HOMEPAGE * HISTORY
Click on a date and see the event that happenedthat year. Click
the RED and YELLOW up arrow to come back to the top of the
screen.
|
. |
. |
1541 - Spaniard Coronado, looking for gold, crosses
the Arkansas River near present-day Dodge City; Spain claims this
area
1542 - Father Juan de Padilla, a Spanish missionary with Coronado, returns to Kansas but is killed by Indians
1601 - Spaniard Juan de Onate explores Kansas
1682 - France claims large area, including Kansas
1719 - Frenchman Charles Claude de Tisne explores
and visits with Osage Indians
1724 - French explorer Bourgmont enters Kansas
1762 - Area comes under control of Spain, but French
fur traders remain
1800 - France Regains control of area from Spain
1803 - Through Louisiana Purchase, Kansas becomes
part of the United States
1804 - American explorers Lewis and Clark camp in Kansas
1806 - Zebulon M. Pike explores Kansas for United
States
1821 - Santa Fe Train, going through Kansas, is established
1825 - Osage and Kansa Indians give up some of their
land
1827 - Fort Leavenworth is built as an army post to protect people traveling through Kansas
1842 - By now, many tribes have been moved to
reservations in "Indian Country" of Kansas
1843 - Wyandot Indians found town of Wyandotte which become Kansas City
1849 - Because of California gold rush, 90,000
people pass through Kansas on their way to the West
1850s - People fight over slavery in "Bleeding Kansas"; at least 55 are killed
1854 - Territory of Kansas is established
1856 - Slave State people burn part of Lawrence; then at Pottawatomie Creek John Brown kills five Slave State men
1860 - Population of Kansas is 107,206
1861 - On January 29th, Kansas become the 34th
state; Topeka is the capital
1861-65 - During the Civil War, Kansas sends 20,149 men to fight in the Union Army
1863 - At Lawrence, Quantrill and his raiders kill
150 people on August 21
1864 - Confederate troops are beaten at Mine Creek in the only Civil War battle fought inside of Kansas
1867 - Big Indian attacks; then Medicine Lodge Peace
Treaty is signed, with Indians losing much land
1870 - The city of Wichita is founded
1874 - Great Grasshopper Plague destroys crops; in
the same year the Russian Mennonites bring Turkey Red wheat to Kansas
1878-80 - During this time, about 40,000 blacks from
former slave states arrive in Kansas
1880 - Dodge City is biggest cattle market in the world
1885 - The cattle drives from Texas end
1887 - Susanna Medora Salter of Argonia becomes the first woman mayor in the United States
1892 - Oil is found near Noedesha
1900 - Population of the state is 1,470,495; Carry Nation begins smashing saloons
1903 - State Capital Building is complete in Topeka;
First helium found in United States, near Dexter
1912 - Women gain the right to vote in Kansas
1914-18 - During World War I, 80,261 Kansas fight
for the United States
1915-19 - Jess Willard of Emmett is world's heavyweight boxing champion
1928 - Charles Curtis of Kansas is elected
Vice-President
1934-36 - Dust storms and droughts hit Kansas
1936 - Alf Landon runs for president but loses to
Franklin D. Roosevelt
1939-45 - During World War II, 215,000 Kansas men and women are in uniform
1952 - Dwight D. Eisenhower of Abilene is elected
34th president
1952-57 - Very dry weather in Kansas, but the state now has irrigation projects to bring water to crops
1954 - U.S. Supreme Court rules in "Brown versus the
Board of Education of Topeka" that segregated schools break the law
1961 - Happy 100th birthday, Sunflower State!
1966 - Topeka hit by huge tornado that kills 16 and
injures over 400
1972 - Governor's term increased from two to four years
1978 - Nancy Landon Kassebaum is first woman elected
to U.S. Senate for a full term on her own
1987 - Mike Hayden begins first term as governor