Old postage stamp that commemorates the signing of the Louisiana Purchase.

October 20, 1803

This date in Missouri history. The U.S. Senate approves the Louisiana Purchase that adds more than 800,000 acres of land – including what would become Missouri – to more than double the size of the United States.


April 30, 1803

The treaty that authorized the Louisiana Purchase was signed on this date in Paris.


The Tribes of Missouri Part 2: Things Fall Apart

At a time when the nations of Europe were competing for global control of trade and land, the New World offered the ideal opportunity to fill European coffers and expand their empires. The only problem was that someone already lived here.