Missouri (MO).

• Region: Midwest
• Population: 6,177,957 (ranked 18th) (2022 estimate)
• Capital: Jefferson City (pop. 42,528) (2022 estimate)
• Largest city: Kansas City (pop. 509,297) (2022 estimate)
• Number of counties: 114
• State nickname: Show Me State
• State motto: Salus populi suprema lex esto (The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law)
• State flag: Red, white, and blue stripes with state coat of arms surrounded by twenty-four stars

Missouri, the "Show Me State," joined the Union on August 10, 1821, as the twenty-fourth state. The state has become known as the "Gateway to the West" because so many settlers started their westward journey from St. Louis. The state's eastern border is the Mississippi River, looking across to Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Missouri borders Arkansas on the south; Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska on the west; and Iowa on the north. The state has a reputation for producing pragmatic, forthright people; the desk of thirty-third US president Harry S. Truman, a native of Lamar, Missouri, had a sign reading "The buck stops here." Missouri is an agricultural state but its economy is mostly industrial, including aerospace, machine parts, printing, and chemicals. Tourist attractions include the state's scenic waterways, resort cities such as Branson, which boasts a thriving country music business, and historic sites such as Mark Twain's boyhood home.

State Name: The name "Missouri" is thought to be of Sioux origin and is probably a French spelling of a tribal name meaning "town of large canoes." Missourians' pragmatism and skepticism—their "show me" attitude—have given Missouri the nickname of the "Show Me State."

Capital:Jefferson City has served as the state capital of Missouri since 1826. St. Charles served as state capital from 1821 to 1826 until the completion of Jefferson City. During the territorial period, the capital was St. Louis.

Flag: The Missouri state flag has three large horizontal stripes in red, white, and blue. In the middle of this tricolor background is the state seal. The twenty-four stars in the blue band around the seal, as well as the twenty-four stars directly above the seal, represent the number of states in the Union when Missouri entered in 1821. Two grizzly bears, one on each side, support the center shield. The motto "United We Stand, Divided We Fall" runs around the edge of the center shield. The shield's left section contains a moon and a grizzly bear as symbols of Missouri. The right section contains an eagle, which represents the United States. The state adopted the flag in 1913.

Official Symbols

• Flower: Hawthorn
• Bird: Bluebird
• Tree: Dogwood
• Animal: Mule
• Fish: Paddlefish; channel catfish
• Song: "Missouri Waltz" by John V. Eppel and J. R. Shannon

State and National Historic Sites

• Arrow Rock State Historic Site (Arrow Rock)
• Battle of Lexington State Historic Site (Lexington)
• George Washington Carver National Monument (Diamond)
• Harry S. Truman Birthplace State Historic Site (Lamar)
• Harry S. Truman National Historic Site (Independence and Grandview)
• Iliniwek Village State Historic Site (Wayland)
• Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site (Florida)
• Mastodon State Historic Site (Imperial)
• Osage Village State Historic Site (Harwood)
• Ozark National Scenic Riverway (Van Buren)
• Pony Express National Historic Trail ( St. Joseph)
• Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio State Historic Site (Kansas City)
• Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site (St. Louis)
• Union Covered Bridge State Historic Site (Paris)

DEMOGRAPHICS

• Population: 6,177,957 (ranked 18th) (2022 estimate)
• Population density: 89.5/sq mi (2020 estimate)
• Urban population: 69.5% (2020 estimate)
• Rural population: 30.5% (2020 estimate)
• Population under 18: 22.1% (2022 estimate)
• Population over 65: 18.0% (2022 estimate)
• White alone: 82.5% (2022 estimate)
• Black or African American alone: 11.7% (2022 estimate)
• Hispanic or Latino: 4.8% (2022 estimate)
• American Indian and Alaska Native alone: 0.6% (2022 estimate)
• Asian alone: 2.3% (2022 estimate)
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone: 0.2% (2022 estimate)
• Two or More Races: 2.7% (2022 estimate)
• Per capita income: $33,770 (ranked 36th; 2021)
• Unemployment: 2.5% (2022 estimate)

American Indians: When European explorers first reached the Missouri region in the late seventeenth century, the Osage and the Missouri were two of the most prominent peoples living there. The French claimed the region along with the rest of the Mississippi River Valley as the province of "Louisiana." The American Indians in the region remained on generally good terms with the French, who were more interested in trading and fur trapping than in settlement. Relations were worse with the English and Americans, who saw the local tribes as standing in the way of White settlement. The state's Indian population declined sharply in the nineteenth century, as the federal government forced tribes westward onto reservation lands on the Great Plains.

ENVIRONMENT AND GEOGRAPHY

• Total area: 69,707 sq mi (ranked 21st)
• Land area: 68,742 sq mi (98.6% of total area)
• Water area: 965 sq mi (1.4% of total area)
• National parks: 7
• Highest point: Taum Sauk Mountain (1,772 feet)
• Lowest point: Saint Francis River (230 feet)
• Highest temperature: 118° F (Warsaw; Union, July 14, 1954)
• Lowest temperature: -40° F (Warsaw, February 13, 1905)

Topography: Missouri is a mixture of rolling hills, prairies, floodplains, and river valleys. The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers have determined settlement patterns, as has the path of westward migration. Prairies cover the region north of the Missouri River, which flows west to east. These grassy flatlands blend into the prairies of neighboring Iowa. South of the Missouri River the land is hillier, part of the Ozark Mountain chain. Much of eastern Missouri, especially in the Ozarks, is heavily forested. The southwestern part of the state, like the northern part, is covered with prairie which supports ranching. The southeastern region is part of the Mississippi River watershed, once home to extensive cotton plantations.

Major Lakes

• Bull Shoals Lake
• Clearwater Lake
• Lake of the Ozarks
• Mark Twain Lake
• Smithville Lake
• Stockton Lake
• Table Rock Lake
• Thomas Hill Lake
• Truman Lake
• Wappapello Lake

Major Rivers

• Gasconade River
• Grand River
• James River
• Lamine River
• Mississippi River
• Missouri River
• Osage River
• Platte River
• Pomme de Terre River
• Sac River
• St. Francis River

State and National Parks: Missouri possesses many parks and historic sites operated by the state, as well as several operated by the federal government. Many of the national parks commemorate Missouri's heritage as the "Gateway to the West." These include Oregon National Historic Trail, which passes through six states to reach Oregon, and the Pony Express National Historic Trail, which passes through eight states to reach California. Several other sites relate to Missouri native Harry S. Truman, who served as president from 1945 to 1953. The Harry S. Truman National Historic Site includes the Truman Home in Independence, where the president spent most of his adult life, and the Truman Farm Home in Grandview; this was his grandparents' farm, where Truman worked during his youth and early manhood. Many of Missouri's state parks focus on scenic beauty. These include Roaring River State Park, which offers good trout fishing.

Natural Resources: Missouri boasts extensive natural resources, both mineral and agricultural. Mineral resources include iron ore, zinc, and lead. In fact, Missouri is a leading producer of nonrecycled lead in the nation. Agricultural resources include the rich farmlands of the Missouri and Mississippi River Valleys, which produce food crops, livestock, and wine. The forests of the Ozark region produce large amounts of timber. Fishing is also important, for species including trout, but many species have declined to flood-control efforts.

Plants and Animals: Missouri has historically possessed a rich variety of plant and animal species. Some of these are at risk, however, because of expanding human settlement and efforts at flood control. Many mammal, fish, and bird species have found their floodplain habitats altered to support agriculture. White-tailed deer are the main big-game species in Missouri, especially along the Missouri River.

Climate: Missouri has a Midwestern climate tempered by the Missouri and Mississippi River. The average winter temperature is just over 32 degrees Fahrenheit, while the average summer temperature is about 75.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The average annual precipitation is about 40.8 inches.

EDUCATION AND CULTURE

Major Colleges and Universities

• College of the Ozarks (Point Lookout)
• Concordia Seminary (St. Louis)
• Cottey College (Nevada)
• Drury University (Springfield)
• Hannibal–LaGrange University (Hannibal)
• Lincoln University (Jefferson City)
• Maryville University of St. Louis (St. Louis)
• Missouri State University (Springfield)
• Missouri University of Science and Technology (Rolla)
• Rockhurst University (Kansas City)
• St. Louis University (St. Louis)
• Stephens College (Columbia)
• University of Central Missouri (Warrensburg)
• University of Missouri (Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla, St. Louis)
• Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis)
• Webster University (Webster Groves)
• Westminster College (Fulton)

Major Museums

• Kansas City Museum (Kansas City)
• Missouri History Museum (St. Louis)
• Missouri State Museum (Jefferson City)
• National Museum of Transportation (St. Louis)
• Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (Kansas City)
• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City)
• St. Louis Art Museum (St. Louis)
• St. Louis Science Center (St. Louis)
• Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum (Independence)

Major Libraries

• Ellis Library, University of Missouri (Columbia)
• John M. Olin Library, Washington University (St. Louis)
• Linda Hall Library (Kansas City)
• Mercantile Library (St. Louis)
• Missouri State Library (Jefferson City)
• Pope Pius XII Memorial Library, St. Louis University (St. Louis)
• St. Louis Public Library (St. Louis)
• State Historical Society Library (Columbia)
• Truman Presidential Library (Independence)

Media

Missouri's media centers are Saint Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield. Kansas City's daily newspapers include the Kansas City Star and the Daily Record. Weekly papers in Kansas City include the Kansas City Business Journal. St. Louis' papers include the daily St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the weekly St. Louis Business Journal. Jefferson City, the state capital, has the Jefferson City News Tribune. Missouri Digital News (MDN), an online news service of the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, reports on state government and public policy news.

ECONOMY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

• Gross domestic product (in millions $USD): 389,931.2 (ranked 22nd) (2022 estimate)
• GDP percent change: 1.7%

Major Industries: Missouri is a highly industrialized state, with strong manufacturing, service, and financial sectors. Several Fortune 500 companies make their corporate headquarters in Missouri, including the Anheuser-Busch brewing company. Aerospace and transportation are important economic sectors. Aerospace giant Boeing, which purchased the St. Louis–based McDonnell-Douglas aircraft company, is one of the state's top employers. Missouri was also a major site for automobile construction. The state has a large agricultural sector, including both crop and livestock farming. Agricultural services form an additional economic sector.

Tourism: Missouri has expanded its tourist trade over the last several decades, attracting visitors through a mix of scenic beauty, historical sites and heritage, and culture. The state's two metropolitan centers, Kansas City and St. Louis, offer urban attractions such as professional sports, jazz, and sophisticated shopping. History buffs can visit the sites of former American Indian villages, the homes of historic figures such as President Harry Truman and writer Mark Twain, and several Civil War battlefields. Missouri is rich in natural wonders as well, including the scenic Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Branson, Missouri, located in the Ozarks region, has a thriving country-music scene.

Energy Production: Missouri consumes considerably more energy than it produces, and relies most heavily on coal for its energy needs. Petroleum and natural gas are also important. Many petroleum pipelines cross Missouri, but the state has few proved crude oil reserves of its own. The state also uses renewable energy, which provided 12 percent of the state's net electricity generation in 2022. Missouri is a major producer of biodiesel, and renewable resources such as wind power have grown more common in the state as well.

Agriculture: As noted above, Missouri is one of the nation's great agricultural states. Agriculture, forestry, and related industries are a major part of the state economy. Missouri is one of the nation's top-ranking states for raising beef cows. The top food crops include soybeans, corn, sorghum, and rice. Missouri is home to many aquaculture farms, which raise fish for food, bait, ornamental purposes, and as sport fish. The state is also developing a wine industry.

Airports: Missouri has over one hundred public airports out of approximately five hundred total aviation facilities. The state has two major commercial airports, Kansas City International and Lambert–St. Louis International. There are also various regional airports, including facilities in Springfield, Joplin, Columbia, Cape Girardeau, Kirksville, and Fort Leonard Wood.

Seaports: There are more than a dozen public port authorities in Missouri, handling traffic on the state's 1,050 miles of navigable waterways. These include metropolitan authorities as in Kansas City and St. Louis; county authorities as in Jefferson County; and regional authorities such as that for Southeast Missouri. Water shipping remains an important transportation channel in the state.

GOVERNMENT

• Governor: Mike Parson (Republican)
• Present constitution date: 1945
• Electoral votes: 10
• Number of counties: 114
• Violent crime rate: 542.7 (per 100,000 residents; 2020 estimate)
• Death penalty: Yes

Constitution: Missouri's current state constitution dates from 1945. Previous constitutions were adopted in 1820, 1865, and 1875.

Branches of Government

Executive: Missouri's chief executive is the governor, who is elected to a four-year term. Duties include proposing, signing, and vetoing legislation; appointing executive-branch official; serving as commander-in-chief of state military forces; and granting pardons. The lieutenant governor, who is also elected to a four-year term, serves as acting governor in case of the governor's disability or removal from office. Other duties include serving as president of the state senate, where he or she can vote only to break a tie.

The other constitutional officers are the lieutenant governor, the secretary of state, the state auditor, the state treasurer, and the attorney general.

Legislative: The Missouri General Assembly has two houses. The upper house, the state senate, has thirty-four members, who serve four-year terms. Half of the senate runs for reelection every two years. The lower house, the House of Representatives, has 163 members, who serve two-year terms. Since 1992, a state-constitutional amendment has limited total legislative service to sixteen years: eight years in the House and eight years in the senate.

Judicial: Missouri has a three-tiered court system. The seven-member Missouri Supreme Court, the highest court, is the ultimate court of appeal and focuses on constitutional questions. The supreme court's membership includes a chief justice and six judges. Members are appointed by the governor from a list of candidates drawn up by the appellate judicial commission. A newly appointed judge serves one year and then must run for reelection to a twelve-year term. Judges may be reelected multiple times and may serve until the age of seventy.

Beneath the supreme court is the court of appeals, which handles appeals from the circuit courts. In a few cases, the supreme court may hear an appeal directly. Missouri has three court of appeals districts: eastern, southern, and western.

The circuit courts serve as the state's courts of original jurisdiction and handle most civil and criminal cases. This level of the judiciary has several divisions of courts, including: associate circuit, criminal, family, juvenile, municipal, probate, and small claims. Most circuit court judges are elected, but many urban judges are elected under the "Missouri court plan" mentioned above. Circuit judges are elected to six-year terms, while associate circuit judges are elected to four-year terms.

HISTORY

1673 Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, French explorers, travel down the Mississippi River. They become the first Europeans to travel by land in what is now Missouri.

1682 French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, establishes French control over the Louisiana Territory. This includes present-day Missouri.

1720 The first African slaves arrive in Missouri, to work in French lead mines.

1724 Etienne de Bourgmont constructs Fort Orleans on the north bank of the Missouri River, but the fort is abandoned around 1730.

ca. 1750 The French establish Ste. Genevieve, the first permanent European settlement in Missouri.

1762 French gives the Louisiana Territory to Spain, under terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau, but Spain does not formally assume control until 1770.

1764 Pierre Laclède Liguest founds the city of St. Louis.

1769 The Spanish colonial government prohibits the enslavement of Indians in the colony of Upper Louisiana.

1800 France receives the Louisiana Territory back from Spain.

1803 The French Emperor Napoleon I, needing ready cash for his continental European wars, sells the Louisiana Territory to the United States for $15 million. President Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase effectively doubles the size of the United States.

1804 President Jefferson sends out Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the Louisiana Territory. The Lewis and Clark expedition sets out from St. Louis in May.

1805 Congress establishes the Louisiana Territory, with territorial capital at St. Louis.

1812 Congress creates the Missouri Territory out of the Louisiana Territory. The territorial legislature begins meeting.

1820 The question of Missouri statehood becomes caught up in the national debate over slavery. Both North and South are concerned that Missouri's entry will upset the political balance between North and South in the US Senate. The South wants it to enter as a slave state, while the North wants it as a free state. Senator Henry Clay, the "Great Compromiser," helps resolve the issue with the "Missouri Compromise." Under the terms of this agreement, Missouri enters as a slave state while Maine enters as a free state—thus maintaining the Senate's balance. Another provision adds that the remainder of the Louisiana Territory will enter the Union as free states. In this year, Missouri adopts its first state constitution.

1821 Missouri enters the Union on August 10 as the nation's twenty-first state. That same year, the Santa Fe Trail opens to the Mexican city of Santa Fe, now in the US state of New Mexico. This marks the beginning of Missouri's status as "Gateway to the West."

1824 The Missouri Supreme Court establishes precedents that allow wrongfully enslaved persons to sue for their freedom. These precedents are based on law from the territorial period, in connection with the 1787 Northwest Ordinance's prohibition on slavery.

1820s–40s The federal government seeks to create a "Permanent Indian Frontier," removing all American Indians of the old Northwest Territory to reservation lands west of the Mississippi. This policy drastically reduces the Indian population of Missouri and surrounding areas.

1826 The state capital is moved from St. Charles to Jefferson City.

1827 The town of Independence is founded.

1834 William Greenleaf Eliot, a native of Massachusetts, moves to St. Louis and becomes the first Unitarian minister west of the Mississippi River. In the 1850s, he helps establish the school which later becomes Washington University in St. Louis.

1837 St. Louis abolitionist newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy, who moved to Alton, Illinois to escape violence, is murdered by a mob in his print shop. The incident outrages many Northerners and adds to the moral debate over slavery.

1839 The State Legislature establishes the University of Missouri, in the town of Columbia. This is the first public university west of the Mississippi River, as well as the first constructed in the Louisiana Purchase. The College of Arts and Sciences is established in 1841, and the first graduation ceremony takes place in 1843.

1847 Telegraph lines connect Missouri with the East Coast.

1849 The California gold rush sends thousands of hopeful gold prospectors westward. Missouri becomes the departure point for these emigrants.

1850 The town of Kansas is incorporated. The name is later changed to Kansas City.

1853 Eliot Seminary, an institution of higher learning, is established in St. Louis. The school is founded by two prominent St. Louis citizens, State Senator Wayman Crow and Unitarian minister William Greenleaf Eliot. The name is changed in 1854 to Washington Institute in St. Louis, and in 1856 to Washington University. (Since 1976, the school has been officially known as Washington University in St. Louis, to distinguish it from schools with similar names.)

1854 The Kansas-Nebraska Act, signed by President Franklin Pierce, causes a huge controversy between North and South with its support of "popular sovereignty." The measure repeals the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing each territory to vote on whether to join the Union as a slave state or free state. Border wars break out between pro- and anti-slavery forces in Missouri and Kansas. This conflict contributes to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.

1857 The US Supreme Court rules in the Dred Scott case, involving the slavery and states' rights issues. The enslaved Scott had sued for his freedom in 1846 on the grounds that he had lived in Wisconsin, a free state, before going to slaveholding Missouri. Scott had brought the case in 1846 in a St. Louis court. The High Court's ruling against Scott in Dred Scott v. Sandford served to inflame Northern opinion against the South and slavery.

1860 The Pony Express courier service begins operating from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California.

1861–65 The Civil War. Missouri is a border state in the war, and even has conflicting state governments: one pro-Confederate; the other, pro-Union. Because of his desire to keep Missouri in the Union, in 1861 President Lincoln revokes Union General John C. Frémont's general emancipation order; Frémont had tried to liberate all those enslaved by Southern sympathizers. In 1863, Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, but this applies only to those enslaved in rebel states. Many African Americans from Missouri serve in Union regiments during the war.

During the first months of the war, the Confederates hold much of southwestern Missouri, but in August 1861, Union troops defeat the Southerners at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Much of the violence in Missouri is not between mass armies, but rather guerrilla warfare conducted by both sides. At the end of the war, Missouri passes a law immediately emancipating all those enslaved in the state. The Republican government also passes a constitution (the state's second) that limited the political influence of ex-Confederates and Southern sympathizers.

1866 Lincoln Institute is founded to provide higher education for African Americans. It later becomes Lincoln University.

1867 The first women's suffrage organization is founded in St. Louis: the Missouri Women's Suffrage Club.

1868 The first women students enter the University of Missouri.

1870 The University of Missouri becomes a land-grant school, under provisions of the congressional Morrill Act of 1862. The state legislature authorizes the university to establish an agricultural and technical school. The university is also authorized to set up a school of mining and metallurgy at Rolla.

1873 The DesPerres School, the nation's first public kindergarten, opens in St. Louis. It is founded by Susan Elizabeth Blow, who had studied the kindergarten system in Germany. Her work leads to the establishment of kindergartens throughout the United States.

1875 The state adopts its third constitution.

1882 Outlaw leader Jesse James, who with his brother Frank has committed a number of violent robberies, is killed.

1884 Harry S. Truman, future US president, is born in Lamar, Missouri.

1904 St. Louis hosts the World's Fair. Ragtime composer Scott Joplin is among the musicians who perform there.

1914–18World War I. Many Missourians, including National Guard artillery officer Harry S. Truman, head overseas to fight in France. Truman's leadership experience in the war later helps in his bid for a political career. In 1917, hundreds of African American workers flee from East St. Louis, Illinois, to neighboring St. Louis, Missouri, to escape race riots.

1915 The state legislature establishes the third Wednesday of October as "Missouri Day," to honor the achievements of the state and its residents.

1919 A year before ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, Missouri grants women the right to vote in presidential elections.

1923 Harry S. Truman enters politics as a judge for Jackson County, Missouri. The post is administrative rather than judicial, equivalent to the job of a county commissioner. He serves in this role (with a break in 1925–26) until entering the US Senate in 1935.

1924 Missouri establishes its first state park, Big Spring State Park. By the end of the following year, there are eight state parks in Missouri totaling over 23,000 acres.

1927 Aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, flying the Spirit of St. Louis, makes the first solo transatlantic crossing.

1931 The state finishes work on Bagnell Dam. The project involved construction of the artificial Lake of the Ozarks, one of the largest such lakes in the world at the time.

1930s The Great Depression. Like the rest of the nation, Missouri seeks to return to economic stability. During this period, the New Deal jobs program known as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) helps to maintain and improve Missouri's state parks.

1939 Tom Pendergast, the Democratic political boss of Kansas City, is sentenced to fifteen months in federal prison for evading income tax. The incident makes many people to question the integrity of Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman because of his longtime political association with the Pendergast machine. That same year, J. S. McDonnell forms the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. The firm produces much war materiel for the US military during World War II.

1941–45 World War II. Senator Truman creates and chairs a committee to investigate waste in war production. He gains much national attention from this, which helps lead to his selection as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's running mate in 1944. In 1945, President Roosevelt dies and Vice President Truman enters the Oval Office. At war's end, the Japanese sign surrender documents from the deck of the battleship USS Missouri.

1945 Missouri adopts a new state constitution.

1946 The Cold War begins heating up. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visits Westminster College in Fulton and delivers his "Iron Curtain" speech about the menace of Soviet Communism.

1948 Harry Truman is reelected president, despite media reports that Republican candidate Thomas Dewey has won the election. During the campaign, Truman faced strong opposition within his own party on a number of labor and race issues. A group of Southern Democrats, called "Dixiecrats," supported the presidential bid of South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, a noted segregationist.

1950 The University of Missouri enrolls its first Black students.

1954 The Missouri attorney general declares that school segregation laws are null and void, because of the US Supreme Court decision in the case Brown v. Board of Education.

1963 The University of Missouri System is created, when UM expands from two to four campuses. The University of Kansas City, previously private, is acquired and renamed the University of Missouri at Kansas City. UM also establishes a new campus at St. Louis.

1965 The St. Louis Arch, a symbol of westward expansion, is completed in St. Louis.

1988 Congressman Dick Gephardt of Missouri runs for the Democratic presidential nomination but loses to Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts.

1992Mel Carnahan, a Democrat, is elected governor. He is reelected in 1996.

1993 Missouri and other Midwestern states experience major flooding which kills thirty-one people. The floods do approximately $3 million in damage.

2000 Governor Carnahan dies in a plane crash in October, while campaigning against incumbent Republican candidate John Ashcroft for the US Senate. His wife, Jean, runs in his place and defeats Ashcroft in the November election.

2011 The city of Joplin, Missouri is struck by a large and powerful tornado. A large swath of the city’s homes and business are destroyed and over one hundred people are killed. Governor Jay Nixon declares a state of the emergency in the city and calls in the Missouri National Guard to assist in relief efforts. US President Barack Obama makes a statement committing the support of his administration to the residents of Joplin and others impacted by the tornado.

2014 African American teenager Michael Brown is shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, after an alleged robbery. Civil rights demonstrations and protests, along with prolonged social unrest in the area following the incident, attract national attention, part of increased focus on violence against African Americans. The police officer is later cleared of any civil rights violations, sparking further protests.

2018 In November, 66 percent of voters approve a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana.

2020 Like the rest of the nation, Missouri faces the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses and services are shut down amid efforts to slow the spread of the viral disease.

2023 Missouri legislation bans gender-affirming care for minors.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

Akon (Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam), 1973– (St. Louis) , Rapper, producer, entrepreneur.

Robert Altman, 1925–2006 (Kansas City) , Film director.

Maya Angelou, 1928–2014 (St. Louis) , Poet and civil rights activist.

Burt Bacharach, 1928–2023 (Kansas City) , Composer.

Josephine Baker, 1906–75 (St. Louis) , Singer, dancer.

Scott Bakula, 1954– (St. Louis) , Actor.

Wallace Beery, 1885–1949 (Kansas City) , Actor.

Yogi Berra, 1925–2015 (St. Louis) , Professional baseball player.

Chuck Berry, 1926–2017 (St. Louis) , Songwriter, entertainer.

Thomas Hart Benton, 1889–1975 (Neosho) , Painter.

Bill Bradley, 1943– (Crystal City) , Professional basketball player; US senator from New Jersey.

Omar N. Bradley, 1893–1981 (Clark) , Five-star army general in World War II.

George Washington Carver, 1864–1943 (Diamond Grove) , Inventor, scientist.

Walter Cronkite, 1916–2009 (St. Joseph) , TV news broadcaster.

Suzette Halden Elgin, 1936–2015 (Jefferson City) , Writer and researcher.

T. S. [Thomas Stearns] Eliot, 1888–1965 (St. Louis) , Poet.

Eugene Field, 1850–95 (St. Louis) , Poet.

Edwin Hubble, 1889–1953 (Marshfield) , Astronomer.

Langston Hughes, 1902–67 (Joplin) , African American writer.

Dick Gephardt, 1941– (St. Louis) , US Representative.

Dick Gregory, 1932–2017 (St. Louis) , Comedian, African American political activist.

Jesse James, 1847–82 (near Kearney) , Outlaw.

Reinhold Niebuhr, 1892–1971 (Wright City) , Pastor, religious writer, political activist.

Candace Parker, 1986– (St. Louis) , Basketball player.

Thomas J. Pendergast, 1872–1945 (St. Joseph) , Political boss of Kansas City, early associate of Harry S. Truman.

James C. Penney, 1875–1971 (near Hamilton) , Founder of J. C. Penney Co. department stores.

John J. Pershing, 1860–1948 (Laclede) , General.

Ginger Rogers, 1911–95 (Independence) , Actress, dancer.

Gladys Swarthout, 1904–69 (Deepwater) , Soprano.

Tech N9ne (Aaron Dontez Yates), 1971– (Kansas City) , Rapper.

Bess Wallace Truman, 1885–1982 (Independence) , First Lady of the United States; wife of President Harry S. Truman.

Harry S. Truman, 1884–1972 (Lamar) , Thirty-third president of the United States.

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), 1835–1910 (Florida) , Author, humorist.

Dick Van Dyke, 1925– (West Plains) , Actor.

TRIVIA

• Susan Elizabeth Blow founded the United States' first public kindergarten, the DesPerres School, in St. Louis in 1873.
• The Missouri River has received the nickname the "Big Muddy" because of sediment brought into the river by erosion.
• Missouri and Iowa fought the nonshooting "Honey War" in 1839, due to a border dispute over agricultural land containing numerous bee hives. The honey, which represented potential taxable income, was the basis of the dispute. The US Supreme Court eventually settled the matter in 1851, dividing the region evenly between the disputing states.
• Artist Thomas Hart Benton, a native of Neosho, painted an immense historical mural in the State Capitol. The work, completed in the mid-1930s, is titled A Social History of the State of Missouri. It was initially controversial because Benton included divisive episodes from the state's history, including Jesse James's bank robberies. Benton's home and studio in Kansas City is now a state historic site.
• The famous Gateway Arch in St. Louis, completed in 1965, commemorates the city's heritage as a "jumping off point" for settlers traveling west.
• When established in 1839, the University of Missouri (at Columbia) was the only public university west of the Mississippi River.
• The 1904 World's Fair, held in St. Louis, saw the origin or popularization of several well-known foods, including cotton candy, iced tea, the ice cream waffle cone, and Dr. Pepper soda.

Bibliography

"Economic Profile for Missouri." BearFacts, Bureau of Economic Analysis, 31 Mar. 2023, apps.bea.gov/regional/bearfacts/action.cfm#tabs-2. Accessed 21 Sept. 2023.

Gerteis, Louis S. The Civil War in Missouri: A Military History. U of Missouri P, 2012.

"Missouri." Quick Facts, US Census Bureau, 1 July 2022, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/MO/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2023.

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Eric Badertscher