Iowa

1673 – Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette are the first Europeans to visit what is now Iowa.

1682 – Robert de La Salle claims the area for France as part of the Louisiana Territory.

1788 – The first permanent settlement is established in Dubuque.

1803 – The territory becomes part of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase and was a part of the Missouri Territory.

1804 – Explorers Lewis and Clark travel through Iowa on their way to the Pacific Ocean.

1808 – Fort Madison is built by the U.S. Army.

1821 – When Missouri became a state, this area (along with the dakotas) effectively became unorganized territory.

1832 – The Black Hawk War occurs.

1833 – The area was closed to white settlers until the 1830’s, after the Black Hawk war ended. 

1834 – It was attached to the Michigan Territory on June 28, 1834. 

1834 – September – the Iowa District was divided into two counties by running a line due west from the lower end of Rock Island in the Mississippi River. The territory north of this line (which started just south of the present-day Davenport) was named Dubuque County, and all south of it was Demoine County.

1836 – When Michigan became a state in 1836 the area became the Iowa District of western Wisconsin Territory – the region west of the Mississippi River. 

1838 – The Iowa Territory is established. The original boundaries of the territory, included Minnesota and parts of the Dakotas, covering about 194,000l square miles of land. Burlington. was the stop-gap capital until 1841.

1841 – Iowa City was designated as the official territorial capital in 1841.

1846 – Iowa is admitted to the Union becoming the 29th state.

1857 – Des Moines becomes the capital city.

1928 – Iowan Herbert Hoover is elected the 31st U.S. president.