Timeline Oklahoma
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110 Mil BP In Oklahoma the plant
eating Tenontosaurus roamed the area along with the meat-eating
Deinonychus. Fossils of both together were found in 1999.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A4)
110 Million Fossils of Sauroposeidon proteles, a
60-ton, 60-foot tall dinosaur, were found in 1994 near Antlers, Okla.
(SFC, 11/4/99, p.A8)
1540 Feb 23, Spanish explorer
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado began his unsuccessful search for the
fabled Seven Cities of Gold in the American Southwest. Antonio de
Mendoza, Viceroy of Mexico, sent Francisco Coronado overland to search
for the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola in present day New Mexico.
Coronado, Spanish explorer, introduced horses, mules, pigs, cattle, and
sheep into the American southwest. An Indian guide spoke of a rich
kingdom called Quivira. When no cities were found he confessed under
torture that the story was false.
(NPS-CNM, 4/1/97)(HN, 2/23/99)(TL-MB, 1988,
p.16)(SFC, 1/31/04, p.D1)
1758 Oct 10, Jean Pierre Chouteau,
French fur trader, early St. Louis settler and "father of Oklahoma" was
born in New Orleans.
(AP, 10/10/08)
1802 Oct 10, The 1st non-Indian
settlement in Oklahoma was made.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1825 Jan 27, Congress approved
Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced
relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears."
(HN, 1/27/99)
1834 Jun 30, Congress passed the
final Indian Intercourse Act. In addition to regulating relations
between Indians living on Indian land and non-Indians, this final act
identified an area known as "Indian country". This land was described
as being "…all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi
and not within the states of Missouri and Louisiana, or the territory
of Arkansas…" This is the land that became known as Indian Territory.
Oklahoma was declared Indian Territory.
(SFCM, 3/9/08,
p.20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Intercourse_Act)
1838 Aug, Some 12,000 Cherokee
Indians in 13 ragtag parties followed the Trail of Tears on a 116-day
journey west 800 miles to eastern Oklahoma. Estimates have placed the
death toll in camps and in transit as high as 4,000. They followed the
trail already set by the Choctaw out of Mississippi, the Creek from
Alabama, the Chickasaw from Arkansas and Mississippi, and the Seminole
from Florida.
(NG, 5/95, p.82)(www.crystalinks.com/cherokee2.html)
1842 Aug 14, Seminole War ended
and the Indians were moved from Florida to Oklahoma.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1861 Apr, William Woods Averell,
recently convalesced Union officer, was sent out west in civilian garb
from Washington, D.C., carrying orders to a fort commander in Indian
Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Averell was to proceed through
secessionist lands to Fort Arbuckle in Indian Territory. Ordinarily,
orders to frontier posts were telegraphed to Fort Smith, Arkansas--some
180 miles east of Fort Arbuckle--and a courier dispatched from there.
But with Arkansas likely to secede at any time, such orders might be
intercepted by secessionists.
(HNQ, 5/27/01)
1864 The Confederate War Dept.
organized the Indian tribes of eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas
into the Indian Division. Cherokee Gen’l. Stand Watie commanded the
Cherokee Mounted Rifles.
(WSJ, 6/9/97, p.A19)
1865 Jun 23, Confederate General
Stand Watie, who was also a Cherokee chief, surrendered the last
sizable Confederate army at Fort Towson, in the Oklahoma Territory.
(WSJ, 6/9/97, p.A19)(HN, 6/23/98)
1868 Nov 27, Lieutenant Colonel
George A. Custer’s 7th Cavalry killed Chief Black Kettle (b.1801) and
about 100 Cheyenne (mostly women and children) on the Washita River
near present day Cheyenne, Oklahoma.
(www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/blackkettle.htm)
1872 The Osage Indians purchased
close to 2,300 square miles in the Oklahoma Territory from the Cherokee
and created the Osage Reservation.
(SFCM, 3/9/08, p.20)
1873 Fall, Leaders of the Northern
California 1872 Modoc War were executed and survivors were exiled to
Oklahoma.
(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.T7)
1876 William M. “Bill” Doolin was
killed by an “Oaklahoma” posse. Photos of the dead man were sold for 25
cents.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)
1879 Nov 4, William Penn Adair
Rogers was born on a ranch in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). "I never
met a man I didn't like.” He was widely loved during the 1920s and
1930s for his gentle humor and homespun philosophies. Part Cherokee
Indian, Rogers once told a Boston audience, "My ancestors didn't come
over on the Mayflower, but they met the boat." Rogers got his show
business start in 1902 doing rope tricks in a Wild West show. He moved
on to vaudeville and, by 1916, he was the wisecracking star of Florenz
Ziegfeld's "Follies." As a newspaper columnist and book author, Rogers
poked fun at important people and events, and he was equally successful
as a motion picture actor. Rogers' film credits include “A Connecticut
Yankee” in 1931 and “State Fair” in 1933. The nation mourned when Will
Rogers, along with pilot Wiley Post, were killed in an Alaska plane
crash on August 15, 1935.
(HFA, ‘96, p.18) (HNPD, 11/4/98)(HN, 11/4/98)
1879-1954 Enamored with flying after Louis Beriot’s
1909 famous flight across the English Channel, Oklahoma automobile
salesman Clyde Cessna became a pioneer aviator--flying, building and
selling airplanes.
(HNQ, 7/31/01)
1889 Mar 23, President Harrison
opened Oklahoma for white colonization.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1889 Apr 15, A marshal's posse
killed and captured a group of Sooners, settlers who stole onto the
Public Domain territory in Oklahoma in hopes of claiming it legally,
just nine days before the official start of the land rush.
(HN, 4/15/99)
1889 Apr 22, The US federal
government opened up the Unassigned Lands of Indian Territory to the
country's first land run. The Oklahoma land rush officially started at
noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims.
(WSJ, 1/4/96, p.A-8) (AP, 4/22/97) (HN, 4/22/98)
1890 May 2, The Oklahoma Territory
was organized.
(AP, 5/2/97) (HN, 5/2/98)
1890 May 22, George Washington
Steele, on appointment by Pres. Benjamin Harrison, took the oath of
office as the 1st territorial governor (1890-1891) of Oklahoma.
(http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v020/v020p218.html)
1891 Sep 15, The Dalton gang held
up a train and took $2,500 at Wagoner, Okla.
(HN, 9/15/99)
1892 Feb 1, Judge Abraham
Jefferson Seay was sworn in as the 2nd territorial governor (1892-1893)
of Oklahoma.
(http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v020/v020p218.html)
1892 Jan 8, Coal mine explosion
killed 100 in McAlister, Okla.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1892 Nov 2, Lawmen surrounded
outlaws Ned Christie and Arch Wolf near Tahlequah, Indian Country
(present-day Oklahoma). It would take dynamite and a cannon to dislodge
the two from their cabin.
(HN, 11/2/98)
1893 Sep 16, More than 100,000
settlers ("Sooners") claimed land in the Cherokee Strip during the
first day of the Oklahoma land rush.
(AP, 9/16/97)(HN, 9/16/98)
1898 Feb 12, [Le]Roy Harris,
composer (When Johnny Comes Marching Home), was born in Oklahoma.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1901-1905 Discovery of oil in the nearby
villages of Red Fork and Glenn Pool in 1901 and 1905 launched the
Oklahoma city of Tulsa's modern era. The city's population of
1,400 in 1900 reached 18,200 by 1910 and 72,000 by 1920. Tulsa long
called itself "The Oil Capital of the World."
(HNQ, 10/2/98)
1902 Sep 22, A long-simmering feud
between the Brooks and McFarland clans erupted into a bloody gunfight
in the railroad town of Spokogee, Indian Territory, which is now
Dustin, Oklahoma. Spokogee had sprung up in the path of the coming Fort
Smith & Western Railroad. The Creek name meant "the exalted," or
"near to God." The area around Spokogee was home to two feuding
families, the Brookses and McFarlands. Willis B. Brooks, 48, was a
well-known inhabitant of the Dogwood Settlement and one of the toughest
men to be found in Indian Territory. He was a gunfighter from Alabama,
by way of Texas. Jim McFarland, his chief adversary, had the reputation
of being an outlaw and a killer. While the ribbon of steel inched its
way toward Spokogee, the long-simmering feud between the warring
families heated up and then erupted into a classic Western gunfight,
settled with gun smoke, blood and lead.
(HNQ, 8/25/01)
1904 Apr 3, Iron Eyes Cody, actor
(Black Gold, Ernest Goes to Camp), was born in Tulsa, OK.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1905 Feb 7, Congress granted
statehood to Oklahoma. New Mexico and Arizona were the only remaining
territories. [see 1907]
(HN, 2/7/99)
1907 Nov 16, Indian Territory and
Oklahoma Territory were unified to make Oklahoma, which was made the
46th state. Black settlers founded some 30 towns before statehood was
achieved. Osage Indian Reservation became Osage County, one of the
largest in the US.
(WSJ, 11/10/97, p.A1)(NG, 5/95, p.92)(HN,
11/16/98)(SFCM, 3/9/08, p.20)
1908 Feb 27, The forty-sixth star
was added to the U.S. flag, signifying Oklahoma's admission to
statehood.
(HN, 2/27/98)
1908 The Wichita National Bison
Range opened and received 15 bison from New York.
(ON, 3/02, p.9)
1909 Feb 17, Apache chief Geronimo
died of pneumonia at age 80, while still in captivity at Fort Sill,
Okla.
(HN, 2/17/99)
1910 The Oklahoma State
Reformatory was built of granite from Wildcat Mountain by the first 60
inmates who arrived in covered wagons.
(WSJ, 11/2/05, p.A9)
1911 Elmer McCurdy, outlaw, died.
His mummified corpse became a tourist attraction in a small Oklahoma
funeral home, and later was taken across country in carnivals and
roving wax museums. In 2002 Mark Svengold authored “Elmer McCurdy: The
Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw.”
(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.M4)
1912 Jul 14, Woodrow Wilson
“Woody” Guthrie, American folk singer, was born. Woody Guthrie (d.1967)
was born in Okemah, Okla.
(HN, 7/14/98)(SFC, 11/27/98, p.C11)
1912 Grasshoppers swept across
Tulsa, Okla. People raked them up and sold them as chicken feed.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.C3)
1913 Apr 25, Earl Bostic, alto sax
player (Flamingo, Temptation), was born in Tulsa, OK.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1916 Mar 6, Rochelle Hudson,
actress (That's My Boy), was born in Okla City, OK.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1918 Apr 13, Electrical fire
killed 38 mental patients at Oklahoma State Hospital.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1918 Sep 4, Paul Harvey,
conservative radio commentator, was born in Tulsa, Okla.
(HN, 9/4/98)(SFC, 12/27/99, p.E3)
1920 Feb 26, Tony Randall [Leonard
Rosenberg], actor (Felix-Odd Couple, Love Sidney), was born in Tulsa,
OK.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1921 May 31, A major race riot
broke out in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Greenwood, the black section of town, was
burned. In 1997 Jewell Parker Rhodes wrote the novel “Magic City” based
on this event. As many as 10,000 white men and boys attacked the black
community and 35 blocks of the black business district were burned with
participation by police officers and a local unit of the National
Guard. Some 200-300 people were believed to have been killed. In 2000
the Tulsa Race Riot Commission recommended that reparations be paid to
survivors of the riots. In 2001 a final state commission recommended
that reparations be paid to survivors and their descendants.
(NPR, 5/31/96)(SFEC, 6/29/97, BR p.3)(SFC, 8/10/99,
p.A2)(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A3)(SFC, 3/1/01, p.A4)
1921 Jun 1, A race riot erupted in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing 85 people (21 whites & 60 blacks killed).
[see May 31, 1921]
(HN, 6/1/98)(MC, 6/1/02)
1922 Jul 2, Dan Rowan, comedian
(Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in), was born in Beggs, Okla.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1923 Sep 15, Gov. Walton (b.1881)
of Oklahoma declared a state of siege because of KKK terror. Walton was
elected governor in 1922 and impeached in 1923.
(www.cga.state.ct.us/2004/rpt/2004-R-0184.htm)
1923 Nov 19, Oklahoma Governor
Walton was ousted by state senate for anti-Ku Klux Klan measures.
(HN, 11/19/98)
1924 Nov 1, Bill Tilghman
(b.1854), legendary Oklahoma marshal, was gunned down by a drunk in
Cromwell, Oklahoma, while trying to arrest Wiley Lynn, a corrupt
prohibition officer.
(HN,
11/1/98)(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAtilghman.htm)
1926 A collection of US roads from
Chicago to Los Angeles were improved and formed what would be
designated as US 66. It was later replaced by 3 interstates, I-55 in
Illinois, I-44 in Missouri and Oklahoma, and I-40 to LA. Route 66 was
decertified in 1985. In 2006 Arthur Krim authored “Route 66:
Iconography of the American Highway.”
(WSJ, 6/16/06, p.P8)
1927 Mar 6, Leroy Gordon Cooper
Jr. (d.2004), USAF astronaut (Mer 9, Gem 5), was born in Shawnee, Okla.
(SFC, 10/5/04, p.B7)
1927 Mar 16, Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (d.2003), later NY Senator (1976-2000) and scholar, was born
in Tulsa, Okla.
(SFC, 3/27/03, p.A1)
1927 Oklahoma produced 278
million barrels of crude oil. By 2005 production dropped to 60.7
million.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.33)
1928 Apr 7, James Garner, actor
(Rockford Files, Bret Maverick), was born in Norman, Okla.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1929 The Paseo Arts District of
Oklahoma City was built in the style of a Spanish village.
(SFCM, 3/20/05, p.31)
1932 Aug 17, Chet Allen, actor
(Jerry-Bonino, Slats-Troubleshooter), was born in Chickasha, Okla.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1932 Dec 21, Carl McGee, Oklahoma
inventor, applied for a patent for his parking meter. He had came up
with the 1st coin-operated, single-space, mechanical meter to be used
to free up parking spaces in downtown Oklahoma City.
(WSJ, 6/30/05,
p.B1)(www.ok-history.mus.ok.us/enc/parking.htm)
1934 May 13, A great dustbowl
storm occurred. [see Apr 14, 1935]
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)
1934 Oct 20, Michael Dunn, actor
(House of the Damned, Ship of Fools), was born in Shattuck, Ok.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1935 Feb 17, Thirty-one prisoners
escaped an Oklahoma prison after murdering a guard.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1935 Apr 14, A major sandstorm,
dubbed “The Black Blizzard,” ravaged the US Midwest. The Black Sunday
was the worst day of the almost decade long Dust Bowl era. It ravaged
Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. In 2005 Timothy Egan
authored “The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived
the Great American Dust Bowl.”
(SSFC, 1/8/06,
p.M1)(www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm)(Sm, 3/06,
p.111)
1935 Jul 16, The first parking
meters were installed, in Oklahoma City. Carlton Magee's automatic
meter, the "Park-O-Meter" was installed by the Dual Parking Meter
Company in Oklahoma City. The parking meters were divided by 20-foot
spaces painted on the pavement and accepted nickels.
(AP, 7/16/97)(HNQ, 8/4/02)
1938 Charles George Werner (d.1997
at 88), cartoonist, won the Pulitzer Prize for his Oklahoman cartoon of
the Nobel Peace Prize lying on a grave marked “Czecho-slovakia.”
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.A24)
1940 Mar 25, Anita Bryant,
homophobe, singer (George Gobel Show), was born in Barnsdall, Okla.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1941 The town of Berwyn renamed
itself Gene Autry after the 34-year-old radio and film star.
(SFEC, 12/20/98, z1 p.5)
1941-1983 Wagon Wheel dinner sets were manufactured
of cream-colored clay from Ada, Okla. After 1956 they were made of red
clay from Sapulpa, Okla.
(SFC, 7/29/98, Z1 p.23)
1942 Apr 27, Tornado destroyed
Pryor, Oklahoma, killing 100 and injuring 300.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1942 Jun 1, The US Supreme Court,
in Skinner v. Oklahoma ex rel. Williamson, struck down Oklahoma’s
Habitual Criminal Sterilization Act.
(WSJ, 9/25/08,
p.A18)(http://supreme.justia.com/us/316/535/case.html)
1947 Apr 9, A series of tornadoes
struck Kansas, West Texas and Oklahoma. 181 were killed and some 1,300
injured.
(AP, 4/9/08)
1948 Mar 20 A severe tornado moved
through Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City destroying 52 aircraft.
(SFC, 3/20/09, p.D8)
1949 R.D. Hull, a Texas
watchmaker, invented the spin-cast reel for fishing and got the Zero
Hour Bomb Co. in Tulsa to manufacture it. The company soon changed its
name to Zebco.
(WSJ, 9/9/99, p.A25)
1950 The first “Yield” sign
was installed in Tulsa. Okla. It read “Yield Right-Of-Way. Clinton E.
Riggs (d.1997 at 86), Tulsa police officer, developed the sign after a
decade of experimentation.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.C10)
1951 Aug 11, The Mississippi River
flooded some 100,000 acres in Ks, Okla, Mo and Ill.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1954 The Collins Kids of Oklahoma,
Lawrencine (b.1942) and Lawrence (b.1944), began performing as a
musical act on national TV.
(www.rockabillyhall.com/YouTubeCollinsKids.html)
1955 May 25, Series of 19 twisters
destroyed Udall, KS., and most of Blackwell, OK.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1956 Feb 7, Garth Brooks, country
vocalist (No Fences), was born in Tulsa, Okla.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1959 Apr 7, Oklahoma ended
prohibition after 51 years.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1963 Aug 19, NAACP Youth Council
began sit-ins at lunch counters in Oklahoma City.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1969 George B. Kaiser took over
Kaiser-Francis Oil Co., a small family oil firm founded in the 1940s by
his uncle and parents, Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, who had
settled in Oklahoma. Operations at the time were limited to Kansas. By
2004 the firm had over $600 million in revenues from oil and gas
production.
(WSJ, 7/23/04, p.A1)
1971-1976 Carl Albert (d.2000 at 91), Oklahoma
Democrat, served as the Speaker of the US House of Representatives.
(WSJ, 2/7/00, p.A1)
1974 Nov 13, Karen Silkwood, a
technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium
plant near Crescent, Okla., was killed in a car crash while on her way
to meet a reporter.
(AP, 11/13/07)
1977 The Alfred P. Murrah Building
was put up in Federal Plaza in Oklahoma City. It was bombed on April
19, 1995 and 169 people were killed including 19 children and 600
injured.
(WSJ, 1/4/96, p.A-8)
1981 May 27, Roger Wheeler,
chairman of Telex Corp. and owner of World Jai Alai, was shot execution
style at a Tulsa country club. In 2001 2 reputed Boston mobsters, James
Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, were charged. Jai Alai executive John B.
Callahan was murdered in Aug 1982 in Miami. In 2001 hitman John Vincent
Martorano (60) pleaded guilty to Wheeler’s murder and was sentenced to
15 years in prison. In 2003 former FBI agent H. Paul Rico (78) was
arrested and charged with murder for helping to setup the hit.
(SFC, 3/15/01, p.A8)(SFC, 5/4/01, p.D5)(SFC,
10/10/03, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/38z78q)
1982 Jul 5, Penn Square Bank of
Oklahoma went bankrupt as wildcat oil well loans went bad. More than $2
billion in oil and gas participations were held by five major US banks:
Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company, Chicago, Illinois
held $1 billion in those participations. Most of the remaining
participations were held by Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, New York;
Michigan National Bank, Lansing, Michigan; Seattle First National Bank,
Seattle, Washington; and Northern Trust Company, Chicago, Illinois.
(WSJ, 1/14/07,
p.A4)(www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/managing/Chron/1982/index.html)
1982 Debra Sue Carter (21), a
cocktail waitress in Ada, Oklahoma, was raped and murdered. For five
years the police could not solve the crime. For reasons that were never
clear, they suspected Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz. The
two were arrested in 1987 and charged with capital murder. With no
physical evidence, the prosecution's case was built on junk science and
the testimony of jailhouse snitches and convicts. Fritz was found
guilty and given a life sentence. Williamson was sent to death row.
Both were released 12 years later, when DNA evidence proved their
innocence. In 2006 novelist John Grisham read Williamson's obituary in
The New York Times and made him and Fritz the subject of his first
non-fiction book: “The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small
Town.” The book became a bestseller.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Williamson)
1984 In Oklahoma John A. Boltz
(52) killed his stepson (22) with multiple stabbings. Boltz was
executed for the murder in 2006.
(SFC, 6/2/06, p.A3)
1985 Jul 3, Three people were
shot, clubbed and stabbed during a robbery of an Edmond grocery store.
Mark Andrew Fowler (20) and Billy Ray Fox (20) were convicted and
executed in 2001.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A5)(SFC, 1/26/01, p.A5)
1985 Dec 14, Wilma Mankiller
became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she
took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
(AP, 12/14/97)
1985 Addie Hawley (84) of Oklahoma
City was kidnapped, raped, beaten and set afire. Loyd Winford Lafevers
(20) was convicted with another man and scheduled for execution in 2001.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A5)
1985 Rhonda Kay Timmons (19) died
after she was stabbed 12 times. Robert William Clayton (24), apartment
complex groundskeeper, was convicted and scheduled for execution in
2001.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A5)
1986 Aug 20, Postal employee
Patrick Henry Sherrill (44) went on a deadly rampage at a post office
in Edmond, Okla., shooting 14 fellow workers to death before killing
himself. This incident is credited with inspiring the American phrase
"going postal".
(WSJ, 8/7/97, p.A12)(AP,
8/20/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Sherrill)
1986 Aug 22, Kerr-McGee Corp.
agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood (1946-1974) $1.38
million, settling a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit.
(AP, 8/22/97)
1987 Oct 6, In Oklahoma Michael
Houghton (27) and Laura Lee Sanders (22) were kidnapped from behind a
Tulsa bar, stuffed into a car trunk and taken to a rural area where the
car was set afire. Scott Allen Hain was executed for the murders on Apr
3, 2003. Hain was 17 in 1987 and claimed to be under the influence of
Robert Lambert.
(SFC, 4/4/03, p.A6)
1987 In Oklahoma City Ernestine
Jones (84) was beaten, raped, robed and murdered in her home. Eddie
Leroy Trice (35) was convicted and scheduled for execution in 2001.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A5)
1988 Dec 3, Barry Sanders of
Oklahoma State University won the Heisman Trophy.
(AP, 12/3/98)
1988 In Oklahoma City the Crystal
Bridge Tropical Conservatory, designed by I.M. Pei, was built. The
224-foot long steel and acrylic cylinder stood 7-stories.
(SFCM, 3/20/05, p.30)
1988 Gloria Jean Leathers (29) was
shot to death by her roommate in front of a police station. Wanda Jean
Allen (29) was convicted and scheduled for execution in 2001.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A5)
1990 Jack E. Counts Jr., an
Oklahoma City entrepreneur, founded Glamour Shots Licensing. The
business was based on the idea of photographing ordinary women in
dazzling garb and makeup.
(WSJ, 5/13/96, p.B-1)
1990 Katherine Ann Busch (7) was
stabbed to death and thrown into a trash bin, Floyd Allen Medlock (19)
was convicted and scheduled for execution in 2001.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A5)
1991 Apr 26, Twenty-three people
were killed as four dozen tornadoes raked Kansas and Oklahoma.
(AP, 4/26/01)
1991 Michael N. Bates (1952-1996),
Wichita correspondent for the Associated press, covered the six-week
Wichita abortion protests and the tornado devastation of Andover. While
in Oklahoma City, Bates covered the Karen Silkwood trial and the Locust
Grove Boy Scout murders.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.B2)
1992 Lois Frederick was killed
with a croquet mallet and her body was burned with gasoline. Dion
Athanasius, her adopted daughter’s boyfriend, was convicted and
scheduled for execution in 2001.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A5)
1993 Francisco Morales and Maria
Yanez were killed during a burglary. In 1996 George Ochoa and Osbaldo
Torres were convicted of the murders and sentenced to death. In 2004
Gov. Henry commuted the sentence against Torres (29) following a World
Court ruling his rights, as well as those of 51 other Mexicans on death
row, were violated because they was not told that they could receive
help from their government as guaranteed by the 1963 Vienna Convention.
(SFC, 5/14/04, p.A3)
1994 Aug, Randolph Dial, a
sculptor and painter convicted of a 1981 murder, escaped from the
Oklahoma State Reformatory. On the same day Bobbi Parker disappeared
from staff housing at the reformatory, where her husband worked. In
2005 she was found living with Randolph Dial on a chicken farm in Texas.
(SFC, 4/6/05, p.A2)
1994 Dr. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma
Republican, was elected to Congress. He retired in 2001 after 3 terms
in the House of Representatives. In 2003 he with John Hart authored
"Breach of Trust."
(WSJ, 12/11/03, p.D6)
1995 Apr 19, At 9:02 A.M. Oklahoma
City, USA, a large car bomb exploded at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building killing 168 people, and injuring 500 including many children
in the building’s day care center. Within a week a suspect, Timothy
McVeigh, was caught and charged. Two suspects, Timothy McVeigh and
Terry Nichols, faced trial. McVeigh was arrested during a routine
traffic stop 78 miles from Oklahoma City on weapons charges the same
day. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, were later convicted of charges
related to the bombing. Michael Fortier, a key government witness and
friend of Nichols and McVeigh, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in
1998 for failing to warn authorities, lying to the FBI, transporting
stolen weapons and conspiring to fence stolen weapons. In 1999
Fortier's sentence was overturned and a more lenient sentence was
ordered under manslaughter guidelines. In Oct a new 12-year sentence
was issued. McVeigh was later convicted of federal murder charges and
executed.
(NPR, 4/19/95)(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A2)(SFC, 5/28/98,
p.A3)(SFC, 7/1/99, p.A3)(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A7)(AP, 4/19/06)
1995 Apr 21, The FBI arrested
former soldier Timothy McVeigh at an Oklahoma jail where he had spent
two days on minor traffic and weapons charges; he was charged in
connection with the Oklahoma City bombing two days earlier in which
over 200 people were killed by a truck bomb that exploded in front of a
Federal building.
(AP, 4/21/00)(HN, 4/21/99)
1995 Apr 23, Pres. Clinton
declared a national day of mourning for the victims of the Oklahoma
City blast.
(AP, 4/23/00)(MC, 4/23/02)
1995 Apr 29, 10 days after the
blast, rescue workers in Oklahoma City continued the grim task of
searching for bodies and pulling debris from the Alfred P. Murrah
Federal Building, where 168 people died.
(AP, 4/29/00)
1995 May 5, As rescue workers
ended their search for bodies in the Oklahoma City bombing, President
Clinton denounced self-styled anti-government militias, saying, "How
dare you call yourselves patriots and heroes."
(AP, 5/5/00)
1995 May 10, Terry Nichols was
charged in the Oklahoma City bombing.
(AP, 5/10/00)
1995 May 23, The nine-story hulk
of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was
demolished. That day, James Nichols, whose brother and a friend were
charged in the Oklahoma bombing, was released from federal custody.
(AP, 5/23/00)
1995 Aug 10, Timothy McVeigh and
Terry Nichols were charged with eleven counts in the Oklahoma City
bombing. McVeigh was later convicted of murder. He was executed by
lethal injection on June 11, 2001, at the US Federal Penitentiary in
Terre Haute, Indiana. McVeigh (33) stated that his only regret was not
completely leveling the federal building. Nichols was convicted of
conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to life in prison.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh#Execution)(AP, 8/10/00)
1996 Apr 19, On the first
anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, hundreds of mourners paused
for 168 seconds of silence at the site where the federal building once
stood.
(AP, 4/19/97)
1996 Dec, Juli Buskin (21) was
murdered shortly after her last semester at the Univ. of Oklahoma. Her
raped body with a shot in the head was later found near a lake. Police
later attempted a DNA dragnet to find her killer.
(SFC, 5/31/01, p.A3)
1997 Jun 2, Timothy McVeigh was
convicted on 11 counts in the Apr 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. McVeigh was executed in June
2001.
(SFC, 6/3/97, p.A1)(SFC,12/24/97, p.A4)(AP, 6/2/07)
1997 Aug 14, An unrepentant
Timothy McVeigh was formally sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City
bombing.
(AP, 8/14/98)
1998 Jan 2, The defense in the
Terry Nichols trial rested its case in the penalty phase after calling
nine witnesses who pleaded for his life. Nichols had already been
convicted of conspiracy, which carried a potential death sentence, and
involuntary manslaughter for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Nichols was sentenced to life in prison on federal convictions of
conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter involving the deaths of eight
federal law enforcement officers. He was later convicted of state
murder charges in Oklahoma, and sentenced to 161 consecutive life
sentences.
(AP, 1/2/99)(AP, 1/2/08)
1998 Jun 4, In Denver Terry
Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without parole for conspiring
in 1995 to bomb the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 25, Thousands came to
Oklahoma City for the ground-breaking ceremony of a memorial to the
1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building.
(SFC, 10/25/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 1, Weekend rain caused
severe flooding in central Kansas and Oklahoma. The Whitewater and
Walnut Rivers topped a 35-foot levee.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.A3)
1999 May 3, Tornadoes hit Oklahoma
and Kansas and at least 40 people were killed. As many as 1,500 homes
were destroyed. 38 people were killed in Oklahoma and 5 in Kansas.
Damages in Oklahoma were later estimated at over $225 million.
(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/5/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/6/99,
p.A1)
1999 May 8, Dana Plato (34), a
star of TV’s Diff'rent Strokes, died in a suburb of Oklahoma City.
Authorities said she succumbed to an overdose of painkillers.
(www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,19982,00.html?fdnews)
1999 Jun 8, Sen. James Inhofe
(R-Okla) blocked all the civilian nominations of Pres. Clinton in
protest of the "recess appointment" of James Hormel.
(SFC, 6/9/99, p.A3)
1999 Dec 6, In Oklahoma a boy (13)
opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun and injured 4 classmates at
Fort Gibson Middle School.
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A3)
2000 Jan 2, Steven Ray Thacker
(29) of Oklahoma was arrested in Tennessee following a 3-state crime
spree that left 3 people dead.
(SFC, 1/3/00, p.A5)
2000 Aug 19, In Oilton Kristi
Blevins (12) was raped in strangled to death by Robert Rotramel (19), a
known juvenile sex offender.
(SFC, 10/14/00, p.A7)
2000 Dec 28, In the US recent bad
weather was blamed for 41 deaths: including 22 in Texas and 11 in
Oklahoma.
(SFC, 12/29/00, p.A6)
2001 Jan 11, Wanda Jean Allen (41)
was executed for 2 murders. This was the 1st execution of an African
American woman since 1954.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A6)
2001 Jan 27, A small plane crashed
south of Denver and 10 people were killed including passengers
associated with the Oklahoma State Univ. basketball team.
(SSFC, 1/28/01, p.A13)
2001 Feb 19, President George W.
Bush opened a museum commemorating the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
(AP, 2/19/02)
2001 Apr 12, Tornadoes killed at
least 4 people in Iowa, Missouri and Oklahoma.
(WSJ, 4/13/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 5, C. Wesley Lane, the
new district attorney for Oklahoma City, announced that he would
prosecute Terry Nichols for murder in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
(SFC, 9/6/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 10, Tornadoes hit the US
plains and caused heavy damage in Oklahoma and Nebraska.
(SFC, 10/11/01, p.C16)
2001 Dec 28, Oklahoma led the US
in prisoner executions this year over Texas in with 18 vs. 17.
(SFC, 12/28/01, p.A9)
2002 May 26, In Oklahoma a barge
hit an I-40 bridge over the Arkansas River and 14 people were killed. A
500-600-foot section of the 1,988-foot bridge collapsed after Joe
Dedmon, Capt. of the Robert Y. Love tugboat, apparently blacked out.
(SFC, 5/27/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/28/02, p.A3)(SFC,
5/30/02, p.A5)
2002 Oct 26, In eastern Oklahoma
Daniel H. Fears, a teenager apparently angered by a neighbor, went on a
shooting spree that left two people dead and at least seven injured.
(AP, 10/27/02)(SFC, 10/28/02, p.A4)
2002 Oklahoma banned cockfighting
following a referendum. In 2005 state senator Frank Shurden proposed
gamecock boxing with cocks wearing foam-filled muffs and protective
vests.
(Econ, 2/5/05, p.27)
2003 May 8, In Oklahoma a tornado
swept through Oklahoma City and flattened hundreds of homes. At least
104 people were injured.
(SFC, 5/8/03, p.A10)
2003 May 13, A judge ruled that
Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols should stand trial in
state court on 160 counts of first-degree murder. Nichols was later
found guilty on 161 counts; the 161st count was for the fetus of a
pregnant victim. Nichols was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2003 Aug 27, Oklahoma charged
Bernie Ebbers (62), ex-CEO of WorldCom, and 6 other former executives
with 15 felony violations of state's securities laws. The charges
against Ebbers were dropped when the Federal government filed on
March 2, 2004 security fraud and conspiracy charges. Ebbers was found
guilty of all charges on March 15, 2005. He was sentenced to 25 years
in a federal prison in Louisiana, the toughest sentence yet among other
recent corporate accounting scandals.
(SFC, 8/28/03,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Ebbers#Criminal_charges)
2003 Elizabeth Seay authored
"Searching For Lost City," a look at Native Indian languages in
Oklahoma.
(WSJ, 11/28/03, p.W4)
2003 Oklahoma and Arkansas made an
agreement on phosphorus levels. Toxic run-off from poultry houses in
Arkansas was entering the Illinois river watershed, which supplied
water to eastern Oklahoma. In 2005 Oklahoma filed suit against Arkansas
for various violations related to high phosphorus levels.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.30)
2004 Jan 22, Oklahoma Gov. Henry
proposed a series of tax cuts to improve the state's economy.
(USAT, 1/23/04, p.12A)
2004 Mar 22, Terry Nichols went on
trial for his life in the Oklahoma City bombing. Nichols was already
serving a life sentence for his conviction on federal charges. On May
26 he was found guilty of 161 state murder charges, but was again
spared the death penalty when the jury couldn't agree on his sentence.
(AP, 3/22/05)
2004 May 26, A District court jury
in McAlester, Oklahoma, convicted Terry Nichols of 161 counts of 1st
degree murder in the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing.
Nichols later received 161 consecutive life sentences.
(SFC, 5/27/04, p.A3)(AP, 5/26/05)
2004 Jun 11, Terry Nichols escaped
execution as the District court jury in McAlester, Oklahoma, deadlocked
in the penalty phase of his trial. He was convicted May 26 on 161
counts of 1st degree murder in the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building
bombing.
(WSJ, 6/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 9, In McAlester,
Oklahoma, District Judge Steven Taylor sentenced Terry Nichols to 161
consecutive life sentences for the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building
bombing. Terry Nichols, addressing a court for the first time, asked
victims of the blast for forgiveness
(SFC, 8/10/04, p.A3)(AP, 8/9/05)
2004 Sep 9, It was reported that a
munitions plant in Oklahoma had suspended production of “bunker buster”
bombs after workers there developed anemia.
(WSJ, 9/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Oklahoma became the first US
state to pass a law that made it harder to buy more than small
quantities of medicine containing pseudoephedrine, one of the
ingredients for the illegal production of methamphetamine. Other states
soon followed.
(Econ, 9/30/06, p.40)
2005 Oct 1, In Norman, Oklahoma,
Joel Henry Hinrichs (21), a Univ. of Oklahoma student, committed
suicide using an explosive attached to his body near the Oklahoma
Memorial Stadium, where 84,000 people watched a football game.
(SFC, 10/3/05, p.A3)
2005 Dec 27, Grass fires burned in
drought-stricken Texas and Oklahoma. Over three days, nearly 200 homes
were lost and the fires blamed for at least four deaths.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Jan 2, Grass fires in New
Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas left at least 4 people dead with over 250
structures burned.
(SFC, 1/3/06, p.A4)
2006 Jan 8, Wildfires in the
southwest US spread to Arkansas and Colorado destroying 9 more homes.
Over the last 2 weeks the fires in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas have
destroyed 475 homes and left 5 people dead.
(SFC, 1/9/06, p.A3)
2006 Jan 10, Oil magnate Boone
Pickens donated $165 million to Oklahoma State Univ. for the
development of new sports facilities. The 100-acre site under
consideration in Stillwater faced problems with low-income residents.
(http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=ncf&id=2286807)(WSJ,
3/30/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 20, Michael Fortier, the
government's star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trials, was
released from federal prison after serving more than 10 years for
failing to warn authorities about the plot.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2006 Mar 12-2006 Mar 13, Swarms of
tornadoes killed at least 10 people across the Midwest states of
Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Dakota, Minnesota and
Wisconsin. It caused so much damage in Springfield, Ill., that the
mayor compared it to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Apr 14, In Oklahoma Kevin Ray
Underwood (26) was arrested after investigators found the body of Jamie
Rose Bolin (10), missing since April 12, in a bedroom closet in his
apartment. The girl's unclothed body was inside a large plastic tub.
Police said she was killed as part of the neighbor's elaborate plan to
eat human flesh. On February 29 2008, a jury found him guilty of first
degree murder after deliberating for twenty-three minutes. This quick
verdict was attributed to the showing of Underwood's videotaped
confession. On Thursday, April 3, 2008, McClain County District Judge
Candace Blalock approved a recommended death sentence.
(AP,
4/16/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Ray_Underwood)
2006 May 10, Oklahoma became the
last state to make tattoos legal when the governor Brad Henry signed
legislation to license and regulate tattoo artists and parlors.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 Jul 18, The Seattle Soncis
basketball team said a group of Oklahoma businessmen had purchased the
club for $350 million. The new ownership group said it plans to keep
the team in Seattle, if it can work out a deal for a new arena in the
next 12 months. Officials in Seattle said they planned to hold the
Sonics to their lease, which expires in 2010.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.33)(http://tinyurl.com/qga3e)
2006 Jul 18, A heat wave in the US
left at least 7 people dead including 5 in Oklahoma and 2 in
Pennsylvania.
(SFC, 7/19/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 18, In Bristow, Oklahoma,
Donald Thompson (59), a former judge convicted of exposing himself
while presiding over jury trials, was sentenced to four years in prison
and ordered to pay a fine of $40,000.
(SFC, 8/19/06, p.A2)
2007 Jan 14, In Oklahoma a minivan
carrying 12 people skidded off an icy highway and slammed into an
oncoming tractor-trailer, killing seven.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 17, A US snow and ice
storm was blamed for at least 64 deaths in nine states. These included
20 deaths in Oklahoma, 9 in Missouri, 8 in Iowa, 4 in New York, 5 in
Texas, 4 in Michigan, 3 in Arkansas, and 1 each in Maine and Indiana.
(AP, 1/17/07)(SFC, 1/18/07, p.A3)
2007 Jan 29, Lauren Nelson, an
aspiring Broadway star, was crowned Miss America, the second year in a
row that a Miss Oklahoma has won the crown.
(AP, 1/30/07)
2007 Mar 3, In Oklahoma Cherokee
Nation members voted to revoke the tribal citizenship of an estimated
2,800 descendants of the people the Cherokee once owned as slaves.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Jun 15, In Tulsa, Okla., a
crane lifted out a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere that had been buried in an
underground concrete vault half a century earlier to celebrate 50 years
of statehood.
(AP, 6/15/08)
2007 Jun 27, Don Harvey and his
wife, Joyce, of Oklahoma won the a $105.8 million Powerball lottery.
They chose to receive a $33.3 million lump sum after taxes instead of
the full amount paid out over 29 years.
(AP, 6/29/07)
2007 Aug 19, Fierce storms from
the upper Mississippi to Texas since last week left 22 people dead. Six
people died in floodwaters across Oklahoma after heavy rains from the
remains of Tropical Storm Erin drenched the state. As much as 9 inches
of rain fell across a wide swath of Oklahoma, leaving roadways under 5
feet of water. 8 people were reported dead in Texas and 6 dead in
Minnesota.
(Reuters, 8/20/07)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.A6)(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 22, The death toll across
the Upper Midwest and from the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin that
swept Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri over the past week rose to at least
26. Three people were electrocuted by lightning at a bus stop in
Madison, Wis.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2008 Jan 7, Tornadoes were
reported or suspected in southwest Missouri, southeastern Wisconsin,
Arkansas, Illinois and Oklahoma. Two people were killed in Missouri.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Apr 4, In SF cyclist Tammy
Thomas, Univ. of Oklahoma law student, was found guilty of lying to a
federal grand jury about her use of banned drugs.
(SFC, 4/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 10, Powerful storms
brought hail, heavy rain and possible tornadoes to Arkansas, Texas, and
Oklahoma, causing flooding and power outages for thousands of customers
and at least one death.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 16, In Oklahoma Custer
County Sheriff Mike Burgess (56) resigned just as state prosecutors
filed 35 felony charges against him, including 14 counts of
second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five
counts of bribery by a public official. On March 24 Burgess was
sentenced to 79 years in prison for forcing drug defendants to have sex
with him.
(AP, 4/18/08)(SFC, 3/25/09, p.A7)
2008 May 10, A tornado rumbled
through Picher, Okla., killing at least 7 people. The same storm system
then moved into southwest Missouri, where tornadoes killed at least 15
others. The storms moved eastward and killed at least one person the
next day in Georgia.
(AP, 5/11/08)(SFC, 5/12/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 29, In Oklahoma a train
slammed into a propane tanker truck triggering an explosion that killed
2 people.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 9, In Louisiana Raymond
"Chuck" Foster, 44, shot and killed an Oklahoma woman, who was lured
over the Internet to take part in a Ku Klux Klan initiation, after a
fight broke out when she asked to be taken back to town. The group
tried to cover it up by dumping her body on a rural roadside and
setting her belongings aflame. Foster, the local Klan leader was soon
in jail on a second-degree murder charge, and seven others were charged
with trying to help conceal the crime.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2009 Jan 12, In El Reno, Oklahoma,
a woman and her 4 children, aged 3-7, were found killed. Texas
officials the next day arrested the mother’s boyfriend, Joshua Steven
Durcho (25).
(SFC, 1/14/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 28, President Barack
Obama signed requests from Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and Arkansas
Gov. Mike Beebe for federal emergency declarations as crews worked
around the clock to resurrect power lines downed by thick ice in both
states. Since the storm began building on Jan 26, the weather has been
blamed for at least six deaths in Texas, four in Arkansas, three in
Virginia, six in Missouri, two in Oklahoma, and one each in Indiana and
Ohio.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Feb 10, In Oklahoma an
unusual cluster of twisters ripped across the state killing eight
people. The eight confirmed deaths included seven people in Lone Grove
and a truck driver who was driving through the area.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 May 19, In Oklahoma City
pharmacist Jerome Ersland (57), confronted by two holdup men,
pulled a gun, shot one of them in the head and chased the other away.
Then, in a scene recorded by the drugstore's security camera, he went
behind the counter, got another gun, and pumped five more bullets into
the wounded teenager. Ersland was soon charged with first-degree
murder. District Attorney David Prater later said Ersland was justified
in shooting Antwun Parker (16) once in the head, but not in firing the
additional shots into his belly.
(AP, 5/30/09)
2009 Jun 26, In Oklahoma 9 people
died when a tractor-trailer slammed into a line of cars stopped outside
Miami, Okla. A 10th person died a few days later.
(SFC, 6/27/09, p.A4)(SFC, 6/29/09, p.A4)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Oklahoma
End of file.