Missouri History Timeline

By | May 12, 2022

History of Missouri

Long before European explorers arrived, this land was the ancestral home of American Indian tribes; they raised their children and crops; hunted abundant land, and for the most part, lived in peace.
In 1673, intrepid French explorers, Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, made their way down the Mississippi River to a point under present -day St. Louis. Ten years later, after traveling down the same river, René-Robert Cavelier claimed all the land drained by the Mississippi for France ; he named it “Louisiana Territory” in honor of its king, Louis XIV.

Soon after, defensive forts, small fur trading posts, and settlements sprang up along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers; immigrants by the thousands arrived in this ” Land of Opportunity ” via river barges, and soon black slaves from the deep south were brought in to work in the mining industry. In 1750, Missouri’s first permanent settlement, Solar Thermoelectric. Genevieve, was built.

To control 50 years of this land, alternating between the Spanish and the French, and then, in 1800, when the armies of the French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte moved throughout Europe, putting pressure on the Spanish Crown into submission, the entire ” Louisiana Territory ” was returned to France.

  • Topschoolsintheusa: Guides to study in Missouri, including geography, climate, economy, and tourism of the state.
  • A2zcamerablog: Offers general information about Missouri, covering history, population, economy and county list.
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Missouri joins the USA.

In 1803, Napoleon surprisingly sold the entire area to the United States in a deal called the Louisiana Purchase. The United States doubled in size almost overnight, and many new territories were established.

In the new Missouri Territory, settlers from the east arrived in great numbers; they have built farms and cultivated lands much to the dismay of the already pressured Indians. In an acceptable response, the Indians attacked the whites and their rebellions continued until a peace treaty was finally signed in 1815.

In 1818 Missouri requested access to the Union as a slave state, but across America (and into Missouri) there were many anti-slavery, thus, Congress reached an agreement called the ” Missouri Compromise “which allow Missouri to enter the Union as a “slave state” while Maine entered the Union as a ” slave free state “. On August 10, 1821, Missouri became the 24th state, and in 1826, Jefferson City was the capital.

Slavery was certainly by the crisis at the heart of America’s Civil War, and in Missouri the opposing factions of slavery were firmly staked on their land, troops were sent to support both Confederate and Union causes, and eventually border fought neighbors as the tragic war raged on. late Missouri witnessed more battles than any other state following Tennessee and Virginia.

Missouri timeline

1600s – 1700s

  • (1682) Explorer, Sieur de La Salle, Robert Cavalier, traveled the Mississippi River, claiming the Valley of France. He named the area “Louisiana” after King Louis XIV.
  • (1700) Jesuit missionaries established the first white settlement. The St. Francis Xavier Mission set up near the site where Louis would eventually be built
  • (1724) Fort Orleans built on the north bank of the Missouri River
  • (1762) Spain gained control of the Louisiana Territory in the Treaty of Fontainebleau
  • (1764) City of Saint Louis founded by Pierre Laclede Liguest and René Auguste Chouteau
  • (1769) City of Charles established by Louis Blanchett as trading post
  • (1770) The Spanish government formally took over the Louisiana Territory.
  • (1793) Louis Lorimer granted trading privileges and powers to establish a post office in Cape Girardeau
  • (1796) Daniel Morgan Boone moved to Missouri and built a cabin in Osage Creek Femme

1800s

  • (1800) Napoleon Bonaparte forced Spain to return territory west of the Mississippi to France
  • (1803) Louisiana Purchase occurs
  • (1804) Lewis and Clark Expedition started from Louis
  • (1805) Louisiana Territory established with its seat of government in Louis
  • (1808) First newspaper, Missouri Gazette, began publication in Louis
  • (1808) Fort Osage erected on the Missouri River
  • (1811) New Madrid earthquake struck, worst in American history
  • (1812) Part of Louisiana Territory became Missouri Territory; the first General Assembly of the Missouri Territory met, and the five original districts were organized: Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, Charles, St. Louis, and TE. genevieve
  • (1817) Steamboat Zebulon M. Pike reached Louis; first steamboat to carry the Mississippi River above the mouth of the Ohio River
  • (1818) S. House of Representatives presented first petition to Congress asking for statehood
  • (1820) First Missouri Constitution passed; first state elections were held and Alexander McNair was elected as the first governor and the first General Assembly met in Louis
  • (1821) President James Monroe admitted Missouri as 24th state; The Capitol was temporarily located at Charles
  • (1826) Jefferson City designated Missouri Capitol
  • (1835) Writer Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), born in Florida, Missouri
  • (1837) President Martin Van Buren issued a proclamation that ended the annexation of the Platt’s Purchase area in Missouri
  • (1837) First Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City destroyed by fire
  • (1838) Governor Lilburn Boggs issued a “Destroying Order” against Mormons living in Missouri, demanding that members of the Mormon Church leave the state
  • (1839) University of Missouri founded
  • (1847) Louis connected to the East by telegraph
  • (1849) Cholera epidemic hit Louis – over 4,000 died
  • (1854) President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas–Nebraska Act allowing the concept of “popular sovereignty” in determining if a territory would be a slave state or a free state
  • (1857) Dred Scott decision passed by US Chief Justice Roger B. Tani; The incident took place in Louis. Scott was allowed to sue for his freedom from slavery based on the fact that he previously lived in free territory
  • (1860) Pony Express began its first run from Joseph in Sacramento, California
  • (1861) Battle of Wilson’s Creek resulted in Union retreat and southwestern Missouri left in Confederate hands; President Abraham Lincoln rescinded John Frémont’s emancipation proclamation for Missouri

1800s

  • (1862) Three-day battle at Pea Ridge ended Confederate military control in Missouri
  • (1865) Slavery abolished
  • (1873) Susan Blow opened the first public kindergarten in the United States in Louis
  • (1875) Grasshopper plague in Missouri caused an estimated $15 million worth of damages
  • (1882) Jessie James killed by Bob Ford at Joseph

1900s

  • (1901) First State Fair opened in Sedalia
  • (1911) Capitol building completely destroyed by fire after being struck by lightning
  • (1919) Missouri became the eleventh state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment enfranchising women
  • (1920) Marie Byrum became the first woman to vote in Missouri history
  • (1922) Mellkin T. Smith and Sarah Lucille Turner became the first women elected to the Missouri Legislature
  • (1927) Charles Lindbergh planted “The Spirit of St. Louis” in Paris
  • (1931) Completed Bagnell Dam, forming the Lake of the Ozarks
  • (1945) S. Vice President Harry S. Truman became President on the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
  • (1946) Winston Churchill gave his “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster Campus in Fulton
  • (1948) Harry S. Truman chose the American President
  • (1965) Gate Arch (Jefferson National Expansion Memorial) was completed in Louis
  • (1968) Race riots occurred in Kansas City after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
  • (1992) Missouri voters approve riverboat gambling on Mississippi and Missouri rivers
  • (1993) Great Flood of 1993 devastated parts of Missouri and the Midwest
  • (1995) Scholars, archaeologists and posterity gathered at Carney to dig up the grave of Jesse James.
  • (1996) Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher delivered the main address at Westminster College in Fulton

2000s

  • (2000) Mel Carnahan, his son and campaign adviser dies in plane crash just outside of St. Louis
  • (2001) John Ashcroft became US Attorney General
  • (2007) Two missing teenagers, (one from 2002) found at Michael Devlin’s home near Louis; he was accused of kidnapping
  • (2008) A gunman killed five at a Kirkwood council meeting; Anheuser-Busch sold to Belgian brewer Inbev
  • (2011) Tornado hit Joplin, over 100 people killed, over 1,100 injured, major destruction
  • (2011) Louis Cardinals won the World Series
  • (2012) Several cities suffered significant damage from the midwestern storm system

Missouri History