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The
history of the U.S.
state of Nebraska dates
back to its formation as a
territory by the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed by the
United States
Congress on May 30,
1854. The
Nebraska Territory
was settled extensively under the
Homestead Act during
the 1860s, and in 1867 was
admitted to the Union as the 37th U.S. state.
Pre-historic
Late Cretaceous
During the
late Cretaceous Period,
between 65 million to 99 million years ago, three-quarters
of Nebraska was covered by the
Western Interior Seaway,
a large body of water that covered one-third of the United
States. The sea was occupied by
mosasaurs, ichthyosaur, and
plesiosaurs. Additionally,
sharks such as
Squalicorax, and fish such as
Pachyrhizodus,
Enchodus, and the
Xiphactinus, a fish larger than
any modern bony fish, occupied the sea. Other sea life
included invertebrates such as
mollusks,
ammonites, squid-like belemnites,
and plankton.
Fossil skeletons of there
animals and period plants were embedded in mud that hardened
into rock and became the limestone that appears today on the
sides of ravines and along the streams of Nebraska.
Pliocene
As the sea
bottom slowly rose, marshes and
forests appeared. After thousand of
years the land became drier, and trees of all kinds grew,
including oak, maple,
beech and willow.
Fossil leaves from ancient trees are found today in the
state's red sandstone rocks. The second phase of water
coverage the area is called the
Pierre Seaway, during which sea covered the land again.
This brought new sea life, and when the water retreated, new
flora and fauna.
Animals occupying the state during this period included
camels, tapirs,
monkeys, tigers
and rhinos. The state also had a
variety of horses
native to its lands.
Pleistocene
The last
ice age ended the great seas that
once covered Nebraska. The last glacial period, called the
Nebraskan glaciation,
began about 600,000 years ago and an alternated between
cold and warm phases
rather than a continuous ice age. Clay
beds and large boulders were left on
the hillsides during this period, and ice fields covered
Nebraska two or three times, with the climate becoming cold
enough to completely eradicate existing plants and animals.
Holocene (present-day)
As the
climate became drier grassy plains
appeared, rivers began to cut their present valleys, and
present Nebraska topography was formed. Animals appearing
during this period remain in the state to this day.
1854-1867
Territorial period
The
Kansas-Nebraska Act of
1854 established the
40th parallel north as
the dividing line between the territories of
Kansas and Nebraska. As such, the
original territorial boundaries of Nebraska were much larger
than today; the territory was bounded on the west by the
Continental Divide between
the Pacific and
Atlantic Oceans; on the north
by the 49th parallel north
(the boundary between the United
States and Canada, and on the east
by the White Earth and
Missouri rivers. However, the
creation of new territories by acts of
Congress progressively
reduced the size of Nebraska.
Land changes
On
February 28, 1861,
Colorado Territory took
portions of the territory south of 41° N and west of 102°03'
W (25° W of Washington, DC). On March 2,
1861, Dakota
Territory took all of the portions of Nebraska Territory
north of 43° N (the present-day Nebraska-South
Dakota border), along with the portion of present-day
Nebraska between the 43rd
parallel north and the Keya Paha and Niobrara rivers
(this land would be returned to Nebraska in
1882). The act creating the Dakota Territory also
included provisions granting Nebraska small portions of
Utah Territory and
Washington Territory —
present-day southwestern Wyoming,
bounded by the 41st parallel
north, the 43rd parallel
north, and the Continental
Divide. On March 3,
1863, Idaho
Territory took everything west of 104°03' W (27° W of
Washington, DC).
Capital changes
The
capital of the Nebraska Territory was
at Omaha. During the 1850s there were
numerous unsuccessful attempts to move the capital to other
locations, including Florence
and Plattsmouth.[6]
In the Scriptown corruption scheme,
ruled illegal by the
United States Supreme Court in the case of
Baker v. Morton, local
businessmen tried to secure land in the Omaha area to give
away to legislators. The capital remained at Omaha until
1867 when Nebraska gained statehood, at
which time the capital was moved to
Lincoln, which was called
Lancaster at that point.
1867 - 1950
Statehood
A
constitution for Nebraska was drawn up in
1866. There was some controversy over Nebraska's
admission as a state, with some controversy over a provision
in the 1866 constitution that restricted
suffrage to white voters;
eventually, on February 8,
1867, the
United States Congress
voted to admit Nebraska as a state provided that suffrage
was not denied to non-white voters. The bill admitting
Nebraska as a state was vetoed by
President
Andrew Johnson, but the veto
was overridden by a supermajority
in both Houses of Congress.
Political change
Under the
original constitution, the
Nebraska Legislature was bicameral.
However, following a 1931 visit to
Australia, Nebraska legislator
George Norris campaigned for
the abolition of the bicameral system, following the example
of the Australian state of Queensland
which had adopted a unicameral
system ten years previously; he also argued that the
bicameral system was based on the "inherently undemocratic"
British
House of Lords. In
1934, a state constitutional amendment
was passed introducing a single-house legislature, and also
introducing non-partisan
elections (where members do not stand as members of
political parties).
World War II
During the
Second World War Nebraska
was home to several prisoner of
war camps. Scottsbluff, Fort
Robinson, and Camp Atlanta
(outside Holdrege) were the main camps. There were many
smaller satellite camps at Alma, Bayard, Bertrand,
Bridgeport, Elwood, Fort Crook, Franklin, Grand Island,
Hastings, Hebron, Indianola, Kearney, Lexington, Lyman,
Mitchell, Morrill, Ogallala, Palisade, Sidney, and Weeping
Water. Fort Omaha housed Italian
POWs. Altogether there were 23 large and small camps
scattered across the state.
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