Oregon becomes a state: 1859

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With the stroke of President James Buchanan’s pen, Oregon was admitted as the 33rd state in the Union just two years before it would be torn apart by the Civil War. Oregon had spent 11 years as a United States territory, and it would take more than a month for news of its admission to cross the country from Washington, D.C. by a combination of telegraph, stagecoach and steamship (via History)