| Pre-1600 | Original inhabitants are the Menominee and Winnebago Indian tribes. Later Sauk, Fox and Potawatomi tribes migrate to the area. |
| 1634 | Jean Nicolet arrived in Green Bay. First European to voyage on Lake Michigan. Beginning of French rule in the Wisconsin area. |
| 1673 | French explorer Louis Joliet and Jesuit priest Jacques Marquette travel the Fox-Wisconsin waterways connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River. |
| 1763 | English take possession of Wisconsin from France with the Treaty of Paris, but discourage new settlers. |
| 1783 | Wisconsin becomes an American territory as a result of treaty ending the Revolutionary War. |
| 1787 | Northwest Territory goverment established in Wisconsin. British fur traders effectively control the area however until 1816. |
| 1800 | Wisconsin part of Indiana Territory. |
| 1809 | Wisconsin part of Illinois Territory. |
| 1818 | Wisconsin part of Michigan Territory. Illinois granted statehood. The first Wisconsin counties, Brown and Crawford, established. |
| 1820's | Lead mining in southwestern Wisconsin gained importance. First large-scale immigration came up the Mississippi R. from the South. |
| 1830's | Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha settled. |
| 1832 | Black Hawk War ended Indian uprisings. |
| 1834 | Immigrants arrive in large numbers at Milwaukee. Land offices opened at Green Bay and Mineral Point. First public land sold at Mineral Point. |
| 1835 | Influx of settlers in southern and eastern Wisconsin. |
| 1835 | Congress established the Territory of Wisconsin. First capital at Belmont. Madison chosen as capital later this same year. |
| 1838 | Iowa Territory created from western Wisconsin Territory. |
| 1845 | First Luxembourg settlers arrive in Milwaukee. At the recommendation of John Henni, Archbishop of Milwaukee, they settle in what is now Ozaukee County. |
| 1846 | Territorial Convention held. |
| 1848 | Wisconsin granted statehood 29 May, with its present boundries. |
| 1849 | State Historical Society of Wisconsin organized. University of Wisconsin at Madison opened. |
| 1851 | First railroad was opened from Milwaukee to Waukesha. |
| 1861-1865 | Over 90,000 men from Wisconsin serve in the Civil War. 10,752 deaths recorded. |
| 1862 | Immigrant Luxembourgers stage draft riots at the Ozaukee County Courthouse in Port Washington. Many Luxembourgers who participated in the riots had left Europe to avoid their sons conscription into the German army. |
| 1870 | Federal census shows state population over 1,000,000. Twenty percent of population is urban and eighty percent rural. |
| 1871 | Great fires in Door, Oconto, Shawano, Kewaunee, Brown and Manitowoc counties. |
| 1998 | Wisconsin celebrates its sesquicentennial, 150 years of statehood. |