Missouri Timeline: A Laid-Back Look at the Show-Me State's History

Missouri Timeline: A Laid-Back Look at the Show-Me State’s History

Alright, buckle up, history buffs! Let’s take a stroll through the wild and wonderful timeline of Missouri, from its early days as a French playground to its current status as a heartland hub. We’re going to keep it casual, so no need to dust off your textbooks.

The Early Days (Before We Were Missouri)

1673: Picture this: Marquette and Joliet, two French explorers, cruising down the Mississippi River. Boom! They’re the first Europeans to lay eyes on what would become Missouri. Talk about a road trip.
1682: La Salle, another Frenchman with a flair for the dramatic, claims the whole Louisiana Territory for France. That’s a big chunk of real estate!
1700: The Jesuit missionaries, always on the move, set up Missouri’s first European settlement near modern-day Des Peres. It’s a bit swampy, so they bail after a few years. Can’t blame them.
1714: Etienne de Bourgmont, another Frenchman, sets up a fort on the Missouri River.
1719: Lead and silver mining begins at Mine la Motte. 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 gets built, but it’s abandoned six years later. Seems like nobody could make up their mind where to settle down.
1750: Ste. Genevieve pops up. It’s the first permanent white settlement in Missouri. Finally, a place that sticks!
1762: France hands over Louisiana to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau. A major power shift!
1764: Pierre Laclede Liguest and his stepson Auguste Choteau team up to found St. Louis. Fur traders were also involved.
1769: Louis Blanchette establishes St. Charles as a trading post.
1770: The Spanish officially take control of the Louisiana Territory.
1773: Francois Azor founds Mine au Breton, later called Potosi, an early lead mining settlement.
1787: The Northwest Ordinance prohibits slavery in the territory north of the Ohio River. 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 establishes New Madrid.
1793: Louis Lorimer and other French Canadians establish Cape Girardeau as a trading post. Later that year, a land grant was granted to members of the Shawnee and Delaware tribes.
1798: Daniel Boone gets a sweet deal from the Spanish: 1,000 acres to settle in the Louisiana Territory. Boone’s a legend, so folks follow.

Becoming Missouri (and a Whole Lot More)

1800: Spain gives the Louisiana Territory back to France. It’s like a game of hot potato.
1803: The Louisiana Purchase happens! The U.S. buys the territory from France, doubling the size of the country.
1804: Lewis and Clark kick off their epic expedition from St. Charles. Adventure time!
1804: The District of Louisiana was organized under the administrative control of the governor of the Indiana Territory.
1804: The original five districts of Missouri were created by proclamation from Governor William Henry Harrison: Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, St. Charles, St. Louis, and Ste. Genevieve.
1804: The Treaty of St. Louis was signed by William Henry Harrison 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 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.
1805: The Territory of Louisiana is established, with St. Louis as the capital.
1806: The District of Arkansas was established, becoming the sixth district of Missouri.
1807: The General Assembly of the Louisiana Territory enacted legislation allowing enslaved persons to sue for their freedom.
1808: The Missouri Gazette, the first newspaper in Missouri, hits the streets.
1808: The Treaty of Fort Clark, the first treaty with the Osage, was signed.
1809: The Missouri Fur Company gets organized in St. Louis. Fur trading was a big deal.
1811: A massive earthquake rocks southeastern Missouri. Church bells ring as far away as Philadelphia and Boston!
1812: The Territory of Louisiana gets a new name: the Territory of Missouri.
1812: The first session of Missouri’s territorial General Assembly met in St. Louis.
1812: Territorial Governor of Missouri, Benjamin Howard, issued a proclamation making the previously established districts into counties.
1813: The original counties of Missouri were organized by law: Arkansas, Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, and Washington.
1815: Lawrence County was established from Arkansas County. 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.
1815: The New Madrid earthquakes spurred the country’s first Congressional disaster relief legislation.
1817: The steamboat Zebulon M. Pike reaches St. Louis, the first to navigate the Mississippi River above the mouth of the Ohio River.
1818: Missouri asks Congress to become a state.
1818: The first U.S. Land Sale in Missouri was recorded at the St. Louis District Land Office.
1818: There are 10,000 slaves in Missouri.
1820: The Missouri Compromise! Maine comes in as a free state, Missouri as a slave state, keeping things "balanced" (sort of).
1820: Missouri’s first Constitutional Convention is held.
1820: Alexander McNair gets elected as Missouri’s first governor.
1820: Missouri’s first General Assembly began its session at the Missouri Hotel in St. Louis.
1821: Missouri officially becomes the 24th state!
1821: William Becknell widens the Santa Fe Trail.
1821: Governor Alexander McNair signed the bill designating the site of the City of Jefferson as the seat of government.
1822: The bill to create the Missouri State Seal was adopted.
1824: St. Regis Seminary opens in Florissant.
1824: In the slave freedom suit Winny v. Whitesides, the Missouri Supreme Court established the judicial precedent of “once free, always free.”
1825: Massey Iron Works, the first commercially viable iron works in the United States west of the Mississippi River, was established.
1826: The Missouri State Government permanently moved to Jefferson City.
1829: Between 1830 and 1840, more than 38,000 Germans settled in the “Missouri Rhineland” area.
1829: The Missouri State Library was established by law.
1831: Mormon founder Joseph Smith settles with his followers in Independence.
1833: Dr. John Polk Campbell donated land for the county seat of Greene County.
1835: The Missouri General Assembly passed an act that outlined funding for public schools in Missouri.
1836: The Missouri State Penitentiary opens. Not exactly a party, but it’s a landmark.
1836: Senator Thomas Hart Benton verbally attacks abolitionists for sending petitions to the US Congress.
1837: President Martin Van Buren issued a proclamation completing the annexation of the Platte Purchase area to Missouri.
1837: Missouri’s first capitol in Jefferson City was destroyed by fire.
1838: The Cherokee pass through Missouri on the Trail of Tears.
1838: As a result of conflict between Mormons and other white settlers in the western part of the state, Governor Lilburn Boggs issued an order demanding “Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary.”
1839: The Geyer Act created the foundation of Missouri’s public university system.
1839: The Honey War, a bloodless territorial dispute over a 9.5-mile wide strip between the Iowa Territory and Missouri, erupted.
1840: The Slicker War of Benton and Polk Counties began.
1841: The State University, now called the University of Missouri, opened.
1842: The first organized Oregon Trail wagon train left from Elm Grove, Missouri.
1842: A National Depression hits Missouri.
1842: Carthage was established along the Spring River just east of Joplin.
1844: The great Missouri flood destroys the Independence wharves.
1845: The town of St. Joseph was incorporated.
1846: Dred and Harriet Scott sue for their freedom. A case that will have huge repercussions.
1847: State Hospital No. 1 was established in Fulton.
1847: The Missouri General Assembly passed “An Act respecting slaves, free negroes, and mulattos” prohibiting the education of Black people, free or enslaved.
1847: After Congress declared war on Mexico, over 1,350 Missourians volunteered to fight in the Mexican-American War.
1847: St. Louis was connected to the East Coast by telegraph.
1847: Boatmen’s Bank, the oldest bank west of the Mississippi River established.
1848: Hermann celebrates its first “Weinfest.”
1849: Gold is discovered in California! Missouri becomes the "Gateway to the West" for those heading west.
1849: The second and most serious cholera epidemic struck Missouri.
1850: The Town of Kansas (now Kansas City) was incorporated.
1851: The Missouri School for the Deaf was established.
1851: Groundbreaking ceremonies for constructing the Pacific Railroad, the first railroad in Missouri, were held in St. Louis.
1854: The Kansas-Nebraska Act sets the stage for the "Bleeding Kansas" border war.
1855: The Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis became a state institution.
1855: The side-wheel steamboat Arabia leaves St. Louis and sinks at Westport Landing.
1855: A train plummeted into the Gasconade River, killing 30 and wounding hundreds.
1857: The Dred Scott decision drops. A major setback for the anti-slavery movement.
1858: The Butterfield Overland Mail Company starts transporting mail and passengers.
1859: The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was completed.
1860: E. Anheuser & Co. was established in St. Louis.
1860: The short-lived Pony Express starts its first run from St. Joseph to Sacramento, California.
1861: Missouri tries to figure out where it stands on the Civil War.
1861: The Camp Jackson Affair leads to violence in St. Louis.
1861: Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson abandoned the capitol before Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon and Union forces occupied Jefferson City.
1861: The Battle of Wilson’s Creek resulted in a Union defeat.
1861: John C. Fremont issued a proclamation immediately emancipating the enslaved people of Confederate supporters in Missouri. President Abraham Lincoln revoked the order.
1861: Missouri’s “Rebel Legislature” adopted an Act of Secession in Neosho, Missouri.
1862: The Battle of Island Mound, a small skirmish that took place in Bates County, marked the first time Black soldiers saw combat in the Civil War.
1863: President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.
1863: Recruiting for the first Black Missouri regiment began at Schofield Barracks in St. Louis.
1863: The Lawrence Massacre occurred.
1863: Union General Thomas Ewing issued General Order No. 11.
1864: The Battle of Fort Davidson was the first battle of Price’s Raid into Missouri.
1865: Missouri abolishes slavery. A step in the right direction!
1865: The Civil War ends.
1865: Missouri’s second Constitution, known as the “Drake Constitution,” was adopted.
1865: Black Missouri leaders organized the Missouri Equal Rights League.
1866: The Missouri Historical Society was organized in St. Louis.
1866: The Lincoln Institute, later renamed Lincoln University, received its first students.
1866: Sedalia is an important railhead for Texas cattle drives.
1867: Missouri was the 17th state to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1867: The Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri was organized in St. Louis.
1869: “Big Mound” in St. Louis was destroyed.
1869: The Hannibal Bridge over the Missouri River opens in Kansas City.
1870: Missouri was the 21st state to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1870: Lemma Barkeloo enrolled with the Supreme Court of Missouri, making her the first female lawyer in Missouri.
1870: The First District Normal School (now Truman State University) was established in Kirksville.
1870: The Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, now called the Missouri University of Science and Technology, was established.
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.
1871: Phoebe W. Couzins of St. Louis became Missouri’s first female law school graduate.
1872: Governor B. Gratz Brown and his family moved into the newly completed Governor’s Mansion.
1873: Missouri’s Third District Normal School, known as Southeast Missouri State Normal School, now called Southeast Missouri State University, was established in Cape Girardeau.
1873: The Missouri Supreme Court upheld a decision by the St. Louis Circuit Court, denying Virginia Minor the right to register to vote.
1873: Susan Elizabeth Blow opened the first public kindergarten in the United States at the Des Peres School in Carondelet.
1874: The James Gang makes its first train robbery at Gads Hill.
1874: The Eads Bridge opened in St. Louis.
1875: The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the decision in Minor v. Happersett.
1875: A grasshopper plague in the Midwest caused an estimated $15 million in damage in Missouri.
1875: Missouri’s third Constitution was adopted.
1876: The people of St. Louis voted to split St. Louis City and St. Louis County into different government entities.
1881: Governor Thomas Crittenden offered a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of members of the Jesse James gang.
1882: Robert Ford shot Jesse James in St. Joseph, killing him.
1882: Frank James surrenders himself to the governor of Missouri and stands trial for robbery and murder. He is acquitted.
1889: Three Bald Knobbers were executed in Christian County.
1890: Annie White Baxter was elected the county clerk of Jasper County.
1891: One of America’s first skyscrapers, the Wainwright Building in St. Louis, opened.
1892: Dr. Andrew Taylor Still founded the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville.
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.
1894: Union Station opened in St. Louis.
1898: Volunteers for the Spanish-American War began arriving in St. Louis.
1899: Scott Joplin’s “The Maple Leaf Rag” was published in Sedalia, Missouri.
1901: The first State Fair was held at Sedalia.
1901: The Monsanto Company was founded in St. Louis.
1903: The Missouri River crested in Kansas City.
1904: The St. Louis World’s Fair opened. The Fair also hosted the 1904 Summer Olympics.
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.
1907: A project aimed to convert swampland in Missouri’s bootheel into productive, habitable agricultural land was incorporated.
1909: Missouri Supreme Court handed down a decision in the case against Standard Oil Company.
1910: St. Louis City citizens elected Charles Turpin, constable of St. Louis’ Fourth District.
1911: The Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City was destroyed by fire.
1911: Missouri was the 26th state to ratify the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1912: The first successful parachute jump to be made from a moving airplane was made by Captain Albert Berry in St. Louis.
1913: The Missouri State Flag was adopted.
1916: Voters overwhelmingly passed a city-wide segregation ordinance in St. Louis.
1917: The United States joined World War I.
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.
1919: Governor Frederick D. Gardner signed Senate Bill 1 into law, granting presidential suffrage to Missouri women.
1919: The Missouri General Assembly established the Missouri Negro Industrial Commission.
1919: Missouri became the 11th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting full suffrage to women.
1920: Marie Byrum became the first woman to vote in Missouri history.
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.
1921: Mayme Ousley was sworn in as the first female mayor in the state of Missouri.
1921: The Centennial Road Law, providing for the construction of a modern system of Missouri highways, was signed into law.
1921: The groundbreaking for the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City began.
1922: Mellcene T. Smith of St. Louis and Sarah Lucille Turner of Kansas City became the first women elected to the Missouri General Assembly.
1925: The Tri-State Tornado hit parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.
1925: The crime-ridden Pendergast years begin in Kansas City.
1927: Charles Lindbergh landed the “Spirit of St. Louis” in Paris.
1929: The stock market crashed, ushering in the Great Depression.
1931: Missouri was the third state to complete and pave its portion of Route 66 highway.
1931: Governor Henry S. Caulfield signed a bill creating the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
1931: Bagnell Dam was completed, forming the Lake of the Ozarks.
1933: The Kansas City Massacre took place at Union Station.
1933: Missouri was the 20th state to ratify the Twenty-First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, repealing Prohibition.
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.
1937: The first Missouri Conservation Commission was appointed.
1938: The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case Missouri ex rel. Gaines vs. Canada.
1939: Kansas City “Boss” Tom Pendergast was sentenced to 15 months in the federal penitentiary for income tax evasion.
1939: J.S. McDonnell organized the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in St. Louis.
1940: The Ellis Fischel State Cancer Center was opened in Columbia.
1941: The decision in State ex rel. Bluford v. Canada was handed down by the Missouri Supreme Court.
1942: The lynching of Cleo Wright in Sikeston initiated a federal investigation by the United States Department of Justice.
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.
1944: U.S. Senator Harry S. Truman of Independence was elected vice president.
1945: Missouri’s fourth and current Constitution became effective.
1945: U.S. Vice President Harry S. Truman became President.
1945: The Missouri Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Kraemer v. Shelley St. Louis housing segregation case.
1945: World War II ended.
1947: KSD, the first television station in Missouri, broadcast its first program in St. Louis.
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.
1951: The Great Flood of 1951 occurred in July in northeast Kansas and the Kansas City area.
1952: Leonor K. Sullivan of St. Louis was elected as Missouri’s first female U.S. Representative.
1954: Inmates at the Missouri State Penitentiary initiated a riot.
1956: Governor Phil M. Donnelly appointed Theodore McMillian as the first Black judge in Missouri.
1956: Missouri was awarded the nation’s first contract to build an interstate highway.
1957: The Missouri General Assembly created the Missouri Commission on Human Rights.
1960: Theodore McNeal (St. Louis) was elected Missouri’s first Black state senator.
1962: DeVerne Calloway of St. Louis was elected as the first Black woman state representative in Missouri’s General Assembly.
1963: Missouri was the 34th state to ratify the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting poll taxes in voting.
1964: The Ozark National Scenic Riverways was established.
1965: The Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis was completed.
1967: The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation merged with Douglas to form McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation.
1968: After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., what began as a peaceful protest in Kansas City ended in rioting.
1968: The case Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
1968: Missouri’s first Black United States congressman, William L. Clay, Sr. of St. Louis, was elected.
1969: The Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl IV.
1972: Mary Gant of Kansas City was elected as Missouri’s first female state senator.
1976: The current Mark Twain National Forest was established.
1977: Gwen B. Giles of St. Louis was the first Black woman elected to serve in the Missouri State Senate.
1980: Court-ordered desegregation began in Missouri.
1983: Scott Joplin is awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
1984: Margaret B. Kelly became the first woman to hold statewide office in Missouri when she was appointed to the office of State Auditor.
1984: Harriett Woods was the first woman elected to statewide office as Lieutenant Governor.
1985: The town of Times Beach was disincorporated.
1985: The Kansas City Royals win the World Series.
1987: Ann K. Covington became the first woman appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court.
1987: 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.
1988: One Kansas City Place was built.
1988: Serial killer Bob Berdella was apprehended in Kansas.
1990: The U.S. Supreme Court decided Cruzan vs. Director of the Missouri Department of Health.
1990: The first portion of the Katy Trail opened.
1992: Missouri voters approved riverboat gambling excursions on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
1993: The Great Flood of 1993 devastated parts of Missouri and the Midwest.
1993: Internet launched in Missouri.
1995: Ronnie L. White became the state’s first Black Supreme Court justice.
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.
2005: The Taum Sauk Reservoir Dam breached.
2007: Two missing teenage boys, including one missing since 2002, were found at the home of Michael Devlin near St. Louis.
2008: Anheuser-Busch sold to Belgian brewer InBev.
2011: A tornado that hit Joplin and other areas was the seventh deadliest in U. S. history.
2011: St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series.
2014: The Black Lives Matter movement gained national attention after the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown at the hands of a white police officer in Ferguson.
2015: World Series won by Kansas City Royals.
2018: Governor Eric Greitens resigned from office.
2018: Medical cannabis was legalized.
2020: Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl LIV.
2020: Cori Bush of St. Louis was elected as the first Black U.S. Congresswoman for the state of Missouri.
2021: Robin Ransom was appointed as the first Black female Missouri Supreme Court Judge.
2022: Cannabis in Missouri was legalized for recreational use.
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.
2023: Kansas City Chiefs win Super Bowl LVII.

What’s Next?

Who knows what the future holds for Missouri? But one thing’s for sure: it’s a state with a colorful past, a vibrant present, and a whole lot of potential.

I hope this rewritten version is more to your liking!

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