This Day…

1885 – During an attempted arrest bootlegger Ned Christie killed U. S. Marshal Dan Maples near Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

1851 – San Francisco’s fifth fire since the discovery of gold destroys 70 percent of the city.

1852 – Martha “Calamity” Jane Canary is born in Princeton, Missouri.

1881 – Billy the Kid escapes from his cell in Lincoln, New Mexico.

1858 – Chinese are prohibited from landing at any port in California under the terms of a bill passed by Congress.

1851 – Morgan Earp is born in Pella, Iowa.

1875 – Wyatt Earp is hired as a policeman in Wichita, Kansas.

1849 – Captain G. W. Paul leads the first party of 49ers along the Oregon Trail to the California gold rush.

1860 – The first Pony Express rider arrives in San Francisco only 10 days after departing St. Joseph, Missouri.  The postage rate is $5 per half-ounce.

1861 – The Civil War officially began.