1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ends the Mexican War, adds American Southwest to the United States.
1858 Gold discovered in modern Denver.
1859 Gen. William Larimer founds Denver. Major gold strikes in nearby Rockies.
1861 Colorado Territory proclaimed.
1862 Colorado cavalry wins major Civil War battle at Glorieta Pass, New Mexico. The Homestead Act is passed.
1863-68 Ute tribe obtains treaties guaranteeing 16 million acres of western Colorado land.
1864 Hundreds of Cheyenne and Arapaho killed in Sand Creek Massacre. The University of Denver becomes Colorado's first institution of higher education.
1972 Colorado voters reject a chance to host the 1976 Winter Olympics.
1988 Sen. Gary Hart, a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, withdraws from the race after a scandal involving a Miami model.
1992 Colorado voters approve Amendment 2, a controversial state constitutional amendment barring any measures to protect homosexuals from discrimination.
1995 The $4.2-billion state-of-the-art Denver International Airport and $2.16-million Coors Field baseball stadium open. Denver goes sports-crazy with its fourth major professional sports team, the Avalanche, a member of the National Hockey League.
1996 The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Amendment 2, saying it denies gays and lesbians constitutional rights afforded to all Americans. The Avalanche win the Stanley Cup, giving Colorado its first championship in any major league.
1997 Weather wreaks havoc across the state: First, a summer rainstorm turns a small creek that runs through Fort Collins into a roaring river that floods parts of the town, killing five residents and causing some $200 million in damage; then, in late October, a 24-hour blizzard, the worst October storm in Denver since 1923, piles snow across the Front Range, virtually shutting down I-25 from Wyoming to New Mexico and stranding thousands of passengers at Denver International Airport. Gary Lee Davis, convicted of the 1986 abduction and murder of a Colorado farm wife, is executed by lethal injection, the state's first execution in 30 years.
1998 The Denver Broncos win the Super Bowl, defeating the Green Bay Packers (the defending champs) 31-24; the stunning victory saves the Broncos the indignity of becoming the first team to lose five Super Bowls. Militant environmental activists set fires that cause more than $12 million in damage in an effort to stop expansion at a Vail resort.
1999 The Broncos win the Super Bowl again, this time defeating the Atlanta Falcons. The worst school shooting in United States history takes place in suburban Denver when two students open fire inside Columbine High School, killing 13.
2000 Colorado ski resorts report that the 1999-2000 season was the worst in history due to poor snowfall and potential skiers' fears about Y2K problems.
2001 The Avalanche win the Stanley Cup again, beating the New Jersey Devils 3-1. A California couple give the University of Colorado $250 million, the largest gift ever to a public university in the United States.
2001-08 A new energy boom takes place in Colorado, with drilling for oil and gas hitting an all-time high.
2002 One of the worst wildfire seasons in history hits Colorado, with about 1,000 fires burning some 364,000 acres across the state; the biggest fire -- considered the largest forest fire in the state's history -- burned 138,000 acres and destroyed 133 homes southwest of Denver; other major fires were near Durango, in Mesa Verde National Park, near Colorado Springs, and near Glenwood Springs.
2003 Scandal hits the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs when dozens of female cadets come forward claiming that they had been victims of sexual assaults by male cadets and that academy officials had mostly ignored their complaints and sometimes blamed the victims.
2004 Colorado obtains its fourth national park when Great Sand Dunes gains national park status, after getting additional land with help from the Nature Conservancy.
2006 T-REX, the biggest road and light-rail project in Denver history, is completed.
2006-07 Thanks to plenty of snow, Colorado's ski industry enjoys a record year: over 12.5 million visitors, nearly a quarter of the nation's total.
2008 Denver hosts the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before
planning your trip.
