Thetimeline of Kansas details past events that happened in what is present dayKansas. Located on the eastern edge of the Great Plains, the U.S. state of Kansas was the home of sedentary agrarian andhunter-gathererNative American societies, many of whom huntedAmerican bison. The region first appears in western history in the 16th century at the time of theSpanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, when Spanishconquistadors explored the unknown land now known as Kansas. It was later explored by French fur trappers who traded with the Native Americans. It became part of the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In the 19th century, the first American explorers designated the area as the "Great American Desert."
When the area was opened to Euro-American settlement in the 1850s, Kansas became the first battlefield in the conflict in the American Civil War. After the war, Kansas was home to Wild West towns servicing the cattle trade. With the railroads came heavy immigration from the East, from Europe, and from Freedmen called "Exodusters". For much of its history, Kansas has had arural economy based on wheat and other crops, supplemented by oil and railroads. Since 1945 the farm population has sharply declined and manufacturing has become more important, typified by the aircraft industry of Wichita.
1719: First Europeans visit the NorthernPawnees.1724: French commander atFort Orleans,Etienne de Bourgmont, visits theKansas River and establishes a trading post here, near the main Kansa village at the mouth of the river. Around the same time, theOtoe tribe of theSioux also inhabit various areas around the northeast corner of Kansas.
1780: The Kansa tribe moves its village further up the Kansas River to the junction of the Big Blue River, the current site ofManhattan, Kansas. The settlement is named Blue Earth Village.[3]
End of the 18th century: Kansa and Osage Nation dominant in the eastern part of the state — the Kansa on the Kansas River to the north and the Osage on theArkansas River to the south. Pawnees were dominant on the plains to the west and north of the Kansa and Osage nations, in regions home to massive herds ofbuffalo.
1803: Kansas, as part of theLouisiana Purchase, annexed to the United States as unorganized territory.
1820s: Kansas area (by then popularly known as the Great American Desert) is set aside as Indian territory by the U.S. government and closed to settlement by whites.
1821: After a brief period as part ofMissouri Territory, Kansas returned to unorganized status.
1821:Santa Fe Trail was opened across Kansas as country's transportation route to the Southwest, connecting Missouri withSanta Fe,New Mexico.
1825, June 3: 20 million acres (81000 km2) of land ceded by theKansa Nation to the United States, and the Kansa tribe are thereafter limited to a specific reservation in northeast Kansas.
1825, June: Osage Nation was limited to a reservation in southeast Kansas.
1825, November 7: Missouri Shawanoes (orShawnees) are the first Native Americans removed to the territory by treaty.
1827, May 8: Cantonment Leavenworth, orFort Leavenworth, (named in honor ofHenry Leavenworth) built just inside Indian territory to guard travelers on the United States' Western frontier. This was the first permanent settlement of white Americans in the future state of Kansas.
1831, August 30:Ottawa cede land to the United States and move to a small reservation on the Kansas River and its branches.
1832, April 6: Ottawa treaty ratified.
1832, October 24: U.S. government moves theKickapoos to a reservation inKansas.
1832, October 29:Piankeshaws andWeas agree to occupy 250 sections of land, bounded on the north by the Shawanoes; east by the western boundary line of Missouri; and west by theKaskaskias and Peorias.
1833, September 21: Treaty made with the United States and the Otoe tribe cedes their country south of the Little Nemaha River.
1836, September 17: The confederacy of the Sacs and Foxes in a treaty with the United States moved north of Kickapoos.
1837, February 11: United States agrees to convey to thePotawatomis an area on the Osage River, southwest of the Missouri River.
1840s: Section of the Santa Fe Trail through Kansas also used by emigrants on theCalifornia Trail andOregon Trail.
1842: Treaty between the United States and theWyandots, the Wyandots moved to the junction of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers (on land that was shared with the Delaware until 1843).
1844: TheGreat Flood of 1844, the biggest flood ever recorded on the Missouri River and Upper Mississippi River
1847: Potawatomis are moved again, to an area containing 576,000 acres (2,330 km2), being the eastern part of the lands ceded to the United States by the Kansa tribe in 1846.
1850 to 1854: Washington opens the territory; Indian tribes sell their lands
1850: Americans pioneers demand the entire area to be opened for settlement.
1851, September 17:Cheyenne andArapahoe tribes negotiate with the United States for land in western Kansas (the current state of Colorado).
1852: Congress begins the process of creating theKansas Territory.
1852, December 13: Representative from Missouri submits a bill organizing the Territory of Platte to the House: all the tract lying west of Iowa and Missouri, and extending west to the Rocky Mountains.
1852:Wyandots attempts to establish a Territorial government in their section of Indian territory.
1854: Nearly all the tribes in the eastern part of the Territory cede the greater part of their lands prior to the passage of the Kansas territorial act and are eventually moved south to theIndian Territory (the future state of Oklahoma.)
1854, May 30: After intense debate theKansas–Nebraska Act becomes law, establishing theNebraska Territory and Kansas Territory, which delineate the borders of Kansas Territory set from the Missouri border to the summit of the Rocky Mountain range; the southern boundary was the37th parallel north, the northern was the40th parallel north. North of the 40th parallel was Nebraska Territory.
1854: A new antislavery party is formed in protest: theRepublican Party
1854, June 10: Missourians hold a meeting at Salt Creek Valley, a trading post three miles (5 km) west ofFort Leavenworth, at which a "Squatter's Claim Association" is organized.
1855: Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company arrange and send anti-slavery settlers into Kansas.
1855, March 30:Missourians who had streamed across the border (known as "Border Ruffians") fill the ballot boxes in favor of pro-slavery candidates. As a result, pro-slavery candidates prevail at every polling district except one (the futureRiley County), and the first official legislature is overwhelmingly composed of pro-slavery delegates.
1855: Kansas Territory violence and some open battles rise.
1855, November 11:Topeka Constitution adopted by a convention of Free-Staters.
1855, December 1: Small army of Missourians, acting under the command of Douglas County, Kansas Sheriff Samuel J. Jones, laid siege to the Free-State stronghold of Lawrence in what would later become known as "The Wakarusa War."
1855, December 15: Topeka Constitution was approved by the people of the Territory but was never accepted as a legal document.
1856, May 21: Pro-slavery forces led by Sheriff Jones again attack Lawrence, killing two men, burning the Free-State Hotel to the ground, destroying two printing presses, and robbing homes.
1856, night of May 24 to the morning of May 25:Pottawatomie massacre; in what appears to be a reaction to the Sacking of Lawrence,John Brown and a band of abolitionists (some of them members of the Pottawatomie Rifles) murder five settlers, rumored to be pro-slavery, with broadswords north of Pottawatomie Creek inFranklin County, Kansas; Brown and his men flee to Iowa.
1857, November 7:Lecompton Constitution adopted by a Convention convened by the official pro-slavery government.
1858: Kansas Territory violence and some open battles slow.
1858, May 18: People's elections pass the Leavenworth Constitution (while the Lecompton Constitution is still under consideration), but Congress refuses to ratify it.
1859: Land tracts transferred to individualChippewa families.
1859, July 29: Fourth constitution drafted; theWyandotte Constitution adopted by the convention.
1859, October 4: People's election held; adopts Wyandotte Constitution, which outlaws slavery but is far less progressive than the Leavenworth Constitution.
1859, end of the year: Bleeding Kansas violence virtually ceases.
1928:Charles Curtis of Topeka, first Native American to be elected as Vice-President of United States[5]
1927: flag officially adopted by the Kansas State Legislature.
1930: TheIndependence Producers played the firstNight game in the history of Organized Baseball, making Independence, Kansas the birthplace of professional night baseball.
1950s and 1960s:Intercontinental ballistic missiles (designed to carry a single nuclear warhead) stationed throughout Kansas facilities, ready to launch from hardened underground silos.
1961: State flag modified with the word "Kansas" added below the seal in gold block lettering.
1966, June 8:Topeka, Kansas was struck by an F5 ratedtornado, according to theFujita scale. The "1966 Topeka tornado" started on the southwest side of town, moving northeast, hitting various landmarks (includingWashburn University). Total cost was put at $100 million.[7]
1980s: Kansas intercontinental ballistic missile facilities are deactivated.
Kansas portal