Prior to the start of the Civil War, Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood declared Davenport to be Iowa's first military headquarters and five camps were set up in the city to aid the Union.

* Woodson, C. G., The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861: A History of the Education of the Colored People of the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War.

Prior to the American Civil War, much of the Southern United States was covered in vast tracts of primeval hardwood forests that were suitable as habitat for the bird.

Prior to the Civil War, militia units were sometimes used by southern states for slave control.

Prior to his days as a leading member of the Yippie movement, Hoffman was involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ), and organized " Liberty House ", which sold items to support the Civil Rights Movement in the southern United States.

Prior to the Civil War, the Pottawatomie Massacre ( May 24 – 25, 1856 ) was one of the many bloody episodes in Kansas preceding which came to be known collectively as Bleeding Kansas.

Prior to that date, airworthiness standards for airplanes in the normal, utility and acrobatic categories were promulgated in Part 3 of the US Civil Air Regulations.

Prior to that date, airworthiness standards for airplanes in the transport category were promulgated in Part 4b of the US Civil Air Regulations.

Prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, protests about local racial segregation which began quietly in Franklin Street restaurants led to mass demonstrations and disturbance.

Prior to the Civil War, the county was the second wealthiest in the state ; its resources of timber and rich soil ( farmed for a diversity of crops including rye, corn, oats, tobacco, potatoes, wheat, peas, barley, and hay ) provided a stable economy, as opposed to reliance on one cash crop.

Prior to the American Civil War, the center of activity focused upon " Calhoun's Landing ," named for the cotton and sugar planter Meredith Calhoun, a native of South Carolina.

Prior to the Civil War, cotton farming was the main occupation in Butler County.

Prior to the Civil War, the landscape was dominated by several large plantations, the remains of which survive as archaeological sites.

Prior to the American Civil War, area roads were few and undeveloped.

Prior to the American Civil War, some groups worked to establish a Western District of Columbia to include present-day Metropolis and the nearby area of Kentucky.

Prior to the American Civil War, the land of what is now called Louisburg was part of that reserved for members of various tribes of Native Americans that were ceding their lands in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.

Prior to the American Civil War, it was known as " Calhoun's Landing ," named for the cotton and sugar planter Meredith Calhoun, a native of South Carolina.

Prior to the American Civil War, Natchez had the most millionaires per capita of any city in the United States.

Prior to being called West Long Branch, the area had been called Mechanicsville from the 18th century through the Civil War, and then Branchburg in the 1870s.

Prior to the Civil War they were joined by the Roe, Leonard and Stansfield families, who helped establish St. Mary's Episcopal Church and leading businesses like a general store and the Leonard Wax Company.

Prior to the American Civil War, the area was known locally as White Hill, which served as a stop along the Cumberland Valley Railroad between Harrisburg and Carlisle.

Prior to, and during, the Civil War, many abolitionists lived in the area, and several locations within the town of Lewisburg served as stopping points on the famous Underground Railroad.

Prior to the American Civil War, Orange was the center of commerce and justice for Orange County, Virginia, and a number of antebellum buildings survive today.

Prior to the American Civil War, Mogadore served as a station on the underground railroad.

Prior to that, it had been claimed but with no control over the region by Somaliland since the 1991 events of the Somali Civil War.

Prior to World War 2, there was a higher percentage of endogamous marriages than after World War 2.

Prior to World War II, infantile paralysis ( or polio ) was widely accepted as the cause.

Prior to his inauguration, he led a meeting of advisors at Pearl Harbor addressing foremost issues ; agreed objectives were to balance the budget during his term, to bring the Korean War to an end, to defend vital interests at lower cost through nuclear deterrent, and to end price and wage controls.

Prior to World War II, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unattended ocean operations ; typically a number of destroyers and a single destroyer tender operated together.

Prior to the outbreak of the 1998 – 2000 Eritrean – Ethiopian War, landlocked Ethiopia mainly relied on the seaports of Asseb and Massawa in Eritrea for international trade.

Prior to the Seven Years ' War ( 1756 – 63 ), the economy of Saint-Domingue gradually expanded, with sugar and, later, coffee becoming important export crops.

Prior to the invasion of neutral Belgium by German forces, Hergé published humoristic drawings in L ' Ouest, a paper run by future collaborator Raymond de Becker and which strongly advocated that Belgium not join the war alongside its World War One allies France and Britain.

Prior to this — before the Second World War — he was content with the role of an apolitical liberal intellectual: " Now teaching at a lycée in Laon [...] Sartre made his headquarters the Dome café at the crossing of Montparnasse and Raspail boulevards.

Prior to World War II, Latvia bordered eastern Poland, but as a result of boundary changes by the Soviet Union, this territory was attached to Belarus.

Prior to the formation of the OSS ( the American version of the British Secret Intelligence Service and Special Operations Executive ), American intelligence had been conducted on an ad-hoc basis by the various departments of the executive branch, including the State, Treasury, Navy, and War Departments.

Prior to the outbreak of World War I in 1914 detachable black or white plumes were worn with the pickehaube in full dress by German generals, staff officers, dragoon regiments, infantry of the Prussian Guard and a number of line infantry regiments as a special distinction.

Prior to World War II Porsche designed and built three Type 64 cars for a 1939 Berlin to Rome race that was cancelled.

Prior to World War I, the British explosives chemist Oswald Silberrad obtained British and U. S. patents for a series of plastic explosives called " Nitrols ", composed of nitrated aromatics, collodion, and oxidising inorganic salts.

Prior to the Dominion War, the Tal Shiar and the Cardassian Obsidian Order secretly worked together to launch a pre-emptive strike on the Founder homeworld.

Prior to its creation as the Territory of the Saar Basin by the League of Nations after World War I, the Saarland ( or simply " the Saar ", as is frequently referred to ) did not exist as a unified entity.

Prior and during the Kosovo War of 1999, Slovenian top government officials called repeatedly for Slobodan Milošević's compliance with NATO demands.

Prior to World War II, 12-cylinder engines were found in many luxury models, including cars from: Packard 1916 to 1923, Daimler 1926 to 1937, Hispano-Suiza 1931, Cadillac 1931, Auburn 1932, Franklin 1932, Lincoln 1932, Rolls-Royce 1936, and Pierce-Arrow also 1936.

Prior to World War I, Gretzky's paternal grandfather Anton ( Tony ) Gretzky immigrated along with his family to Canada via the United States from the Russian Empire ( what is now Grodno, Belarus ).

Prior to the Gulf War in 1990 – 91, when the Intifada's intensity began to wear down, Arafat supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and opposed the US-led coalition attack on Iraq.

Prior to World War II, a number of major population transfers were the result of bilateral treaties and had the support of international bodies such as the League of Nations.