This week I'm covering Massachusetts through New Jersey in part 3 of my 5 part blog series showing an important historical event from each state.
21. Massachusetts
Event: Battle of Lexington
Year: 1775
Location: Lexington
Resentment toward the English crown was very intense in
Lexington and that was where the militiamen from Massachusetts chose to stand
their ground against the British Empire. As battles go, the Battle of Lexington
was little more than a skirmish. The British killed eight militiamen and
wounded nine others at Lexington, then they continued on to Concord to destroy
munitions stored there. But when the British tried to return to Boston, more
colonists attacked them, killing or wounding 250 British soldiers. The American
Revolution had begun.
22. Michigan
Event: Model T built
Year: 1908
Location: Detroit
The Model T built by Henry Ford revolutionized travel in the
United States. It was constructed to make car ownership affordable to average
American workers. Ford built more than 15 million of the vehicles, also called
the "Tin Lizzie," from 1908 to 1927. Most models were started by a
hand crank and reached top speeds of 45 miles an hour. Ford and others decided
to build cars in Michigan because of the availability of iron ore and timber,
and the rail and water routes made it convenient to ship cars to large cities
such as Chicago and New York City.
23. Minnesota
Event: Mayo Clinic founded
Year: 1864
Location: Rochester
The Mayo Clinic has become the standard by which all
hospitals are measured. The institution was chosen as the best hospital in the
nation by U.S. News and World Report. The Mayo Clinic has its roots in
immigrant founders Dr. William Worrall Mayo and Mother Alfred Moes, each of
whom took separate routes to Rochester before they founded the hospital. Their
visions of hospital care and teams of specialists have been realized today. In
1919, the institution became a not-for-profit organization.
24. Mississippi
Event: Lynching of Emmett Till
Year: 1955
Location: Money
The lynching of 14-year-old African American Emmett Till
shocked the nation and served as a catalyst for the civil rights movement.
Till, a Chicago resident, was visiting relatives in Mississippi. He was
kidnapped and killed after white residents in the town of Money claimed he
whistled at a white woman. When Till's body was found, it had been grotesquely
disfigured. His mother chose to have an open casket at his wake to show the
world the horror of the crime. There was a trial and the accused murders were
acquitted by an all-white, male jury. In January 2017, Timothy Tyson, author of
The Blood of Emmett Till, said the
woman whom Till allegedly made advances toward told him she lied about the
incident.
25. Missouri
Event: Admitted as slave state
Year: 1820
Location: Statewide
Tensions between slave states and free states were rising in
the United States in the early 19th century, particularly over the issue of
whether the expanding nation should admit new states as free or slave states.
In 1820, Congress passed legislation known as the Missouri Compromise that maintained
the balance of power between free states and slave states. The compromise
allowed the admission of Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.
Neither the North nor the South was happy with the compromise, but the Union
managed to hold together for another 41 years before it finally erupted into
the Civil Wal.
26. Montana
Event: Battle of the Little Bighorn
Year: 1876
Location: Little Big Horn
We've all heard the story of Custer's Last Stand. In 1876,
George Armstrong Custer led U.S. Army soldiers to forcibly relocate members of
the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes after gold was discovered on their lands.
Thousands of Native Americans, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, rallied at
the Little Bighorn River. Custer was ordered to wait for reinforcements, but he
attacked the main encampment of the tribes. Custer and his soldiers were
overwhelmed and all killed within an hour. That would be the last decisive
victory of indigenous tribes against the Army, as the government increased the
use of force to put down any rebellions. The story of Custer's Last Stand has
been embellished over the years following the event, mostly at the hand of
Custer's widow, to include "facts" that have subsequently been proven
false.
27. Nebraska
Event: Kansas-Nebraska Act
Year: 1854
Location: Statewide
The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed people in the territories of
Kansas and Nebraska to decide if the state would be a slave state or a free
state. The legislation prompted settlers on each side of the slavery issue to
pour into Kansas to affect the outcome of the first election after the law had
passed. The election results produced violence, earning the state the name
"Bleeding Kansas." A pro-slavery legislature was chosen amid charges
of fraud. Because of this, Congress refused to admit Kansas as a state.
Anti-slavery settlers eventually outnumbered pro-slavery supporters and Kansas
was admitted as a free state just before the Civil War.
28. Nevada
Event: Gambling legalized
Year: 1931
Location: Statewide
With the nation in the throes of the Great Depression,
Nevada became the first state to legalize gambling in 1931 as a means of
creating a revenue source. The decision would have profound consequences for
the state and the nation. At the time, Las Vegas was nothing more than a desert
stopover. The construction of nearby Hoover Dam gave the area a big boost.
Gambling and casinos, run by organized crime, turned Las Vegas into an
entertainment colossus. With regard to the story of mobster Bugsy Siegel being
the one who "invented" today's Las Vegas by building the first casino
to attract tourists—Las Vegas already had 3 casino/hotels before Bugsy arrived
on the scene. And Bugsy didn't create the concept of the Flamingo Hotel, he
"appropriated" a project that was already a work in progress.
29. New Hampshire
Event: First government independent from England
Year: 1776
Location: Statewide
New Hampshire's state motto is "Live Free or Die,"
so it shouldn't be surprising that the state was the first to declare itself
independent from England. The state set up its own government away from
colonial rule in January 1776, months before the Continental Congress. In 1778,
it was also the first state to hold a constitutional convention.
30. New Jersey
Event: Battle of Trenton
Year: 1776
Location: Trenton
By the end of 1776, the Continental Army was in trouble. It
had been beaten in New York and chased across New Jersey into Pennsylvania by
the British Army. General George Washington needed a victory to lift the hopes
of the budding nation. He took a risk by crossing an ice-choked Delaware River
the day after Christmas to surprise the Hessian troops billeted at Trenton. The
Army killed or captured the entire force of 1,400 Hessians. The victory boosted
Americans' belief in the cause of fighting to liberate themselves from British
rule.
Next week is part 4 of 5 covering New Mexico through South Carolina.
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