1861	A State Convention began determining the relationship between Missouri and the U.S. Government on February 28, 1861. Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson argued for Missouri’s secession. On March 19, the Convention voted against seceding from the Union 98-1.
	Attempting to tip the state towards the Confederacy, Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson’s efforts culminated at the Camp Jackson Affair on May 10, 1861. Volunteer Union Army regiments, under Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon, captured 669 secessionist state militia members at Camp Jackson after learning the militia was planning to raid the federal arsenal in St. Louis. While marching the captives through town, a hostile crowd gathered. After an initial gunshot, Lyon’s men fired into the mob, killing at least 28 civilians and injuring dozens of others. Several days of rioting throughout St. Louis followed. The violence ended only after martial law was imposed.
	Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson abandoned the capitol before Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon and Union forces occupied Jefferson City on June 13, 1861. The State Convention adopted an ordinance that the offices of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, and the General Assembly were vacant on July 31, 1861. This was to oust the pro-Confederate members, with new elections to be held in November. Hamilton Gamble was appointed provisional Governor of Missouri by the Convention. In response, Jackson issued a proclamation on August 5 declaring Missouri a free republic, dissolving ties with the Union
	The Battle of Wilson’s Creek on August 10, 1861, resulted in a Union defeat leaving southwestern Missouri in Confederate hands. Battle of Wilsons Creek, Missouri by Kurz and Alison, 1893.
	John C. Fremont issued a proclamation on August 30, 1861, immediately emancipating the enslaved people of Confederate supporters in Missouri. President Abraham Lincoln revoked the order on September 11, removing Fremont from command.
	Although unable to achieve a quorum, Missouri’s “Rebel Legislature” adopted an Act of Secession in Neosho, Missouri, on October 28, 1861, and eventually set up government offices in Marshall, Texas. The Confederacy recognized Missouri as its twelfth state, but Missouri did not leave the Union.
1862	The Battle of Island Mound, a small skirmish that took place on October 29, 1862, in Bates County, marked the first time Black soldiers saw combat in the Civil War. The 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers fought pro-Confederate guerillas and, due to their success, showed that Black soldiers could and would fight for the cause. They would be allowed to enter federal service a few weeks later.
1863	President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863, proclaiming enslaved people to be free. However, the proclamation did not affect Missouri’s slaveholders.
	Recruiting for the first Black Missouri regiment began at Schofield Barracks in St. Louis in June 1863. Over 300 enlisted in the First Regiment of Missouri Colored Infantry, which became the 62nd Infantry of the United States Colored Troops. Over 8,000 Black Missourians served in the Union Army.
	The Lawrence Massacre occurred when William Quantrill’s Raiders, a prominent Missouri Confederate guerilla group, attacked Lawrence, Kansas, on August 21, 1863, killing about 150 men and boys. This was in retaliation for pro-Unionist Jayhawker attacks and the imprisonment of women associated with the guerillas in a makeshift jail in Kansas City. Due to overcrowding and poor conditions, the building collapsed, resulting in five deaths.
	Union General Thomas Ewing issued General Order No. 11 on August 25, 1863, requiring all people living in Jackson, Cass, Bates, and northern Vernon counties to vacate the area unless their loyalty to the Union could be proven. This ultimately resulted in farm animals being killed, property destroyed, and burned to the ground, and the area became known as the “Burnt District.”
1864	The Battle of Fort Davidson on September 27, 1864, was the first battle of Price’s Raid into Missouri. Confederate troops under the command of Major General Sterling Price had entered Missouri with hopes of challenging Union control of the state.
1865	The 1865 Missouri Constitutional Convention in St. Louis passed an ordinance abolishing slavery in Missouri on January 11, 1865, with only four delegates voting against it. The ordinance passed three weeks before the U.S. Congress proposed the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery. The amendment went into effect on December 18, 1865.
	Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, ending the Civil War in the east on April 9, 1865. Missouri Confederate Brigadier General M. Jeff Thompson surrendered the State Guard’s forces in Arkansas near Wittsburg and Jacksonport, Arkansas, on May 11.
	Missouri’s second Constitution, known as the “Drake Constitution,” was adopted on April 10, 1865. This Constitution banned enslavement without exception and limited the rights of former Confederates and Confederate sympathizers. One of the new provisions known as the “Ironclad Oath” required teachers, clergy, judges, and others to promise they had not committed “disloyal acts.” If not, the Constitution also forced the removal of judges, court clerks and recorders, and sheriffs from their positions, and the right to vote was restricted to only white Union men.
	Black Missouri leaders organized the Missouri Equal Rights League in October 1865. Considered Missouri’s first Black political activist organization, League members fought for legal equality, placing emphasis on education and voting.
1866	The Missouri Historical Society was organized in St. Louis on August 11.
	The Lincoln Institute, later renamed Lincoln University in 1921, received its first students on September 17, 1866. The Institute was incorporated to provide education for Black students in Missouri. It was founded by Black soldiers of the Civil War’s 62nd and 65th Regiment Infantry of the United States Colored Troops.
	Sedalia is an important railhead for Texas cattle drives.
	Sedalia, Missouri Cowtown Display by Kathy Alexander.
1867	Missouri was the 17th state to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, addressing universal citizenship rights and equal protection under the law on January 25, 1867. The amendment went into effect on July 9, 1868.
	The Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri was organized in St. Louis on May 8, 1867. The sole purpose of this organization was the political enfranchisement of women, the first such organization in the United States.
1869	“Big Mound” in St. Louis was destroyed in April 1869 for railroad and other developments in St. Louis. St. Louis’s nickname, “Mound City,” came from earthen mounds built by indigenous people of the Mississippian culture. There were originally over 40 major mounds in and around what is now St. Louis, with numerous others in the region.
	On July 3, the Hannibal Bridge over the Missouri River opens in Kansas City. It is the first railroad bridge across the river.
1870	Missouri was the 21st state to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the federal government and each state from denying citizens the right to vote based on that citizen’s “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” on January 10, 1870. The amendment went into effect on March 30, 1870.
	Lemma Barkeloo enrolled with the Supreme Court of Missouri on March 30, 1870, making her the first female lawyer in Missouri. She was also the first female trial lawyer in the United States and the first female lawyer to try a case in federal court, all in that same year.
1870	The First District Normal School (now Truman State University) was established in Kirksville as the state’s first public teacher’s college on March 19, 1870. The school had been founded in 1867 as a private institution. The Lincoln Institute Normal School was also established during this legislative session on February 14, 1870.
	The Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, now called the Missouri University of Science and Technology, was the first technological learning institution west of the Mississippi River. It was established on February 24, 1870, by the General Assembly. Phelps County was approved as the location on December 20, 1870.
1871	Warrensburg was selected as the location for the Second District Normal School and became known as Warrensburg Teachers College, now the University of Central Missouri, on April 27, 1871.
	Phoebe W. Couzins of St. Louis became Missouri’s first female law school graduate when she graduated from the Washington University Law Department on May 8, 1871. Couzins later was appointed the nation’s first female U.S. Marshal in 1887.
1872	Governor B. Gratz Brown and his family moved into the newly completed Governor’s Mansion on January 20, 1872.
1873	Missouri’s Third District Normal School, known as Southeast Missouri State Normal School, now called Southeast Missouri State University, was established on March 22, 1873, in Cape Girardeau.
	The Missouri Supreme Court upheld a decision by the St. Louis Circuit Court, denying Virginia Minor the right to register to vote
	After petitioning the St. Louis School Board for the opportunity, Susan Elizabeth Blow opened the first public kindergarten in the United States at the Des Peres School in Carondelet on September 1.
1874	On January 31, the James Gang makes its first train robbery at Gads Hill.
	James Gang Train Robbery.
	The Eads Bridge, spanning the Mississippi River, opened in St. Louis on July 4, 1874. It was the first bridge across the Mississippi River south of the Missouri River. An elephant crossed the bridge on June 14, 1874, to test the strength of the new structure.
1875	The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the decision in Minor v. Happersett on March 29, 1875. Virginia Minor, a cofounder of the Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri, attempted to register to vote in October 1872 for the upcoming Presidential election. The court decided the U.S. Constitution did not grant “all persons” the right to vote. Because it allowed states to determine voter eligibility, the case was subsequently used as a basis to disenfranchise voters for decades.
	A grasshopper plague in the Midwest caused an estimated $15 million in damage in Missouri in 1875. During the height of the plague, farmers said the Rocky Mountain Locusts would “block out the sun,” and Missouri offered a bounty for bushels of the insects.
	Missouri’s third Constitution was adopted on October 30, 1875. This Constitution removed the “Ironclad Oath” of the previous Constitution, as well as the other limitations towards former Confederates and Confederate sympathizers.
1876	Known as the “Great Divorce,” the people of St. Louis voted to split St. Louis City and St. Louis County into different government entities on August 22, 1876.
1881	Governor Thomas Crittenden offered a $5,000 reward on July 28, 1881, for the arrest and conviction of members of the Jesse James gang.
1882	Robert Ford shot Jesse James in St. Joseph, killing him, in hopes of obtaining the award.
	On October 5, Frank James surrenders himself to the governor of Missouri and stands trial for robbery and murder. He is acquitted.
1889	On May 10, 1889, three Bald Knobbers were executed in Christian County. Named from the grassy bald knob summits of the nearby Ozark Mountains, the Bald Knobbers were a pro-Union vigilante group in southwest Missouri from around 1883-1889, who opposed gang activities stemming from the anti-Bald Knobber bushwhackers ongoing since the Civil War.
1890	Annie White Baxter was elected the county clerk of Jasper County on November 4, 1890. She was the first woman to hold elected office in Missouri and the first female county clerk in the nation.
1891	One of America’s first skyscrapers, the Wainwright Building in St. Louis, opened in 1891.
1892	Dr. Andrew Taylor Still founded the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville on October 3, 1892, and had its first class of students. Osteopathy is a practice he invented where an individual relied on the manipulation of joints and bones to diagnose and treat illness.
1893	Walter Moran Farmer, the first Black attorney to graduate from Washington University-St. Louis argued the case of Duncan vs. Missouri before the Missouri Supreme Court, which was decided on May 30, 1893. He was the first Black attorney to argue before the court and was one of the first to argue before the United States Supreme Court, where the case was appealed in 1894.
1894	Union Station opened in St. Louis on September 1, 1894. At its opening, it was the world’s largest and busiest railroad station, and its train shed had the largest roof span in the world. Union Station in St. Louis, Missouri.
1898	May 4 – Volunteers for the Spanish-American War began arriving in St. Louis on May 4.
1899	Scott Joplin’s “The Maple Leaf Rag” was published in Sedalia, Missouri 1899.
1901	The first State Fair was held at Sedalia September 9-14, 1901.
	The Monsanto Company was founded in St. Louis on November 29, 1901. Originally a chemical company, the company would become a major producer of genetically engineered crops and be of the leading agricultural biotechnology companies.
1903	In June, the Missouri River crested in Kansas City at 34.9 feet, 12.9 feet above the natural river bank, leaving 22,000 people homeless.
1904	The St. Louis World’s Fair, formally called the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, opened on April 30, 1904. The Fair also hosted the 1904 Summer Olympics, the first Olympic games held in the United States.
1905	The Fourth District Normal School (now Missouri State University) in Springfield and the Fifth District Normal School (now Northwest Missouri State University) in Maryville were established on March 17, 1905, by the General Assembly.
1907	A project aimed to convert swampland in Missouri’s bootheel into productive, habitable agricultural land was incorporated on November 30, 1907. Constructed between 1914 and 1928, the Little River Drainage District has almost 1,000 miles of ditches and 300 miles of levees, draining 1.2 million acres of land. It was one of the largest independent public works projects in the United States.
1909	Missouri Supreme Court handed down a decision in the case against Standard Oil Company, affirming the company’s violation of Missouri antitrust laws
1910	St. Louis City citizens elected Charles Turpin, constable of St. Louis’ Fourth District, on November 8, 1910. Turpin became the first Black candidate elected to public office in Missouri.
1911	The Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City was destroyed by fire when lightning struck the dome on February 5, 1911. The new Capitol building was completed in 1917 and officially dedicated on October 6, 1924.
	Missouri was the 26th state to ratify the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, establishing a federal income tax on March 16, 1911. The amendment went into effect on February 3, 1913.
1912	The first successful parachute jump to be made from a moving airplane was made by Captain Albert Berry in St. Louis on March 1.
1913	The Missouri State Flag, designed by Mary Watkins Oliver, was adopted by the signing of House Bill 329 on March 22, 1913.
1916	In their first use of St. Louis’s new city charter initiative petition process, voters overwhelmingly passed a city-wide segregation ordinance on February 29, 1916, stating no one could move to a block of residences where 75% of people were another race. The U.S. Supreme Court Case decision in Buchanan v. Warley, based in Louisville, Kentucky, made ordinances like this unconstitutional the following year, but other racially restrictive covenants continued.
1917	The United States joined World War I on April 7, 1917. Over 30,000 Missouri soldiers primarily served in the 35th and 89th Army Infantry Divisions, and over 14,000 Missourians enlisted in the Navy.
1919	Missouri was the 37th state to ratify the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting the manufacture, distribution, and sale of intoxicating liquors on January 16, 1919. Prohibition went into effect on January 17, 1920, deeply affecting Missouri’s beer and wine industries requiring Anheuser-Busch, local wineries, and other companies to create alternate products.
	Prohibition Agents Destroying Alcohol
	Governor Frederick D. Gardner signed Senate Bill 1 into law on April 5, 1919, granting presidential suffrage to Missouri women.
	The Missouri General Assembly established the Missouri Negro Industrial Commission to improve the conditions of Black Missourians on June 3, 1919. The Commission provided recommendations for improvement of Black life in Missouri, addressing education, rural life, migration from southern states, anti-lynching efforts, and employment issues, and existed until 1928 when the legislation authorizing it expired.
	Missouri became the 11th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting full suffrage to women on July 3, 1919. The amendment went into effect on August 26, 1920.
1920	Marie Byrum became the first woman to vote in Missouri history on August 31, 1920, during a special election for Hannibal City Council. Harriett Hampton, who voted later that day, was probably the first Black woman to vote in Missouri.
	Elected as a representative from St. Louis on November 2, 1920, Walthall Moore became the first Black person to serve in the Missouri General Assembly.
1921	Missouri’s first radio station, WEW in St. Louis, began broadcasting twice-daily weather reports for Missouri and Illinois on April 26, 1921.
	Mayme Ousley was sworn in as the first female mayor in the state of Missouri on May 2, 1921, after a local election in St. James.
	The Centennial Road Law, providing for the construction of a modern system of Missouri highways, was signed into law on August 4.
	On November 1, 1921, the groundbreaking for the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City began. Attending were the Five Allied Commanders of World War I.
1922	Mellcene T. Smith of St. Louis and Sarah Lucille Turner of Kansas City became the first women elected to the Missouri General Assembly on November 7, 1922.
1925	The Tri-State Tornado hit parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925. Originating in southeastern Missouri, the tornado was the deadliest in United States history.
	The crime-ridden Pendergast years begin in Kansas City. Run by political boss Thomas J. Pendergast, the chairman of the Jackson County Democratic Party, was an unelected dealmaker who controlled Kansas City and Jackson County, Missouri, from 1925 to 1939. Exerted tremendous influence over almost every facet of political, business, and cultural life in Kansas City; he ran saloons, gambling, and prostitution operations while handing out government contracts and patronage jobs, committing voter fraud, and other corrupt activities.
1927	May 21 – Charles Lindbergh landed the “Spirit of St. Louis” in Paris on May 21.
1929	The stock market crashed on October 29, ushering in the Great Depression.
1931	Missouri was the third state to complete and pave its portion of Route 66 highway on January 5, 1931.
	Governor Henry S. Caulfield signed a bill creating the Missouri State Highway Patrol on April 24.
	Bagnell Dam was completed in April 1931, forming the Lake of the Ozarks, one of the largest artificial lakes in the world with approximately 1,400 miles of shoreline.
	Bagnell Dam and the Lake of the Ozarks.
1933	The Kansas City Massacre took place at Union Station on June 17.
	Missouri was the 20th state to ratify the Twenty-First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, repealing Prohibition on August 29, 1933. The amendment went into effect on December 5, 1933.
	William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art was opened to the public in Kansas City.
1936	Thomas Hart Benton’s mural A Social History of Missouri in the State Capitol’s House Lounge was completed on December 19, 1936. A visual timeline of the state of Missouri, the mural brought criticism as Benton did not shy away from controversial aspects of Missouri’s history.
1937.	The first Missouri Conservation Commission was appointed on July 1.
1938	The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case Missouri ex rel. Gaines vs. Canada on December 12, 1938. The court struck a blow to Missouri’s “separate but equal” laws, stating that in the absence of an equal law school for Black students, Gaines should be admitted to the University of Missouri law school. Gaines disappeared shortly after this decision and did not attend.
1939	Kansas City “Boss” Tom Pendergast was sentenced to 15 months in the federal penitentiary for income tax evasion on May 22.
	J.S. McDonnell organized the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in St. Louis; it merged with Douglas to form McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation in 1967.
1940	The Ellis Fischel State Cancer Center was opened in Columbia, becoming the first state-owned and operated hospital west of the Mississippi River devoted exclusively to the care of cancer patients.
1941	The decision in State ex rel. Bluford v. Canada was handed down on July 25, 1941, by the Missouri Supreme Court. Lucile Bluford, a Black student, tried to register for journalism classes at the graduate program at the University of Missouri and was prohibited due to her race. The Supreme Court decision stated the University had to admit her as there was no comparable program in the state. In response, the school closed the graduate program stating there was not enough faculty to teach due to World War II. The Lincoln University School of Journalism was established shortly thereafter.
1942	The lynching of Cleo Wright in Sikeston on January 12, 1942, initiated a federal investigation by the United States Department of Justice, the first time the Department intervened in a Civil Rights case. Although no indictments were made, the investigation set a precedent for federal intervention in civil rights cases. Wright was the last Black man lynched in Missouri.
1943	The George Washington Carver National Monument near Diamond was the first U.S. National Monument dedicated to a non-president and the first for an African American. It was founded on July 14, 1943, by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
1944	U.S. Senator Harry S. Truman of Independence is elected Vice President.
1945	On March 30, Missouri’s fourth and current Constitution became effective.
	U.S. Vice President and former Missouri U.S. Senator from Independence, Harry S Truman, became President upon the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt on April 12, 1945. He was elected for a second term on November 2, 1948.
	The Missouri Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Kraemer v. Shelley St. Louis housing segregation case
	World War II ended on September 2, 1945. Over 450,000 Missourians served in the Pacific and European Theaters as part of the Allied forces fighting the Axis Powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy.
1947	KSD, the first television station in Missouri, broadcast its first program in St. Louis on February 8, 1947. The broadcast consisted of news, interviews, and a sports show. There were only four television sets in the area and only 12 other television stations in the nation.
1948	President Harry S Truman was elected to the Presidency.
1950	Judge Sam Blair of the Cole County Circuit Court ordered the University of Missouri to enroll Black students on June 27, 1950. Gus Ridgel was the first student to be admitted that August, and two other students, Elmer Bell, and George Horne, were enrolled at the School of Mines and Metallurgy (now Missouri S&T) in Rolla.
1951	The Great Flood of 1951 occurred in July in northeast Kansas and the Kansas City area.
	Kansas City Flood, 1951.
1952	Leonor K. Sullivan of St. Louis was elected as Missouri’s first female U.S. Representative on November 4, 1952.
1954	Inmates at the Missouri State Penitentiary initiated a riot on September 22, 1954, partially in protest of prison conditions. Lasting the entire night, there were four inmate deaths, 29 inmate injuries, four guard injuries, and no escapes. The Riot caught national attention, and despite a lengthy report and investigation, conditions did not improve.
1956	Governor Phil M. Donnelly appointed Theodore McMillian as the first Black judge in Missouri on March 16, 1956, to the 22nd Judicial Circuit in St. Louis. He was appointed to the Missouri Court of Appeals-Eastern District in 1972 and to the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1978.
	Missouri was awarded the nation’s first contract to build an interstate highway, what is now I-44, on August 2, 1956. Later that day, the state was awarded another contract for a portion of what is now I-70. Construction began on August 13, making Missouri also the first state to begin construction on an interstate highway.
1957	The Missouri General Assembly created the Missouri Commission on Human Rights on June 8, 1957. Originally focusing solely on racial discrimination, the Commission now investigates complaints of discrimination in housing, employment, and places of public accommodations related to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, and disability.
1960	Theodore McNeal (St. Louis) was elected Missouri’s first Black state senator on November 8, 1960.
1962	DeVerne Calloway of St. Louis was elected as the first Black woman state representative in Missouri’s General Assembly on November 6, 1962.
1963	Missouri was the 34th state to ratify the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting poll taxes in voting on May 13, 1963. The Amendment went into effect on January 23, 1964.
1964	Created by an Act of Congress on August 27, 1964, the Ozark National Scenic Riverways was established to protect the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers, the first federally protected rivers. The Riverway was formally dedicated on June 10, 1972.
1965	The Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis was completed on October 28, 1965. Located on the original settlement site of St. Louis, the arch symbolizes the city’s role in the development of the western frontier. At 630 feet tall, it is the tallest monument in the United States.
	Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri by Sue Ford, National Park Service.
1967	The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation merged with Douglas to form McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation in 1967.
1968	After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, what began as a peaceful protest in Kansas City ended in rioting on April 9, 1968, after the local schools refused to close. When the Kansas City Police deployed tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd, rioting erupted in other parts of the city, where six people died.
	The case Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 17, 1968, held that Congress could regulate the “badges and incidents of slavery” under the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Joseph Lee Jones had tried to buy a house in a white neighborhood in St. Louis but was denied because he was Black. The case reversed many previous private discrimination precedents set by the court.
	Missouri’s first Black United States congressman, William L. Clay, Sr. of St. Louis, was elected on November 5, 1968.
1969	The Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl IV.
1972	Mary Gant of Kansas City was elected as Missouri’s first female state senator on November 7, 1972.
1976	The current Mark Twain National Forest was established on February 17, 1976, after consolidating Clark National Forest and the previous Mark Twain National Forest, both established on September 11, 1939. Consisting of about 1.5 million acres, it represents approximately 11% of Missouri’s forested lands.
1977	Gwen B. Giles of St. Louis was the first Black woman elected to serve in the Missouri State Senate after a special election on December 6, 1977.
1980	In May, court-ordered desegregation began in Missouri, attempting to alleviate the racial isolation of black students. The court determined that the State of Missouri was required to pay half of the cost of school desegregation plans, and numerous legal issues arose.
1983	Scott Joplin is awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Scot Joplin was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize, bestowed posthumously for his contributions to American music.
1984	Margaret B. Kelly became the first woman to hold statewide office in Missouri when she was appointed to the office of State Auditor on May 30, 1984, by Governor Christopher “Kit” Bond.
	Harriett Woods was the first woman elected to statewide office as Lieutenant Governor on November 6, 1984.
1985	The town of Times Beach was disincorporated after investigations by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of horses dying in other locations. Times Beach was completely evacuated early in 1983. Prone to dusty roads, the city would spray the dirt roads with motor oil, not realizing it was contaminated with TCDD, also known as dioxin. This largest civilian exposure to dioxin was considered at the time one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history. The EPA declared the area safe in 1999, and is now part of Route 66 State Park. Danger in Times Beach, Missouri.
	The Kansas City Royals win the World Series.
1987	Ann K. Covington became the first woman appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court on September 3, 1987, by Governor John Ashcroft.
	Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Knoster was designated as the home of the B-2 Stealth Bomber unit.
1988	The Missouri Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Nancy Cruzan “right to life” case.
	One Kansas City Place was built. It is the tallest building in Missouri.
	Serial killer Bob Berdella was apprehended in Kansas. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was given life in prison sentence.
1990	The U.S. Supreme Court decided Cruzan vs. Director of the Missouri Department of Health on June 25, 1990. In the first “right to die” case heard before the Court, the Court found it was acceptable to require “clear and convincing evidence” of a patient’s wishes for the removal of life support. A significant outcome of the case was the normalization of advanced health directives.
	The first portion of the Katy Trail, now the country’s longest recreational rail trail at 240 miles, opened between Rocheport and McBaine in March 1990. The current trail runs from Machens to Clinton.
1992	Missouri voters approved riverboat gambling excursions on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
	Riverboat casino in St. Louis, Missouri.
1993	The Great Flood of 1993, lasting from April to October, devastated parts of Missouri and the Midwest. Flooding the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, it was the largest economic disaster in Missouri history resulting in over $15 billion in damages nationwide.
	Internet launched in Missouri.
1995	Ronnie L. White became the state’s first Black Supreme Court justice when Governor Mel Carnahan appointed him on October 23, 1995.
	Scientists, archeologists, and interested descendants gather in Kearney to dig up Jesse James’ grave.
2001	Jean Carnahan became the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate for Missouri on January 3, 2001. Governor Roger Wilson appointed her to serve after her husband, Governor Mel Carnahan, died in a plane crash on October 16, 2000, but won the November General Election.
2005	On December 14, 2005, the Taum Sauk Reservoir Dam, part of a hydroelectric power station, breached when water was pumped from the lower reservoir after the upper reservoir was full. It sent over one billion gallons of water down Proffit Mountain and into Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park near Lesterville. The new upper reservoir dam, rebuilt from the ground up, is the largest roller-compacted concrete dam in North America.
2007	Two missing teenage boys, including one missing since 2002, were found at the home of Michael Devlin near St. Louis. He was charged with kidnapping and child sexual abuse. He is serving 74 life sentences plus 2,020 years at Western Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri. His life sentences are 30 years each; his total sentence is 4,240 years.
2008	Anheuser-Busch sold to Belgian brewer InBev.
2011	Causing 161 deaths and over 1,150 injuries, a tornado that hit Joplin and other areas on May 22, 2011, was the seventh deadliest in U. S. history.
	St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series.
2014	The Black Lives Matter movement began on social media in 2013. It gained national attention in 2014 after the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown at the hands of a white police officer on August 9, 2014. In Ferguson, demonstrations and riots received national press coverage following his death. Ultimately, a grand jury did not indict the officer who shot Brown, concluding the officer had not violated federal law.
2015	World Series won by Kansas City Royals.
2018	Governor Eric Greitens resigned from office on June 1, 2018, after a May 29 court ruling ordering him to turn over documents from his political non-profit to the Missouri House Committee regarding allegations of misconduct. Greitens was the first Missouri governor to resign without an appointment to another position.
	Medical cannabis was legalized in November.
2020	Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl LIV
	Cori Bush of St. Louis was elected as the first Black U.S. Congresswoman for the state of Missouri on November 3, 2020.
2021	Robin Ransom was appointed as the first Black female Missouri Supreme Court Judge on May 24, 2021.
2022	Cannabis in Missouri was legalized for recreational use in November. The first licensed sales occurred on February 3, 2023.
2023	Vivek Malek became the first person of color and Indian American to hold statewide office in Missouri when he was appointed to State Treasurer on January 17, 2023, by Governor Michael Parson.
	Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl LVII.