| 1803 |
|
|
| April 30 |
The Louisiana Purchase was signed |
|
| 1804 |
|
|
| May 14 |
The Lewis and Clark Expedition sets out from St. Louis |
|
| 1805 |
|
|
| March 3 |
The Territory of Louisiana was established; the seat of government was St. Louis. |
|
| 1821 |
|
|
| August 10 |
President James Monroe admitted Missouri as the 24th state; the state capitol was located in St. Charles until a permanent location was designated. |
 |
| September 1 |
The Santa Fe Trail was opened by William Becknell’s successful trading expeditions to Santa Fe |
|
| 1837 |
|
|
| Mar. 28 |
President Martin Van Buren issued a proclamation which completed the annexation of the Platte Purchase area to Missouri, establishing the northwestern border of the state. |
|
| 1841 |
|
|
| April 14 |
The University of Missouri, the first state university west of the Mississippi River, opened |
|
| 1849 |
|
|
| |
With the discovery of gold in California, the Missouri towns of St. Louis, Independence, Westport, and St. Joseph became points of departure for emigrants bound for California, making Missouri the "Gateway to the West" |
|
| 1850 |
|
|
| February 4 |
The town of Kansas (later Kansas City) was incorporated |
|
| 1854 |
|
|
| May 26 |
President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act (May 30), allowing the notion of "popular sovereignty" in determining if a territory would be a slave state or a free state. This act set the stage for the violent Kansas-Missouri border wars where the Missouri "Border Ruffians" and the Kansas "Jayhawkers" transformed a frontier quarrel over slavery’s borders into a national issue |
 |
| July 6 |
Republican Party born, Jackson, Michigan |
|
| July 28 |
First organized band of Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company settlers arrives in Kansas Territory and soon founds the city of Lawrence. |
|
| October 7 |
First territorial governor, Andrew Reeder, arrives at Fort Leavenworth |
 |
| November 29 |
Governor Reeder calls the first election in Kansas Territory; vote to elect delegate to Congress—Proslavery candidate John W. Whitfield wins. |
|
| 1855 |
|
|
| March 30 |
Election for members of territorial legislature. |
|
| July 1 |
So-called "Bogus Legislature" meets at Pawnee. |
|
| August 14 |
First convention of free-staters gather in Lawrence and call for election of delegates to free-state constitutional convention. |
|
| August 16 |
Territorial Governor Reeder replaced by Wilson Shannon |
 |
| September 5 |
Free-staters meeting in Big Springs to form Free State Party |
|
| October 23 |
Free-state delegates assemble in Topeka to draft “Topeka Constitution” prohibiting slavery in Kansas Territory; Charles Robinson “elected” governor |
 |
| November 21 |
Free-stater Charles Dow killed by proslavery supporter Franklin Coleman; beginning of “Wakarusa War,” which lasts about two weeks. |
|
| December 6 |
Thomas W. Barber shot and killed by a proslavery supporter four miles southwest of Lawrence. |
|
| December 15 |
Election on the adoption of the Topeka Constitution; document ratified 1,731 to 46, as was a separate “exclusionary clause,” 1,287 to 453 (“Exclusion of Negroes and Mulattoes”). |
|
| 1856 |
|
|
| May 10 |
Free-state “Governor” Charles Robinson arrested in Lexington, Missouri (released on bail, Sept. 10) |
|
| May 21 |
Sack of Lawrence by Sheriff Samuel Jones and proslavery posse. |
|
| May 22 |
Senator Charles Sumner from Massachusetts beaten on U.S. Senate floor after “Crime Against Kansas” speech. |
|
| May 24 |
Pottawatomie Massacre in Franklin County |
|
| June 2 |
Battle of Black Jack, near Baldwin, Douglas County. |
|
| July 4 |
Dispersal of Topeka legislature by U.S. Army troops under command of Col. Edwin V. Sumner. |
|
| June 4-5 |
Battle of Franklin, near Lawrence |
|
| August 11 |
David Starr Hoyt, a free state supporter, killed near Fort Saunders, twelve miles southwest of Lawrence. |
|
| August 16 |
Battle of Fort Titus, near Lecompton, Douglas County. |
|
| August 30 |
Battle at Osawatomie, Miami County; Frederick Brown, the son of John Brown, among the dead. |
|
| September 13 |
Battle of Hickory Point, north of Oskaloosa, Jefferson County |
|
| November 4 |
Democrat James Buchanan defeats John C. Fremont, the Republican Party's very first presidential candidate |
 |
| 1857 |
Legislature meets in Lecompton; Democratic Party formed in Kansas. |
|
| March 6 |
The Dred Scott decision was handed down by U.S. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney; the case originated in St. Louis. Under Missouri statutes, in 1846 Scott was allowed to sue for his freedom from slavery based on the fact that he had previously lived in a free territory (Wisconsin) before his return to the slave state of Missouri |
 |
| August 24 |
Panic of 1857 precipitated by failure of a New York financial institutions |
|
| September 7 |
Lecompton Constitutional Convention convenes with Missourian John Calhoun presiding; reconvened to draft instrument, October 19. |
|
| October 5-6 |
Free-state victory in the election for territorial legislature |
|
| December 7 |
Special session of new free-state controlled legislature calls for popular vote on Lecompton Constitution. |
|
| December 21 |
With free-staters refusing to participate in election, Lecompton Constitution is approved. The vote was “for the constitution with slavery” or “for the constitution without slavery,” only, and “constitution with slavery” won 6,226 to 569. |
 |
| 1858 |
|
|
| January 4 |
Lecompton Constitution rejected in second vote in which free-staters participate; final rejection comes on August 2, 1858. |
|
| March 25 |
Leavenworth Constitutional Convention convenes and document approved, April 3. |
|
| May 18 |
Leavenworth Constitution ratified by Kansas voters; rejected by U.S. Congress. |
|
| May 19 |
Marais des Cygnes Massacre in Linn County. |
|
| June 3 |
James Lane shoots and kills neighbor and fellow free stater, Gaius |
 |
| August 2 |
The third vote on the Lecompton Constitution, this one as a result of the English bill, is held; a decisive majority of 9,512 against (actual vote: 1,788 for, 11,300 against). |
|
| August 21 |
Lincoln-Douglas debates begin, Ottawa, Ill.; series of seven debates, end October 15. |
|
| 1859 |
|
|
| January 25 |
Dr. John Doy and his son Charles arrested in Kansas with thirteen fugitives and taken to Weston, Missouri, for trial. |
|
| January 31 |
Battle of the Spurs, near Holton. |
|
| March 4 |
Trial of Dr. John Doy of Lawrence. Although the first jury cannot agree on a verdict, he is convicted of “negro stealing” at a second trial in June and sentenced to five years in prison. |
 |
| July 5 |
Fourth constitutional convention convenes at Wyandotte |
|
| July 23 |
Doy is “rescued” from a St. Joseph jail by a group of Kansas men. |
|
| July 29 |
Wyandotte Constitutional Convention adopts Wyandotte Constitution, which would be the instrument under which Kansas was admitted to the Union. |
|
| October 4 |
Kansas voters ratify Wyandotte Constitution by nearly a 2 to 1 margin--10,421 to 5,530. |
|
| December 1 |
Abraham Lincoln comes to Kansas; visits several towns in northeast, including Leavenworth and Atchison during a week-long sojourn. |
|
| December 2 |
John Brown hanged for treason at Charlestown, Va.; charges stem from Harpers Ferry raid. |
 |
| December 6 |
Election for state officer and legislature under the Wyandotte Constitution; Dr. Charles Robinson of Lawrence defeated the incumbent territorial governor, Samuel Medary. Republicans also win 86 of 100 seats in the legislature. |
|
| 1860 |
|
|
| February 12 |
Kansas admission bill introduced in U.S. House of Representatives |
|
| April 3 |
Pony Express begins operation out of St. Joseph. |
|
| April 20 |
John Ritchie of Topeka shoots and kills Deputy U.S. Marshal Leonard Arms. |
|
| November 6 |
Lincoln wins plurality in four-way presidential contest. |
|
| December |
Morgan Walker raid |
|
| 1861 |
|
|
| January 29 |
President James Buchanan signed Kansas admission bill. |
|
| March 26 |
First state legislature convenes in Topeka. |
|
| April 12 |
Secessionist troops fire on Fort Sumter, S.C. |
|
| Aug. 10 |
The Battle of Wilson’s Creek resulted in a Union retreat and southwestern Missouri was left in Confederate hands until the Battle of Pea Ridge |
|
| October 28 |
Missouri’s "Rebel Legislature" adopted an Act of Secession |
|
| 1862 |
|
|
| March 6-8 |
In a three-day battle at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, the Union Army forced the Confederates, excluding the state guard from Missouri, to retreat; this battle effectively ended the threat of Confederate military control in Missouri |
|
| 1863 |
|
|
| August 21 |
William Clarke Quantrill and his band of pro-Southern guerillas raided the pro-Union town of Lawrence, Kansas, killing nearly 150 men and boys. This attack served to avenge the imprisonment of their wives, mothers, and sisters in Kansas City |
 |
| August 25 |
Brigadier General Thomas Ewing issued General Order No. 11, 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 |
|
| 1865 |
|
|
| January 11 |
Slavery was abolished in Missouri by an ordinance of immediate emancipation, making Missouri the first slave state to emancipate its slaves before the adoption of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution |
 |
| April 10 |
Missouri’s second Constitution (Drake Constitution) was adopted. A group of politicians, known as "Radicals," favored emancipation of slaves and disfranchisement of persons who were sympathetic to the Confederacy during the Civil War. The Radicals included an "Ironclad Oath" in the new constitution to exclude former Confederate sympathizers from the vote and certain occupations, severely limiting their civil rights |
|
