1543 – 1792: British and Spanish explorers came and settled looking for the “great river of the west” and to trade fur with the Indians.

1792: Captain Robert Gray found and named the Columbia River.

1804-1805: Lewis and Clark, sent by Thomas Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase and find a northwest passage to the Pacific Ocean, built Fort Clatsop on the Columbia River. They sent word that there were many fur-bearing animals.

1810-1812: The Astor Expedition, funded by millionaire John Jacob Astor, brought fur traders to modern-day Astoria on the Columbia River. It became the first "White" settlement in the region.

1842-1843: Thousands of people arrived in Oregon's Willamette Valley using the Oregon Trail.

1846: The Oregon Treaty settled a major boundary dispute between The United States and Great Britain.

1848: Oregon was established as a territory.

1859: Oregon became the 33rd state in the United States.

1873: The “great fire” in the city of Portland, Oregon, destroys most of town and costs the city $1,250,300.

1933-1937: Industrial development increases with the building of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.

1942: In June of 1942, a Japanese submarine launched shells on Fort Stevens in Oregon. This was the only attack on the United States mainland during World War II. The submarine surfaced near the entrance of the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean. The only damage they did was to a baseball field's backstop.

1966: The Astoria-Megler Bridge, was finished and stretched 4.1 miles from Astoria, Oregon, to Point Ellice, Washington. The bridge is 1,232 feet in length, the worlds 2nd longest "continuous truss" bridge.

1991: Mrs. Barbara Roberts becomes the first woman governor of Oregon.