Nebraska

1803 – Nebraska was part of the Louisiana Territory when it was purchased by the United States from France.

1804 – 1804 to 1824 United States government explorers visited the region and described it as a vast wasteland. The resulting myth of the Great American Desert delayed significant white settlement in Nebraska.

1813 – 1813 to 1827 Trading posts and forts were established near present-day Omaha.

1823 – First settlement at Bellevue.

1830 – 1830 to 1854 Nebraska was part of an area designated as Indian Territory.

1833 – Between 1833 and 1876, Indian tribes ceded all Nebraska claims to the United States government.

1840s-1860s – Pioneer wagons heading west passed through the Platte Valley over the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails.

1854 – March 16 – The Omaha Indians ceded to U.S. government.

1854 – March 30 – The Kansas-Nebraska Act established the Nebraska Territory. The creation of the Colorado and Dakota territories in 1861 and the Idaho Territory in 1863 reduced Nebraska to nearly its present size. Lands in Boyd and Thurston counties were received from South Dakota in 1890.

1863 – The first claim under the Homestead Act was staked near Beatrice.

1864 –  7 August 1864 Plumb Creek Massacre. The massacre was a concerted attack by the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoe

1865 – The first railroad to the Pacific Coast was begun at Omaha. It was completed in 1869.

1867 – March 1 – Nebraska became the 37th state on March 1, 1867.

1868 – Sioux Indian land cession.

1868 – Lincoln replaces Omaha as the state capital.

1877 – May 6 – Chief Crazy Horse and 900 warriors surrendered at Camp Robinson, Nebraska. The Sioux had been on the warpath since 1875.

1877 – Sioux Indian Black Hill land cession.

1870 – 1870 to 1890 Nebraska’s greatest population growth occurred in the post-Civil War boom as settlers arrived from the eastern United States and northern Europe.

1898 – Over 300,000 men were involved in the Spanish-American War which was fought mainly in Cuba and the Philippines. 1904 The Kinkaid Homestead Act opened the last range land in northwestern Nebraska to settlement.

1917 – 1917 to 1918 More than 26 million men from the United States ages 18 through 45 registered with the Selective Service. World War I over 4.7 million American men and women served during the war.

1930 – 1930’s The Great Depression closed many factories and mills. Many small farms were abandoned, and many families moved to cities.