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Meriwether Lewis is picked as commander of the oncoming expedition.-Spring
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The Announcement of the Louisiana Purchase.
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Expedition begins.
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Toussaint Charbonneau(French Canadian fur trapper living with the Hidastsas) is hired as an interpreter by Lewis and Clark. His wife, Sacagawea( a Shoshone who had been captured by the Hidatsas and sold to Charbonneau) is also considered helpful as Shoshones are said to live at the headwaters of the Missouri.
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Sacagawea gives birth to a baby boy, Jean Baptiste during the expedition.
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Lewis and Clark send the keelboat and about a dozen men back downriver, with maps, reports, Indian artifacts and other scientific specimens for Jefferson. The remaining party heads west.
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By majority vote the expedition decides to cross to the south side of the Columbia River to build winter quarters.
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Lewis and Clark return to Washington D.C. and are rewarded and labled National Heroes.
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