Law prohibiting interracial marriages repealed

Constitution amended to provide for equal representation in state legislature

Public Accommodations Law prohibits racial discrimination by businesses

Congress terminates Western Oregon Indian tribes

Supreme Court upholds Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, abolishing segregated schools

Congress authorizes Interstate freeway system

Congress terminates Klamath Indian Tribe

Oregon Fair Housing Act passes

Oregon ratifies 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, 89 years after it is adopted

Census enumerates 1,768,687 residents

Congress passes Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act passes for management of national forests

First female U.S. Senator from Oregon, Maurine Neuberger, elected

Columbus Day Storm causes major damage in Western Oregon

Oregon State University football player Terry Baker (QB) becomes state’s first Heisman Trophy winner

Death penalty abolished

National Civil Rights Act outlaws unequal voter registration requirements; racial segregation in schools, workplace, public places

Congress passes Voting Rights Act prohibiting qualifications or prerequisites to voting

Workmen complete Astoria-Megler Bridge spanning Columbia estuary

I-5 affords non-stop driving through Oregon

Beach Bill approved, ensuring public access to all of Oregon’s coastal beaches

Racial tensions escalate into riots in Portland

Department of Environmental Quality created

Federal District Court in Sohappy v. Smith affirms Indian treaty fishing rights in Columbia River

U.S. Census enumerates 2,091,000 residents

Bottle Bill approved

Congress confirms Burns Paiute Reservation

Land Conservation Development Commission created

Public Meetings Law approved

Public Records Law approved

Tillamook State Forest created

Congress approves Endangered Species Act

Oregon ratifies U.S. Equal Rights Amendment

Congress creates John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

Oregon Health Sciences University forms out of mergers

Governor Tom McCall sets odd/even gasoline refueling days

Congress creates Hells Canyon National Recreation Area

First woman, Norma Paulus, elected secretary of state

First Oregon nuclear power plant, Trojan, built north of St. Helens

Aerosol sprays banned by law

Congress restores Confederated Tribes of Siletz

First woman, Betty Roberts, appointed to Oregon Court of Appeals

Portland Trail Blazers basketball team wins the NBA Championship

Death penalty reinstated

Federal District Court in Kimball v. Callahan affirms Klamath Indian hunting and fishing rights within former reservation

U.S. Census enumerates 2,633,000 residents

Congress creates new Siletz Reservation

Mt. St. Helens eruption disrupts ship traffic on Columbia River

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh establishes Rajneeshpuram

Congress restores Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians

First woman, Betty Roberts, appointed justice of Oregon Supreme Court

Congress restores Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

Congress restores Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw

First Oregon lottery ratified by voters

First African-American woman, Margaret Carter, elected to state legislature

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh deported and fined $400,000

First woman, Vera Katz, selected speaker of Oregon House

Congress restores Klamath Tribe

Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) begins light-rail service in Portland

Congress creates new Grand Ronde Reservation

Congress approves Civil Liberties Act paying $20,000 to each surviving interned Japanese-American

Ballot Measure 8 bans discrimination based on sexual orientation

Congress restores Coquille Indian Tribe

First Sports Action Lottery in U.S. sells tickets

African exchange student Mulugeta Seraw killed by racist skinheads in Portland

U.S. Census enumerates 2,842,000 residents

Ballot Measure 5 limits property taxes to support schools and government

U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife lists Northern Spotted Owl as endangered

First woman, Barbara Roberts, elected governor

First African-American, James A. Hill, Jr., elected to statewide office as state treasurer

First gaming compact for casinos signed with Cow Creek and Umpqua Tribes

First statewide vote-by-mail election held in U. S.

First Death With Dignity Act approved permitting doctor-assisted suicide

First vote-by-mail election for federal office held

Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) extends light-rail service 18 miles west from Portland

New Carissa, freighter runs aground near Coos Bay

U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife lists several salmon species from Columbia and Willamette Rivers as endangered

U.S. Census enumerates 3,421,399 residents

Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) extends light-rail service to Portland Airport

Susan Castillo, first Hispanic woman elected to statewide office as school superintendent

Measure requiring removal of racist language from state Constitution passes

Near record forest fire season leaves 1,000,000 acres burned

Oregon begins 10-year plan to fix deteriorating bridges

Measure 37 casts doubt on the future of Oregon land use laws

Trojan, Oregon’s only nuclear power plant decommissioned

L.L. Stub Stewart State Park opens, Oregon’s first new state park campground in more than 30 years

Oregon State Quarter released with design featuring Crater Lake

Trojan, Oregon’s decommissioned nuclear power plant imploded

Oregon State University wins NCAA Baseball Championship

Sandy River’s Marmot Dam, built in 1912, removed

Oregon State University wins NCAA Baseball Championship

Oregon Equality Act passes

New Carissa, freighter that ran aground on Coos Bay beach in 1999, dismantled and removed

Oregon celebrates its sesquicentennial on February 14, 2009

Oregon unemployment rate tops 12% amid recession

Portland Timbers became major league soccer’s 18th team on March 20, 2009

Governor’s panel predicts 10 years of state budget deficits

Oregon legislature began annual sessions, with the even-numbered years having a month-long session in February

University of Oregon football team wins first Rose Bowl Game in 94 years

Klamath Tribes’ senior water rights in Upper Klamath Basin reaffirmed by courts

Drought and lightning produced most expensive wildfire season on record

Josephine County’s last sawmill closes for lack of logs

U.S. District court strikes down same-sex marriage ban

Voters approve recreational marijuana use; Equal Rights for Women in Oregon Constitution

University of Oregon football player Marcus Mariota (quarterback) wins the Heisman Trophy

Governor John Kitzhaber resigned Feb. 18, 2015, Secretary of State Kate Brown became governor according to the order of succession required by the Oregon Constitution

Minoru Yasui, Hood River Attorney, was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his challenge of a military curfew placed on Japanese Americans during World War II and for his lifetime of civil rights work

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​​​ ​​​​​​​2016 

Armed militants seized and occupied the headquarters of Harney County’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for 41 days

Total solar eclipse crosses Oregon on August 21, 2017. Visible across the U.S.,  Oregon cities in the path of totality include Lincoln City, Newport, Salem, Albany, Madras, John Day, Baker City and Ontario

After public funding campaign, Oregon’s 158 year old Constitution is professionally restored

Oregonian Colin O'Brady becomes first person to traverse Antarctica solo and unaided

Governor Brown invokes the Emergency Conflagration Act as fires threaten structures in Clackamas, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Marion and Washington Counties

Boardman, Oregon’s only coal-fired power plant, closes after 40 years in operation

A Washington County man was Oregon’s first diagnosed COVID-19 case on February 28, 2020

A Multnomah County man was Oregon’s first reported COVID-19 death on March 14, 2020

​On December 16, 2020 Oregon gave its first COVID-19 vaccines to health care workers in three Portland hospitals and one Ontario hospital​