1876: After its first bid for statehood was vetoed by President Andrew Johnson, Colorado ntered the Union, the year the United States celebrated its centennial. Thus, the thirty-eighth state is known as the Centennial State. The United States acquired the eastern part of Colorado in 1803 through the Louisiana Purchase and the western portion in 1848 through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1850, the federal government also purchased a Texas claim in Colorado. This combined property eventually became the Colorado Territory in 1861. (Source: Library of Congress)

1779: Francis Scott Key, attorney and author of the poem - The Star-Spangled Banner - that eventually became America's national anthem, was born in Maryland.