In 1634, Jean Nicolet became the first known European to reach Wisconsin. In 1763, Wisconsin became part of British colonial territory. Under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Wisconsin became a territory of the United States. Between that year and 1848, the state changed governance several times:
1787–1800 – Northwest Territory
1800–1809 – Indiana Territory
1809–1818 – Illinois Territory
1818–1836 – Michigan Territory
1836–1848 – Wisconsin Territory
In 1848, Wisconsin was admitted to the union as the 30th state. Governor Nelson Dewey was inaugurated on June 7 of that year. Some key moments in Wisconsin history since then include the following:
- In 1850, the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, punishing citizens in free states who aided slaves who escaped from plantations in the South. The law triggered the creation of an “Underground Railroad“ that eventually led to thousands of slaves fleeing to Canada, many of them through Wisconsin.
- On March 20, 1854, former members of the Whig and the Democratic Parties met in Ripon, Wisconsin, to create the Republican Party. They were upset with the Democratic Party’s endorsement of the Fugitive Slave Act, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Missouri Compromise allowing slavery in some of the states joining the union. The Republican Party subsequently played the leading role in ending slavery in America.
- Approximately 96,000 Wisconsin soldiers served in Civil War (1861–1865) and 12,216 died.
- In October 1871, some 12,000 people were killed and 2 billion trees burned in what became known as the Great Peshtigo Fire. The catastrophe, the most destructive forest fire in American history, was overshadowed by the Great Chicago Fire that occurred at the same time.
- Wisconsin’s dairy industry took a big step forward in 1890 with the creation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison of the first dairy school in the United States. The school’s Professor Stephen Babcock developed a test that measured the butterfat content of milk, bringing quality assurance to the fast-growing industry.
- In 1904 the State Capitol burned down when a gas jet in a second-floor closet set fire to the woodwork. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1917.
- The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) was created in 1990, the country’s first school choice voucher program allowing low- and middle-income families who live in Milwaukee to enroll their children in private schools that they could not otherwise afford. After a slow start, most of the states now have similar programs.
- In 1996, the Wisconsin Legislature approved Republican Governor Tommy Thompson’s Wisconsin Works program, a reform initiative that gained national attention and became a template for national welfare reform.
- In 2011, Republican Governor Scott Walker signed Act 10 into law, balancing the state’s budget and requiring public employees to pay more for their pensions and health care and limiting their ability to collectively bargain.
- In 2020, Democrat Governor Tony Evers asserted executive authority to shut down the state’s schools, small businesses, churches, gyms, and other public spaces in a failed attempt to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Children were denied educations, hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs, and lives were lost.
Nothing important has happened since then.
Some Wisconsinites who left their marks on history include Sen. Joseph McCarthy, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, magician Harry Houdini, U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur, actor and film producer Orson Welles, and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
