1850    The Compromise of 1850 transfers a third of Texas's claimed territory (now parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) to federal control in return for the U.S. federal government assuming $10 million of Texas's pre-annexation debt.

1854    The Kansas-Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the US territories of Nebraska and Kansas.

1856    Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas").

1856    John Brown and his men murder five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.

1861    Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.

1907    Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.

1947    The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward tornadoes kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

2008    An EF4 tornado strikes the Oklahoma-Kansas state line, killing 21 people and injuring over 100.