| 1836 |
Arkansas becomes the 25th state on June 15, 1836, with Little Rock as its capital. The Arkansas State Capitol opens, though construction continues through 1842. Now known as the Old State House Museum, it is the oldest surviving state capitol building west of the Mississippi River. |
| 1839 | Final year of the removal of the Five Civilized Tribes from the Southeast through Arkansas to Indian Territory. The path they took is known as the Trail of Tears. |
| 1853 | Arkansas’ first railroad, the Arkansas Central, is chartered by the General Assembly. That same year construction begins on the Cairo and Fulton Railroad. That railway’s lines are now part of the Union Pacific Railroad in Arkansas. |
| 1856 |
Edward Payson Washburn paints The Arkansas Traveler. |
| 1861 | A convention votes on May 6 to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy. The first of some 60,000 Arkansas residents join the Confederate troops, but some 9,000 whites and more than 5,000 blacks fight on the Union side during the war. |
| 1863 | Federal troops occupy Little Rock following the Sept. 10 Battle of Little Rock. |
| 1864 | A unionist convention abolishes slavery in Arkansas and adopts a new constitution for the state. |
| 1866 |
Ex-Confederates sweep control of the legislature and pass laws denying blacks the right to sit on juries, serve in the militia, or attend white public schools. The Little Rock Chamber of Commerce is founded. It is the oldest association in Arkansas. In 2016, it is known as the Little Rock Regional Chamber. |
| 1867 | Congress passes the Reconstruction Act, which voids the government of Arkansas and nine other Southern states. |
| 1868 |
A new constitution adopted by referendum enfranchises Negroes and disenfranchises ex-Confederate soldiers. Arkansas readmitted to the Union. William H. Grey and James T. White, both of Phillips County, become the first two African-Americans to serve in the Arkansas General Assembly. After Jim Crow laws are enacted, there will be no African Americans in the General Assembly from 1893 until 1973. |
| 1871 | Arkansas Industrial University in Fayetteville is founded; its present name of the University of Arkansas is adopted in 1899. |
| 1873 |
Branch Normal College is established by the Arkansas General Assembly to educate African American students. It is now known as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Mifflan Wistar Gibbs is elected Police Judge in Little Rock, becoming the first African-American elected municipal judge anywhere in the United States.
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| 1874 | Ratification of a new constitution restoring the franchise to all whites and guaranteeing full civil rights for blacks ends the Reconstruction era. |
| 1877 |
President Grant signs an act establishing the Hot Springs Reservation (today’s Hot Springs National Park). It is the oldest designation in the National Park System. |
| 1877 |
Walden Seminary is founded in Little Rock to provide education for freed slaves. In 1882, it is renamed Philander Smith College. |
| 1879 | Eight Arkansas physicians found the Arkansas Industrial University Medical Department in Little Rock, now known as the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. |
| 1881 | The pronunciation of Arkansas with the final “s” being silent is made official by an act of the General Assembly. This was done in reaction to one of the state’s senators pronouncing the “s” at the end and the others saying it without the “s.” |
| 1885 | Augustus H. Garland is named attorney general of the U.S. by President Grover Cleveland. A former U.S. senator and governor, he is the only Arkansan to serve in a presidential cabinet until President Clinton’s administration. |
| 1886 | Cap Anson brings his Chicago White Stockings (now the Cubs) to Hot Springs, establishing the tradition of spring training in Major League Baseball. |
| 1887 | Bauxite is discovered southwest of Little Rock; peak output is reached by 1918, by which time almost all U.S. Bauxite is being mined in Arkansas. |
| 1891 | Jim Crow legislation segregates railroad coaches and waiting stations. |
| 1904 | Near Ulm, William H. Fuller grows a 70-acre stand of rice, establishing what will become one of the state’s leading crops. |
| 1905 | Oaklawn Park officially opens for racing in Hot Springs. |
| 1906 | Diamonds are found near Murfreesboro, which becomes the site of the only diamond mine in the United States. |
| 1908 | The Ozark National Forest is established. |
| 1912 | Horace Gaines Pugh establishes the Arkansas Children’s Home Society, the forerunner of Arkansas Children’s Hospital. |
| 1913 | The General Assembly adopts an official flag for Arkansas based on a design by Willie K. Hocker. |
| 1915 |
After over a decade of construction, the new Arkansas State Capitol is completed.
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| 1917 | Arkansans muster for service during the First World War; approximately 72,000 from the state will serve, including African-Americans and women. |
| 1921 |
The state’s first radio station, WOK in Pine Bluff, begins broadcasting. Discovery of oil near El Dorado triggers a boom; Arkansas is fourth among states in oil in 1924, but production peaks in 1925. Lion Oil is established in El Dorado in 1922. |
| 1922 | Miss Erle Chambers of Little Rock and Mrs. Frances Hunt of Pine Bluff become the first two women elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives. |
| 1923 | Petit Jean Park becomes the first state park in Arkansas. |
| 1926 | The Little Rock Zoo is founded with a bear and wolf as the first two animals. |
| 1927 | Called the “most beautiful high school” in America by the American Institute of Architects, Little Rock Central High School opens. |
| 1931 |
By the end of this year, nearly half of the Arkansas businesses operating in 1929 are closed due to the Great Depression, including 192 banks. American Airlines lands in Little Rock, becoming the first airline to serve the state. |
| 1932 | Hattie Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate. She had previously been appointed to fill a vacancy caused by the death of her husband. |
| 1938 | William T. Dillard opens the T. J. Dillard’s store in Nashville. Now known as Dillard’s, it is headquartered in Little Rock with over 300 stores in 28 states. |
| 1939 |
John Gould Fletcher becomes the first Arkansan to receive a Pulitzer Prize.
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| 1941 | After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Arkansans flock to recruiting stations to join the war effort. Some 200,000 Arkansans will serve; 4,611 will die in service. |
| 1942 | Japanese internment camps are operated in Rohwer and Jerome until 1945 as the U.S. government forcibly incarcerates nearly 16,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II. |
| 1948 | Silas Hunt integrates the University of Arkansas Law School in Fayetteville. Edith Irby integrates the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. |
| Sid McMath of Hot Springs is elected governor on a reform platform. McMath places African-Americans on state boards for the first time since Reconstruction. | |
| 1953 | Television station KATV in Pine Bluff goes on the air. In 1954, it moves to Little Rock. |
| 1954 | Charleston Public Schools integrate in August following the U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring segregated schools unconstitutional. The Fayetteville School District begins integration of its high school the same year. |
| 1957 |
After Gov. Orval Faubus uses the National Guard to keep nine African-American students from integrating Little Rock Central High School, President Dwight Eisenhower sends U.S. Army troops to ensure the students are able to attend.
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| 1958 |
The Arkansas Gazette receives two Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of the Little Rock Central High crisis. Harry S. Ashmore wins for editorial writing and the paper wins for Public Service. Relman Morin of the Associated Press won the Pulitzer for national reporting for his coverage of the events. Little Rock public high schools are closed for the 1958-1959 school year in an effort to stop integration. While some students go to other high schools throughout Arkansas, others simply do not finish high school. |
| 1962 |
Sam Walton opens the first Wal-Mart store.
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| 1963 |
The Arkansas Arts Center opens in Little Rock. Donna Axum, from El Dorado, becomes first Miss Arkansas to be crowned Miss America. President John F. Kennedy visits Arkansas to attend the dedication of the Greers Ferry Dam, only a few weeks before his assassination. |
| 1967 | Winthrop Rockefeller becomes the first Republican governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction. |
| 1973 | The first African Americans join the Arkansas General Assembly since Reconstruction. They are Senator Jerry Jewell (Little Rock), and Representatives Richard Mays (Little Rock), Dr. William Townsend (Little Rock), and Henry Wilkins III (Pine Bluff). |
| 1978 | Bill Clinton is elected governor, becoming the youngest governor in the United States. |
| 1981 | Irma Hunter Brown of Little Rock becomes the first African-American woman in the Arkansas General Assembly when she is sworn in as a representative. She will also become the first black female state Senator in 2003. |
| 1991 | On Oct. 3, Governor Clinton announces he will run for the presidency of the United States. |
| 1992 | Bill Clinton is elected the 42nd President of the United States. |
| 1998 | President Clinton signs into law a bill designating Central High School a National Historic Site. |
| 2002 | Bentonville based Wal-Mart is identified as the world’s largest corporation. |
| 2009 | The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery goes into effect. |
| 2011 | Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opens in Bentonville. |
| 2014 | For the first time since Reconstruction, all of the constitutional officers and members of the Arkansas congressional delegation are members of the Republican Party. |
Scott Whiteley Carter is a native of Little Rock who has worked in various capacities at Little Rock City Hall for over 15 years. A lover of history, the arts, sports and trivia, he is currently at work on a book on the 36-year process of building a municipal auditorium in Little Rock. He is usually seen holding a cup of coffee while wearing plaid. His musings on Little Rock’s history and the culture scene can be found at LRCultureVulture.com.