History of Nebraska

The history of the U.S. of  dates back to its formation as a  by the, passed by the  on ,. The was settled extensively under the  during the 1860s, and in  was admitted to the Union as the 37th U.S. state.

Mesozoic
During the, between 65 million to 99 million years ago, three-quarters of Nebraska was covered by the , a large body of water that covered one-third of the United States. The sea was occupied by s,, and s. Additionally, s such as ', and fish such as ', ', and the ', a fish larger than any modern bony fish, occupied the sea. Other sea life included s such as s,, squid-like s, and. s of there animals and period plants were embedded in mud that hardened into rock and became the limestone that appears today on the sides of ravines and along the streams of Nebraska.

Pliocene
As the sea bottom slowly rose, es and s appeared. After thousand of years the land became drier, and trees of all kinds grew, including, , and. Fossil leaves from ancient trees are found today in the state's red sandstone rocks. Animals occupying the state during this period included s, s, s, s and s. The state also had a variety of native to its lands.

Pleistocene
The last ended the great seas that once covered Nebraska. The last glacial period, called the, began about 600,000 years ago and an alternated between rather than a continuous ice age. beds and large s were left on the hillsides during this period, and ice fields covered eastern Nebraska two or three times, with the climate becoming cold enough to completely eradicate existing plants and animals.

Holocene (present-day)
As the climate became drier s appeared, rivers began to cut their present valleys, and present Nebraska topography was formed. Animals appearing during this period remain in the state to this day.

Territorial period
The of  established the  as the dividing line between the territories of  and Nebraska. As such, the original territorial boundaries of Nebraska were much larger than today; the territory was bounded on the west by the between the  and  Oceans; on the north by the  (the boundary between the  and, and on the east by the  and  rivers. However, the creation of new territories by acts of  progressively reduced the size of Nebraska.

Land changes
On, , took portions of the territory south of 41° N and west of 102°03' W (25° W of Washington, DC). On, , took all of the portions of Nebraska Territory north of 43° N (the present-day Nebraska- border), along with the portion of present-day Nebraska between the  and the Keya Paha and Niobrara rivers (this land would be returned to Nebraska in ). The act creating the Dakota Territory also included provisions granting Nebraska small portions of and  — present-day southwestern, bounded by the , the , and the. On, , took everything west of 104°03' W (27° W of Washington, DC).

Capital changes
The of the Nebraska Territory was at. During the 1850s there were numerous unsuccessful attempts to move the capital to other locations, including and. In the corruption scheme, ruled illegal by the  in the case of , local businessmen tried to secure land in the Omaha area to give away to legislators. The capital remained at Omaha until when Nebraska gained statehood, at which time the capital was moved to, which was called Lancaster at that point.

Statehood
A constitution for Nebraska was drawn up in. There was some controversy over Nebraska's admission as a state, with some controversy over a provision in the 1866 constitution that restricted to  voters; eventually, on, , the  voted to admit Nebraska as a state provided that suffrage was not denied to non-white voters. The bill admitting Nebraska as a state was vetoed by, but the veto was overridden by a  in both Houses of Congress.

Political change
Under the original constitution, the was. However, following a visit to, Nebraska legislator  campaigned for the abolition of the bicameral system, following the example of the Australian state of  which had adopted a  system ten years previously; he also argued that the bicameral system was based on the "inherently undemocratic". In, a state constitutional amendment was passed introducing a single-house legislature, and also introducing elections (where members do not stand as members of ).

World War II
During the Nebraska was home to several  camps. Scottsbluff,, and (outside Holdrege) were the main camps. There were many smaller satellite camps at Alma, Bayard, Bertrand, Bridgeport, Elwood, Fort Crook, Franklin, Grand Island, Hastings, Hebron, Indianola, Kearney, Lexington, Lyman, Mitchell, Morrill, Ogallala, Palisade, Sidney, and Weeping Water. housed Italian POWs. Altogether there were 23 large and small camps scattered across the state.