1800s

1835
October 17th, the Texas Rangers are formed at Austin.

1836
February 23rd, the beginning of the siege of the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas.
25th, Samuel Colt patents his first revolver.
March 6th, the end of the siege of the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas; the defenders are burnt nearby.
27th, the massacre at Goliad, Texas by the army of General Santa Anna.
April 21st, General Santa Anna is defeated at San Jacinto, Texas.

1845
December 29th, Texas becomes the twenty-eighth state.

1846
February 19th, the Republic of Texas becomes the State of Texas at Austin.

1848
January 24th, gold is discovered at Sutter's mill near Sacramento, California.
February 2nd, the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the War with Mexico {1845-1847}.

1849
February 28th, the first gold prospectors, 365 passengers aboard the California, arrive in San Francisco.

1850
September 9th, California becomes the thirty-first state.

1856
February 11th, following the suggestion of then-Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the USS Supply {Captain David Dixon Porter, USN, commanding} lands 33 camels at Indianola, Texas; camels are transferred to the Southwest for use in the desert. (Soon to be a historical novel called Haj Ali.)

1859
February 14th, Oregon becomes the thirty-third state.

1862
January 10th, Samuel Colt dies in Hartford, Connecticut.
July 6th, Samuel Langhorn Clemens writes under the name 'Mark Twain' for the first time.

1864
October 31st, Nevada becomes the thirty-sixth state.

1869
May 10th, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads are joined with a golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah.

1873
July 21st, Jesse James and his gang hold up the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad near Adair, Iowa.

1874
June 27th, the second Battle of Adobe Walls.

1876
August 1st, Colorado becomes the thirty-eighth state.

1878
April 9th, Edward Masterson, brother of Bat, is killed in Dodge City, Kansas. (Which you may read about by buying my reprinted book by 'Bat' Masterson, Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, by clicking here.)
July 21st, Sam Bass is killed at Round Rock, Texas.

1881
July 14th, Billy the Kid is killed by Pat Garrett at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
October 26th, Virgil, Morgan, and Wyatt Earp, along with Doc Holliday, have an altercation with Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, and Billy Claibourne near the OK corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Billy Clanton and the McLaurys do not survive; Virgil and Morgan Earp, along with Holliday, are wounded.(Which you may read about by buying my reprinted book by 'Bat' Masterson, Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, by clicking here.)

December 3rd, Dave Rudabaugh and accomplices dig their way out of jail, Las Vegas, New Mexico. Rudabaugh flees to Mexico.
29th, Virgil Earp crippled for life by shots from the darkness in Tombstone, Arizona.

1882
March 18th, Morgan Earp is shot and killed in a billiard parlor in Tombstone, Arizona by friends of the Clantons and the McLaurys.
20th, Frank Stilwell, a Clanton accomplice, is killed by Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday near the Southern Pacific depot in Tucson, Arizona. (Which you may read about by buying my reprinted book by 'Bat' Masterson, Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, by clicking here.)
22nd, Florentino Cruz, a Clanton accomplice, is killed by Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday near Tombstone, Arizona. (Which you may read about by buying my reprinted book by 'Bat' Masterson, Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, by clicking here.)
April 3rd, Jesse Woodson James is shot in the back by Robert 'Bob' Ford in Saint Joseph, Missouri.

1884
March 11th, Ben Thompson is shot in a saloon in San Antonio, Texas. (Which you may read about by buying my reprinted book by 'Bat' Masterson, Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, by clicking here.)

1886
January 30th, Blue Duck, an Indian renegade, is convicted of murder and sentenced to hang in Fort Smith, Arkansas; his sentence is later commuted to life and he is eventually pardoned.
February 5th, a cattle rustler named Dilda is hung in Prescott, in Arizona's last legal public hanging, for killing a Yavapai County sheriff.
18th, Dave Rudabaugh is beheaded in a cantina in Parral, Chihuahua in Old Mexico.
July 16th, Edward Zane Carroll Judson dies in New York City. Known as 'Ned Buntline', he wrote many Western books and stories, including The Scouts of the Plains featuring Buffalo Bill Cody.

1887
February 7th, Luke Short sells out his interest in the White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth, Texas. (Which you may read about by buying my reprinted book by 'Bat' Masterson, Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, by clicking here.)
27th, Harry Longabaugh (as in the Sundance Kid, see below) steals a horse and revolver in Sundance, Wyoming.
April 8th, from the Sundance, Wyoming Gazette: Crook County Sheriff Ryan goes to Miles City, Montana to pick up Harry Longabaugh for horse theft.
15th, Harry Longabaugh escapes custody near Duluth, Minnesota from a train en route to Wyoming.
June 7th, from the Miles City, Montana Yellowstone Journal: Harry Longabaugh is captured by Deputy Sheriff Davis, turned over to Sheriff Ryan of Crook County, Wyoming and returned to Sundance.
August 5th, Harry Longabaugh sentenced to eighteen months hard labor for horse theft.
September 4th, Commodore Perry Owens, sheriff of Navajo County, serves a warrant on one Andy Blevins outside Holbrook, Arizona. Alone, he kills or wounds Andy, John, and Sam Blevins, along with Mose Roberts, a Blevins brother-in-law.
November 8th, John H. 'Doc' Holliday dies in bed in the Glenwood Hotel, Glenwood Springs, Colorado. (Which you may read about by buying my reprinted book by 'Bat' Masterson, Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, by clicking here.)

1888
July 3rd, Mattie Blaylock, second wife of Wyatt Earp, kills herself with laudanum in Pinal, Arizona. (Which you may read about by buying my reprinted book by 'Bat' Masterson, Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, by clicking here.)
4th, Prescott, Arizona holds the first organized rodeo.
Bill Tilghman kills Ed Prather in Farmer City, Kansas. (Which you may read about by buying my reprinted book by 'Bat' Masterson, Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, by clicking here.)
14th, first rodeo in Texas held in Canadian.

1889
February 3rd, Belle Starr is murdered in San Bois, Oklahoma.
25th, Harry Longabaugh is pardoned by Governor Thomas Moonlight. He takes his nom de voleur from his hometown: Sundance, Wyoming.
November 2nd, North Dakota becomes the thirty-ninth state and South Dakota becomes the fortieth state.
8th, Montana becomes the forty-first state.
11th, Washington becomes the forty-second state.

1890
July 3rd, Idaho becomes the forty-third state.
10th, Wyoming becomes the forty-fourth state.
1892
July 8th, Bob Ford {the man who killed Jesse James} is killed by Ed Kelly in a saloon in Creede, Colorado.

1893
September 8th, Luke Short dies in Geuda Springs, Kansas.

1895
March 31st, James Masterson is killed in Guthrie, Oklahoma. (Which you may read about by buying my reprinted book by 'Bat' Masterson, Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, by clicking here.)
August 19th, John Wesley Hardin is killed in El Paso, Texas.

1896
January 4th, Utah becomes the forty-fifth state.
April 6th, John Selman is killed in El Paso, Texas.
August 25th, Bill Doolin is killed in Lawton, Oklahoma.
November 17th, Judge Isaac Charles Parker dies in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

1898
July 1st, Captain William Owen 'Buckey' O'Neill, First United States Volunteer Cavalry {the Rough Riders}, previously sheriff of Yavapai County, Arizona, is killed by a sniper at San Juan Hill, Cuba.