Significant events in the Old West

1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839
1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849
1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859
1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869
1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879
1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

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1835
October
17th
Texas Rangers formed at Austin.

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1836
February
23rd
Beginning of the siege of the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas.

25th
Samuel Colt patents his first revolver.

March
6th
End of the siege of the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas. The defenders are burnt nearby.

27th
Massacre at Goliad, Texas by the army of General Santa Anna.

April
21st
General Santa Anna defeated at San Jacinto, Texas.

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1845
December
29th
Texas becomes the twenty-eighth state.

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1846
February
19th
The Republic of Texas becomes the State of Texas at Austin.

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1848
January
24th
Gold is discovered at Sutter's mill near Sacramento, California.

February
2nd
Signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the War with Mexico {1845-1847}.

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1849
February
28th
The first gold prospectors, 365 passengers aboard the 'California', arrive in San Francisco.

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1850
September
9th
California becomes the thirty-first state.

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1856
February
11th
Following the suggestion of then-Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the USS Supply {Captain David Dixon Porter, USN, commanding} lands 33 camels at Indianola, Texas; camels are transferred to the Southwest for use in the desert.

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1857
January
30th
Hi Jolly {Haj Ali} is brought to the US on the USS Supply {Captain David Dixon Porter, USN, commanding}, along with 41 camels, to train camels and camel drivers in the Southwest.

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1859
February
14th
Oregon becomes the thirty-third state.

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1862
January
10th
Samuel Colt dies in Hartford, Connecticut.

July
6th
Samuel Langhorn Clemens writes under the name 'Mark Twain' for the first time.

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1864
October
31st
Nevada becomes the thirty-sixth state.

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1869
May
10th
The Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads are joined with a golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah.

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1873
July
21st
Jesse James and his gang hold up the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad near Adair, Iowa.

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1874
June
27th
Second battle of Adobe Walls.

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1876
August
1st
Colorado becomes the thirty-eighth state.

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1878
April
9th
Edward Masterson, brother of Bat, is killed in Dodge City, Kansas.

July
21st
Sam Bass is killed at Round Rock, Texas.

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1881
July
14th
Billy the Kid is killed by Pat Garrett at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

October
26th
Virgil, Morgan, and Wyatt Earp, along with Doc Holliday, have an altercation with Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, and Billy Claibourne near the OK corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Billy Clanton and the McLaurys do not survive; Virgil and Morgan Earp, along with Holliday, are wounded.

December
3rd
Dave Rudabaugh and accomplices dig their way out of jail, Las Vegas, New Mexico. Rudabaugh flees to Mexico.

29th
Virgil Earp crippled for life by shots from the darkness in Tombstone, Arizona.

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1882
March
18th
Morgan Earp is shot and killed in a billiard parlor in Tombstone, Arizona by friends of the Clantons and the McLaurys.

20th
Frank Stilwell, a Clanton accomplice, is killed by Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday near the Southern Pacific depot in Tucson, Arizona.

22nd
Florentino Cruz, a Clanton accomplice, is killed by Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday near Tombstone, Arizona.

April
3rd
Jesse Woodson James is shot in the back by Robert 'Bob' Ford in Saint Joseph, Missouri.

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1884
March
11th
Ben Thompson is shot in a saloon in San Antonio, Texas.

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1886
January
30th
Blue Duck is convicted of murder and sentenced to hang in Fort Smith, Arkansas; his sentence is later commuted to life and he is eventually pardoned.

February
5th
A cattle rustler named Dilda is hung in Prescott, in Arizona's last legal public hanging, for killing a Yavapai County sheriff.

18th
Dave Rudabaugh is beheaded in a cantina in Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico.

July
16th
Edward Zane Carroll Judson dies in New York City. Known as 'Ned Buntline', he wrote many Western books and stories, including "The Scouts of the Plains" featuring Buffalo Bill Cody.

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1887
February
7th
Luke Short sells out his interest in the White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth, Texas.

27th
Harry Longabaugh steals a horse and revolver in Sundance, Wyoming.

April
8th
The Sundance, Wyoming 'Gazette': Crook County Sheriff Ryan goes to Miles City, Montana to pick up Harry Longabaugh for horse theft.

15th
Harry Longabaugh escapes custody near Duluth, Minnesota from a train en route to Wyoming.

June
7th
The Miles City, Montana 'Yellowstone Journal': Harry Longabaugh captured by Deputy Sheriff Davis, turned over to Sheriff Ryan of Crook County, Wyoming and returned to Sundance.

August
5th
Harry Longabaugh sentenced to eighteen months hard labor for horse theft.

September
4th
Commodore Perry Owens, sheriff of Navajo County, serves a warrant on one Andy Blevins outside Holbrook, Arizona. Alone, he kills or wounds Andy, John, and Sam Blevins, along with Mose Roberts, a Blevins brother-in-law.

November
8th
John H. 'Doc' Holliday dies in bed in the Glenwood Hotel, Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

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1888
July
3rd
Mattie Blaylock, second wife of Wyatt Earp, kills herself with laudanum in Pinal, Arizona.

4th
Prescott, Arizona holds the first organized rodeo.
Bill Tilghman kills Ed Prather in Farmer City, Kansas.

14th
First rodeo in Texas held in Canadian.

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1889
February
3rd
Belle Starr is murdered in San Bois, Oklahoma.

25th
Harry Longabaugh is pardoned by Governor Thomas Moonlight. He takes his nom de voleur from his hometown: Sundance, Wyoming.

November
2nd
North Dakota becomes the thirty-ninth state.
South Dakota becomes the fortieth state.

8th
Montana becomes the forty-first state.

11th
Washington becomes the forty-second state.

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1890
July
3rd
Idaho becomes the forty-third state.

10th
Wyoming becomes the forty-fourth state.

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1892
July
8th
Bob Ford {the man who killed Jesse James} is killed by Ed Kelly in a saloon in Creede, Colorado.

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1893
September
8th
Luke Short dies in Geuda Springs, Kansas.

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1895
Test yourself with the Salina, Kansas final exam for 8th graders, circa 1895.

March
31st
James Masterson is killed in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

August
19th
John Wesley Hardin is killed in El Paso, Texas.

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1896
January
4th
Utah becomes the forty-fifth state.

April
6th
John Selman is killed in El Paso, Texas.

August
25th
Bill Doolin is killed in Lawton, Oklahoma.

November
17th
Judge Isaac Charles Parker dies in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

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1898
July
1st
Captain William Owen 'Buckey' O'Neill, First United States Volunteer Cavalry {the Rough Riders}, previously sheriff of Yavapai County, Arizona, is killed by a sniper at San Juan Hill, Cuba.

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1900
February
15th
Burt Alvord, Bill Stiles, Three-fingered Jack Dunlap, George and Louis Owens, Bravo Juan Yoas, and Bob Brown attempt to rob the Wells Fargo express car at the Southern Pacific railroad depot in Fairbank, Arizona. Jeff Milton, former Texas Ranger, is the express messenger that night. Milton is wounded, but Jack Dunlap dies and Bravo Juan Yoas is wounded, while the rest of the gang make their escape without opening the safe.

July
7th
Warren Earp is killed by Johnny Boyet in a saloon in Willcox, Arizona.

November
21st
The Wild Bunch {Bill Carver, Ben Kilpatrick, Harvey 'Kid Curry' Logan, Harry 'Sundance Kid' Longabaugh, Robert 'Butch Cassidy' Parker} have their photograph taken in a studio in Fort Worth, Texas.

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1901
January
10th
Capt. A.F. Lucas brings in the 'Spindletop' oil well in Beaumont, Texas.

March
25th
Arizona Rangers are formed.

April
26th
Tom 'Black Jack' Ketchum is hanged in Clayton, New Mexico.

June
22nd
Gregorio Cortez is captured near El Sauz, Texas.

July
18th
William 'Willie' Nickell is killed near Bosler, Wyoming, allegedly by Tom Horn.

October
29th
Annie Oakley is injured in a train wreck of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show in Lexington, North Carolina.

December
16th
Pat Garrett is appointed collector of customs at El Paso, Texas by President Roosevelt.

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1902
January
13th
Tom Horn is arrested for the murder of Willie Nickell in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

September
23rd
John Wesley Powell dies in Haven, Maine.

28th
Levi Strauss dies in San Francisco.

October
19th
James Younger commits suicide in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

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1903
March
16th
Judge Roy Bean dies in Del Rio, Texas.

August
1st
Martha Jane 'Calamity Jane' Cannary dies in Terry, South Dakota.

November
20th
Tom Horn is hanged in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

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1904
January
13th
Ed Kelly, killer of Bob Ford, is killed by police officer in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

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1905
October
19th
Virgil Earp dies in Goldfield, Nevada.

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1907
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are killed in San Vicente, Bolivia.

November
16th
Oklahoma becomes the forty-sixth state.

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1908
February
29th
Pat Garrett is killed near Las Cruces, New Mexico by Wayne Brazel.

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1909
February
15th
Arizona Rangers are disbanded.
17th
Geronimo dies at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

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1911
February
12th
Quanah Parker dies.

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1912
January
6th
New Mexico becomes the forty-seventh state.

February
14th
Arizona becomes the forty-eighth state.

August
11th
Henry Andrew 'Heck' Thomas dies in Lawton, Oklahoma.

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1913
July
14th
Gregorio Cortez is pardoned in Huntsville, Texas.

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1915
February
18th
Frank James dies in Clay County, Missouri.

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1916
March
9th
Pancho Villa invades Columbus, New Mexico.

21st
Cole Younger dies in Lee's Summit, Missouri.

Gregorio Cortez dies in Anson, Jones County, Texas.

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1917
January
10th
'Buffalo Bill' Cody dies in Denver, Colorado.

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1921
January
8th
William Anderson 'Devil Anse' Hatfield, of the famed Hatfield & McCoy feud, dies in Pikesville, Kentucky.

October
25th
Bat Masterson dies in New York City.

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1924
November
1st
Bill Tilghman is killed by Wiley Lynn in Cromwell, Oklahoma.

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1929
January
13th
Wyatt Earp dies in Los Angeles, California. He is later disinterred and reburied alongside his wife Josie in Colma, California.

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1933
April
8th
Elizabeth Clift Bacon Custer {Mrs. General George Armstrong Custer} dies.

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1937
July
13th
Emmett Dalton dies in Los Angeles, California.

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1944
Josephine Sarah Earp dies in Los Angeles, California. She is buried, with her husband, Wyatt, in Colma, California.

 

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