1) On April 4, 1818, the Missouri Territory was officially created by an act of the United States Congress. This territory eventually became the state of Missouri when it was admitted to the Union in 1821.

2) In 1846, the famous Donner Party traveling westward across the United States stopped in Springfield, Missouri, on April 4. This group famously became stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains and resorted to cannibalism to survive.

3) On April 4, 1864, Confederate forces under General Marmaduke unsuccessfully attacked Union troops in the Battle of Patterson, a small skirmish fought in Wayne County, Missouri, during the American Civil War.

4) On April 4, 1934, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, infamous outlaws from the Great Depression era, were involved in a shootout with police in Joplin, Missouri. They managed to escape and continue their crime spree until their deaths in 1934.

5) In 1973, the Missouri Department of Transportation began construction on the Gateway Arch Memorial Bridge, which connects Missouri and Illinois across the Mississippi River. The bridge opened to traffic in 1985 and has become a major landmark of the St. Louis skyline.