On This Day

US state of Kansas admitted to the Union as the 34th state

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War, was a series of violent civil confrontations in the Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859.

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War, was a series of violent civil confrontations in the Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over whether slavery should be permitted in the proposed state of Kansas.

The conflict was characterized by years of electoral fraud, raids, assaults, and murders carried out in the Kansas Territory and neighboring Missouri by proslavery "border ruffians" and retaliatory raids carried out by antislavery "free-staters". According to Kansapedia of the Kansas Historical Society, 56 political killings were documented during the period, and the total may be as high as 200.

Historical Significance

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War, was a series of violent civil confrontations in the Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859.

Events Before

  1. Slavery is abolished in the Dutch East Indies for areas under direct rule

    The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies, was a Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which declared independence on 17 August 1945.

  2. Willie Park Sr. marries Susanna Law in Inveresk, Scotland

    Willie Park Sr. marries Susanna Law in Inveresk, Scotland

  3. Start of the Pony Express, mail is delivered by horse and rider relay teams between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento,

    Start of the Pony Express, mail is delivered by horse and rider relay teams between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California

  4. First Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, California

    The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders between Missouri and California.

  5. Champion of England Tom Sayers and American John Heenan fight a brutal 2-hour, 27-minute draw that ends only after polic

    Champion of England Tom Sayers and American John Heenan fight a brutal 2-hour, 27-minute draw that ends only after police stop the fight near Farnborough in England, acknowledged as the first world title bout

Events After

  1. First Legal Tender Act of 1862 is passed by US Congress, authorizing the United States note (greenback) into circulation

    First Legal Tender Act of 1862 is passed by US Congress, authorizing the United States note (greenback) into circulation, the first fiat paper money that is legal tender in America

  2. First pasteurization test is completed by Frenchmen Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard

    First pasteurization test is completed by Frenchmen Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard

  3. Chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (28) weds Feozva Nikitichna Leshcheva at Nikolaev Engineering Institute's church in Saint Peter

    Chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (28) weds Feozva Nikitichna Leshcheva at Nikolaev Engineering Institute's church in Saint Petersburg, Russia

  4. First baseball enclosure opens at Union Grounds in Brooklyn

    Union Grounds was a baseball park located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. The grounds opened in 1862, its inaugural match being played on May 15.

  5. Belgian-French engineer Étienne Lenoir builds the first automobile with an internal-combustion engine

    Belgian-French engineer Étienne Lenoir builds the first automobile with an internal-combustion engine

More from the 1860s

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened on January 29, 1861?
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War, was a series of violent civil confrontations in the Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over whether slavery should be permitted in the proposed state of Kansas. The conflict was characterized by years of electoral fraud, raids, assaults, and murders carried out in the Kansas Territory and neighboring Missouri by proslavery "border ruffians" and retaliatory raids carried out by antislavery "free-staters".
Why is US state of Kansas admitted to the Union as the 34th state significant?
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War, was a series of violent civil confrontations in the Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859.

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