This Day in History with the Smithsonian

On this day in 1836, Arkansas became the twenty-fifth state. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had established a balance of free and slaveholding states, and to maintain this, Arkansas' statehood (enslavement was permitted) was followed by the admission of Michigan, a free state, to the country six months later.

Learn more about Hattie Caraway, the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in this Smithsonian article penned by our very own Nancy Hendricks.