Law prohibiting interracial marriges repealed; Fourth Tillamook Burn destroys 130,000 forest acres

Constitution amended to provide for equal representation in state legislature

Public Accommodations Law prohibits racial discrimination by businesses

Congress terminates Western Oregon tribes; Supreme Court upholds Brown v. Board of Education, abolishing segregated schools

Congress authorizes Interstate freeway system; Congress terminates Klamath Tribe

Oregon Fair Housing Act passes

Oregon ratifies 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 89 years after its adoption; First Oregon Bulletin published

Congress passes Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act for management of national forests; Mercedes Deiz first Black American female lawyer in Oregon; First female U.S. Senator from Oregon, Maurine Neuberger, elected

Columbus Day Storm causes major damage in western Oregon; Oregon State University football player, Terry Baker, (QB) becomes state’s first Heisman Trophy winner​

Death penalty abolished; National Civil Rights Act outlaws unequal voter registation requirements and racial segregation in schools, the workplace and public places​

Congress passes Voting Rights Act, which prohibits qualifications or prerequisites to voting

Workmen complete Astoria-Megler Bridge spanning Columbia River estuary; I-5 affords non-stop driving through Oregon

Beach Bill approved, ensuring public access to all of Oregon’s coastal beaches; Racial tensions escalate into riots in Portland

Department of Environmental Quality created

Federal District Court in Sohappy v. Smith affirms Indian treaty fishing rights in Columbia River

Bottle Bill approved; Congress confirms Burns Paiute Reservation

Statewide major land use planning legislation approved; Public Records Law for access approved; Public Meetings Law approved; Tillamook State Forest created; Congress approves Endangered Species Act; Oregon ratifies U.S. Equal Rights Amendment​

Congress creates John Day Fossil Beds National Monument; Oregon Health Sciences University forms from mergers; Governor Tom McCall sets odd/even gasoline refueling days

Congress creates Hells Canyon National Recreation Area

First woman, Norma Paulus, elected secretary of state; Trojan, Oregon’s first nuclear power plant, built near Saint Helens

Oregon first state to ban aerosol sprays by law; Congress restores Confederated Tribes of Siletz; First woman, Betty Roberts, appointed to Oregon Court of Appeals; Portland Trail Blazers win NBA Championship

Death penalty reinstated

Federal District Court in Kimball v. Callahan affirms Klamath tribal hunting and fishing rights within former reservation; Portland-area voters create “Metro,” the first elective metropolitan council in the U.S.

Congress creates new Siletz Reservation; Mount St. Helens eruption disrupts ship traffic on Columbia River

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh establishes Rajneeshpuram near Antelope

Congress restores Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe; First woman, Betty Roberts, appointed justice of Oregon Supreme Court

Congress restores Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

Congress restores Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw; First Oregon lottery ratified by voters; First Black American woman, Margaret Carter, elected to state legislature

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh deported and fined $400,000; First woman, Vera Katz, selected speaker of Oregon House

Congress restores Klamath Tribe; Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) begins light-rail service in Portland

Congress creates Grand Ronde Reservation; Congress approves Civil Liberties Act paying $20,000 to each surviving interned Japanese American; Ballot Measure 8 bans discrimination based on sexual orientation

Congress restores Coquille Tribe; African exchange student Mulugeta Seraw killed by racist skinheads in Portland​

Ballot Measure 5 limits property taxes to support schools and government; U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife lists Northern Spotted Owl as endangered

First woman, Barbara Roberts, elected governor

First African American, James A. Hill, Jr., elected to statewide office as state treasurer; First gaming compact for casinos signed with Cow Creek and Umpqua Tribes

First statewide vote-by-mail election held in U. S.

First Death With Dignity Act approved, permitting doctor-assisted suicide

First woman, Beverly Clarno, elected to serve as speaker of the House in Oregon’s House of Representatives

First vote-by-mail election for federal office held

Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) extends light-rail service 18 miles west from Portland

New Carissa, freighter runs aground near Coos Bay; U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife lists several salmon species from Columbia and Willamette rivers as endangered

First Hispanic woman, Susan Castillo, elected to statewide office as school superintendent; Forest fires leave nearly 100,000 acres burned; Measure requiring removal of racist language from state Constitution passes

Oregon begins 10 year plan to fix deteriorating bridges

Trojan, Oregon’s only nuclear power plant, decommissioned; L. L. Stub Stewart State Park opens - Oregon’s first new state park campground in more than 30 years​

Oregon State Quarter released with design featuring Crater Lake

Trojan, Oregon’s decommissioned nuclear power plant, imploded

Oregon’s constitution 150 years old; Sandy River’s Marmot Dam, built in 1912, removed; Oregon Equality Act passes

New Carissa, freighter that ran aground on Coos Bay beach in 1999, dismantled and removed

Oregon celebrates its sesquicentennial on Feb. 14, 2009; Oregon unemployment rate tops 12% amid recession

Governor’s panel predicts 10 years of state budget deficits

Oregon legislature begins annual sessions with the even-numbered years having a month-long session in February

Klamath Tribes’ senior water rights in Upper Klamath Basin reaffirmed by courts; Drought and lightning produced most expensive wildfire season on record, leave over 100,000 acres burned; Josephine County’s last sawmill closes for lack of logs

U.S. District court strikes down same-sex marriage ban; Voters approve recreational marijuana use; Equal Rights for Women in Oregon Constitution; University of Oregon football quarterback Marcus Mariota wins the Heisman Trophy​

Governor John Kitzhaber resigned Feb. 18, 2015, Secretary of State Kate Brown becomes governor according to the order of succession required by the Oregon Constitution; Minoru Yasui, Hood River Attorney, posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his challenge of a military curfew placed on Japanese Americans during World War II and for his lifetime of civil rights work.

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​​​ ​​​​​​​2016 

Armed militants seize and occupy the headquarters of Harney County’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for 41 days

Total solar eclipse across Oregon on August 21, 2017 (the path of totality includes Lincoln City, Newport, Salem, Albany, Madras, Baker City and Ontario); Senate Bill 13, the “Tribal History/Shared History” law, is enacted, directing the Oregon Department of Education to create a K-12 Native American curriculum for inclusion in Oregon’s public schools; Oregon’s 158-year-old Constitution is professionally restored

Justice Adrienne C. Nelson is appointed to the Oregon Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman to sit on the state’s highest court; Colin O’Brady becomes the first personto traverse Antarctica solo and unaided

The Devil’s Staircase in the Oregon Coast Range is designated a federal Wilderness Area; Blockbuster Video in Bend becomes the world’s last Blockbuster movie rental store​

National racial unrest spurs spring/summer protests around the state; Governor Brown invokes the Emergency Conflagration Act as fires threaten structures in nine Oregon counties; A Washington County man is Oregon’s first diagnosed COVID-19 case on February 28, 2020; A Multnomah County man is Oregon’s first reported COVID-19 death on March 14, 2020; Oregon gave its first COVID-19 vaccines in four Oregon hospitals

Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples’ Day become state of Oregon holidays; In June, Oregon saw three consecutive days of record-breaking heat across the state, tying the statewide all-time high temperature of 119°F in Jefferson County; Oregon receives a sixth Congressional district and completes redistricting

Three women are on the ballot to become Oregon’s next governor; The World Athletic Championships are held in Eugene, bringing together the world’s best track and field athletes​

Secretary of State Shemia Fagan resigns. Republicans in the Oregon Senate stage a six-week walkout during the legislative session. 50th Anniversary of landmark Senate Bill 100, which created land use laws to preserve farmland; Archaeologists uncover evidence of oldest human-occupied site in North America at the Rimrock Draw Shelter site near Burns​

Removal of dams along the Klamath River allows salmon to move freely for the first time in generations; Wildfires burn more than 1.9 million acres, much of it rangeland; Oregon has second-largest measles outbreak in the nation​​