1. On April 4, 1860, the first Pony Express riders reached the border of Kansas Territory, at what is now Kansas City, Kansas. The Pony Express was a mail delivery service that operated for only 18 months, from April 1860 to October 1861, but it played an important role in connecting the East and West coasts of the United States.

2. In 1896, on April 4, Kansas became the first state to prohibit the manufacture and sale of alcohol statewide, a decade before national Prohibition was enacted. The Kansas law was largely ineffective at stopping drinking, and was repealed in 1948.

3. On April 4, 1901, Carrie Nation, a temperance activist who became famous for her attacks on saloons with a hatchet, was arrested in Wichita for smashing up a local tavern. Nation's actions were controversial at the time, but she became a symbol of the temperance movement and women's rights.

4. In 1968, on April 4, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. King's legacy of nonviolent resistance and civil rights activism continues to inspire people around the world, and his death was a pivotal moment in American history.

5. On April 4, 2007, the Kansas State Board of Education voted to approve new science standards that included intelligent design as an alternative to the theory of evolution. The decision was heavily criticized by scientists and educators, and eventually overturned by a federal court as unconstitutional.