Timeline of Missouri History: 1950-1990
| 1952 | Leonor K. Sullivan became Missouri’s first woman U.S. Representative | |
| 1954 | The Missouri State Penitentiary Riot (Sept. 22) | |
| 1957 | Missouri Commission on Human Rights was created (June 8) | |
| 1965 | The Gateway Arch (Jefferson National Expansion Memorial) designed by Eero Saarinen was completed. Located on the original settlement site of St. Louis, it symbolizes the role of St. Louis in the development of the western frontier |  St. Louis Arch under construction July 8, 1965 |
| 1968 | Race riots in Kansas City in response to the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (April) | |
| 1972 | Mary Gant became Missouri’s first woman state senator | |
| 1977 | Gwen B. Giles became Missouri’s first African-American woman state senator | |
| 1980 | Court-ordered desegregation began in Missouri, attempting to alleviate the racial isolation of black students. The court determined that the State of Missouri was required to pay half of the cost of school desegregation plans; numerous legal issues arose (May) | |
| 1982 | Government workers began taking soil samples, testing for dioxin at Times Beach; the town was later evacuated | |
| 1984 | Margaret B. Kelly became the first woman to hold statewide office in Missouri when she was appointed to the office of State Auditor (May 30) | |
| 1987 | Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Knoster was designated as the home of the B-2 Stealth Bomber unit | |
| 1987 | Ann K. Covington became the first woman appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court | |
| 1988 | The Missouri Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Nancy Cruzan "right to life" case | |
| 1988 | Missouri’s first presidential primary on the occasion of Richard Gephardt, US Congressman from Missouri, running for the Democratic nomination | |
| 1992 | Missouri voters approved riverboat gambling excursions on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers | |
| 1993 | The Great Flood of 1993 devastated parts of Missouri and the Midwest | |
| 1993 | Outstanding Schools Act was passed; it was a $310 million measure to reform Missouri schools and their funding | |
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