November 16 · This Day in America
At his desk in Washington, President Theodore Roosevelt signs the proclamation, and two territories become one state. Oklahoma is the union of Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory — land that had been promised, by treaty, to Native nations forced here from across the continent on the Trail of Tears, land Congress now folds into a single American state. In Guthrie, a mock wedding is staged: a man as Oklahoma Territory, a woman as Indian Territory, married into statehood while crowds cheer. It is celebration and erasure at once, the closing of the long American frontier in a single signature. The 46th star is added to the flag. The map of the lower country is, for the first time, nearly whole — and the cost of making it whole is written into the very borders of the newest state.
Source: www.archives.gov
Also on this day · 1933
For nearly sixteen years the United States had refused to admit the Bolshevik government existed. Then, in the depths of the Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet envoy Maxim Litvinov talk it through, one-on-one, in the White House. On this day they exchange letters and the long silence ends. Two wary giants open embassies — a relationship that will define the rest of the American century.
Source: history.state.gov