National Nebraska Day Date in the current year: April 5, 2025

Nebraska is a state in the Midwestern United States, bordered by South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming. Its name is the anglicized version of an archaic Omaha or Otoe expression meaning “flat water” (a reference to the Platte River, which flows through the state). Nebraska’s nickname is The Cornhusker State.

For thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, Nebraska was inhabited by various Native American tribes, including the Missouria, Omaha, Otoe, Pawnee, Ponca, and several branches of the Lakota (Sioux). In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, both France and Spain sought control of the region, establishing trade relations and signing treaties with the native peoples.

However, neither country established actual control over Nebraska. Spain ceased exploration after the failed Villasur expedition of 1720, and France sold Louisiana, which included present-day Nebraska, to the United States in 1803. Nebraska was part of the Louisiana Territory from 1805 until 1812, when it became part of the newly created Missouri Territory. The first U.S. Army post in Nebraska was Fort Atkinson, near present-day Fort Calhoun, and the first town was Bellevue.

In 1821, part the Missouri Territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Missouri, and the remainder of the territory, including Nebraska, became an unorganized territory. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, divided by the 40th parallel north.

The Nebraska Territory included areas of several modern states: Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, North and South Dakota, and Wyoming. The Colorado Territory and the Dakota Territory seceded from the Nebraska Territory in 1861, and the Idaho Territory followed two years later. During the Civil War, the Nebraska Territory was largely rural and sparsely populated, and no battles or even skirmishes were fought in its territory. However, Nebraskans did serve in the Union Army.

The Homestead Act of 1862 opened land in Nebraska to settlement, and thousands of settlers came to the territory to claim free land offered by the federal government, giving Nebraska a sufficient population to apply for statehood. The state constitution was drafted in 1866, and on February 8, 1867, Nebraska was admitted to the Union as the 37th state. Interestingly, President Andrew Johnson vetoed the admission, but both houses of Congress overrode the president’s veto, making Nebraska the first and only state to join the United States by veto override.

In 2017, National Day Calendar launched National State Days to celebrate all U.S. states, one state per week, in the order in which they joined the Union rather than on their actual admission anniversaries. National Delaware Day on July 13 kicks off the cycle of celebrations, and National Nebraska Day falls on April 5.