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Kansas is admitted to the Union as the 34th state
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Kansas Governor Thomas Carney signs a bil creating the University of Kansas
Read more about the University's founding here.The law required the city of Lawrence to give the state $15,000 or the university would be built in Emporia. -
William Quantrill raids Lawrence, Kan.
In retaliation for the collapse of a jail holding confedarate sympathizers, William Quantrill leads a band of confederate querillas in a violent raid on the city of Lawrence, killing over 150 mena and boys and burning much of the town. -
The University of Kansas opens for classes.
The first class graduated in 1873. -
Kansas becomes the first state to ban the sale of alcohol.
Spawned by the temperance movement, the law was narrowly passed by the states voters 92,302 to 84,304. -
William Allen White writes his famous editorial in the Emporia Gazette, 'What's the Matter with Kansas'?
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Six years after inventing basketball, James Naismith joins the faculty at the University of Kansas.
Read Naismith's original basketball rules here.
Naismith was hired as an Associate Professor of Physical Training, Chapel Director and basketball coach and paid $1300 that year. (The exact date in 1898 on which he joined the faculty is not known.) -
Erasmus Haworth, offical State Geologist and faculty member at the University of Kansas, reports his findings on the existance of helium in natural gas.
Up until this point helium was thought to be extremely rare, but the discovery of helium in natural gas allowed the United States to become the world's leading supplyer of the gas. -
Women gain the 'explicit' legal right to wear pants in Kansas
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The Kansas Jayhawk's win their first NCAA Championship.
In the first tournament with a final four style format, the men's basketball team won 80-63 over St. John's University. -
Suprme Court rules on the case of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education.
The Supreme Court unanimously declared that separate educational facilities are 'inherently unequal' and explicity bans the segregation of governent run schools by race. -
Amelia Mary Earhart is born in Atchison, Kansas.
The famous aviator was the first woman to be awarded the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross awarded for being the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She infamously disappeared on an attempt to fly around the world alone in 1937.
