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Washington (state)

state of the United States of America

24 dated entries naming Washington (state), drawn from 18 separate years between 1782 CE and 2012 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as State of Washington, Washington (U.S. state), Washington state in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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18th century

  • 17821782–83: A smallpox epidemic hits the Sanpoil of Washington.source

19th century

  • 1811July 9 – British explorer David Thompson posts a notice at the confluence of the Columbia and Snake Rivers (in modern-day Washington), claiming the area for the United Kingdom.source
  • 1850One of the original segments of the historic Pacific Highway (United States) in Washington (state) in Clark and Cowlitz counties is established.source
  • 1889February 22 – President Grover Cleveland signs the Enabling Act of 1889, admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.source
  • 1889November 11 – Washington is admitted as the 42nd U.S. state.source
  • 1889November 18 – Elisha P. Ferry is inaugurated as first governor of Washington.source
  • 1892May 10 – A gas explosion at Mine No. 1 in Roslyn, Washington kills 45 miners, the worst industrial disaster in Washington State history.source
  • 1899January 14 – The British four-masted sailing ship Andelana capsizes during a storm in Commencement Bay off the coast of the U.S. state of Washington, with the loss of all 17 of her crew.source
  • 1899March 2 – Mount Rainier National Park is established in the U.S. state of Washington.source

20th century

  • 1908August 28 – American Messenger Company, predecessor of United Parcel Service, is founded in Washington (state).source
  • 1910August 20–21 – The Great Fire of 1910 wildfire burns about 3 e6acre in northeast Washington, northern Idaho, and western Montana over 2 days and kills 86 people (believed to be the largest fire in recorded United States history).source
  • 1919February 11 – The Seattle General Strike ends, when Federal troops are summoned by the State of Washington's Attorney General.source
  • 1928August 25 – Canada's first major air disaster occurred when bad weather caused a BC Airways Ford Trimotor plane to crash in Puget Sound, Washingtonsource
  • 1941March 22 – Washington state's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.source
  • 1944November 6 – Hanford Site in Washington (state) produces its first plutonium.source
  • 1947June 24 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington. Over 800 copycat sightings are reported throughout the US in the coming following weeks.source
  • 1947June 24 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington. The Arnold sighting marks the start of the 1947 flying disc craze.source
  • 1951June 15–July 1 – In New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, thousands of acres of forests are destroyed in fires.source
  • 1971March 30 – Starbucks coffee shop is founded in the U.S. state of Washington.source
  • 1971November 24 – During a severe storm over Washington State, a man calling himself Dan Cooper (later misreported as D. B. Cooper) parachutes from the Northwest Orient Airlines plane he had hijacked, with US$200,000 in ransom money, and is never seen again.source
  • 1979February 13 – An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1.3 km long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.source
  • 1980May 18 – The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington (state) kills 57 and causes US$3 billion in damage.source
  • 1980May 18 – Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, killing 57 and causing US$3 billion in damage.source

21st century

  • 2012December 6 – The U.S. state of Washington becomes the first jurisdiction in the modern world to officially legalize the possession of cannabis for personal use.source

Named in the same entries