Independence, Missouri in the context of "Harry S Truman"

Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequently, Truman implemented the Marshall Plan in the aftermath of World War II to rebuild the economy of Western Europe, and established both the Truman Doctrine and NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. A member of the Democratic Party, he proposed numerous New Deal coalition liberal domestic reforms, but few were enacted by the conservative coalition that dominated the United States Congress.

Born in Lamar, Missouri, Truman was raised in Independence, Missouri, and during World War I fought in France as a captain in the Field Artillery. Returning home, he opened a haberdashery in Kansas City, Missouri, and was elected as a judge of Jackson County in 1922. Truman was elected to the U.S. Senate for Missouri in 1934. Between 1940 and 1944, he gained national prominence as the chairman of the Truman Committee, which aimed to reduce waste and inefficiency in wartime contracts. Truman was elected vice president in the 1944 presidential election and became president upon Roosevelt's death in April 1945. Only then was he told about the ongoing Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb. Truman authorized the first and only use of nuclear weapons in war against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its fourteen counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (nine counties) and Kansas (five counties). The 8,472 square miles (21,940 km) 2024 estimated census calculated a population of more than 2.2 million people, it is the second-largest metropolitan area centered in Missouri (after Greater St. Louis) and is the largest metropolitan area in Kansas, though Wichita is the largest metropolitan area centered in Kansas. Alongside Kansas City, Missouri, these are the suburbs with populations above 100,000: Overland Park, Kansas; Kansas City, Kansas; Olathe, Kansas; Independence, Missouri; and Lee's Summit, Missouri.

Cultural attractions include the American Jazz Museum, the Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Union Station, the National World War I Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Arabia Steamboat Museum, Uptown Theater, Midland Theatre, the Kansas City Zoo, Swope Park (featuring Starlight Theater), Sandstone Amphitheater, the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, Worlds of Fun, Oceans of Fun, the College Basketball Experience, the NWSL’s Kansas City Current, and several casinos. Major league sports franchises include the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, the MLB's Kansas City Royals, and the MLS's Sporting Kansas City. The Kansas Speedway is owned by NASCAR.

Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by population and area. It is located on the Missouri River at its confluence with the Kansas River, within Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass counties. It is the 38th-most populous city in the United States and sixth-most populous city in the Midwest, with a population of 508,090 at the 2020 census. The Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Missouri–Kansas state line, is the 31st-most populous metropolitan area in the nation, at 2.25 million residents.

Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a port on the Missouri and Kansas rivers. On June 1, 1850, the town of Kansas was incorporated; soon afterwards, a region designated as the Kansas Territory was established. Confusion between the city and the territory of Kansas ensued, so the name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish the city from the territory. Sited on Missouri's western border with Kansas and with downtown near the rivers' confluence, Kansas City, Missouri encompasses about 319.03 square miles (826.3 km), making it the 25th-largest city by total area in the United States. It is one of Jackson County's two seats along with the major satellite city of Independence; and Kansas City's other major Missouri suburbs include Blue Springs, Lee's Summit, Raytown, and Liberty. Kansas City Missouri's major Kansas suburbs include Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa, and Kansas City, Kansas.

The Oregon Trail was a 2,170-mile (3,490 km) east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what is now the states of Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming. The western half crossed the current states of Idaho and Oregon.

The Oregon Trail was laid by fur traders and trappers from about 1811 to 1840 and was initially only passable on foot or horseback. By 1836, when the first migrant wagon train was organized in Independence, Missouri, a wagon trail had been cleared to Fort Hall, Idaho. Wagon trails were cleared increasingly farther west and eventually reached the Willamette Valley in Oregon, at which point what came to be called the Oregon Trail was complete. Further improvements in the form of bridges, cutoffs, ferries, and roads made the trip faster and safer. From starting points in Iowa, Missouri, or Nebraska Territory, the routes converged along the lower Platte River Valley near Fort Kearny, Nebraska Territory. They led to fertile farmlands west of the Rocky Mountains.

Jackson County is located in the western portion of the U.S. state of Missouri, on the border with Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 717,204. making it the second-most populous county in the state (after St. Louis County in the east). The county seats are Independence and Kansas City, making Jackson County one of 33 U.S. counties with more than one county seat. The county was organized December 15, 1826, and named for former Tennessee senator Andrew Jackson, who would become President of the United States three years later in 1829.

Elizabeth Virginia Truman (née Wallace; February 13, 1885 – October 18, 1982) was First Lady of the United States from 1945 to 1953 as the wife of President Harry S. Truman. She had previously served as Second Lady of the United States from January to April 1945. At 97 years, 247 days, she was the longest-lived first and second lady.

She was born in Independence, Missouri, where she kept a home her entire life. She had known Harry since they were children, though she did not return his affections until adulthood. She was strongly affected by the suicide of her father when she was 18, which shaped her opinions about privacy from the public eye and the responsibilities of a spouse. Bess and Harry married in 1919, and Bess spent the following years managing the Truman household and working in her husband's offices as his political career advanced. She was apprehensive about Harry running for vice president in 1944, and she was deeply upset when he ascended to the presidency the following year.