On This Day in Arizona

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On This Day in Arizona History

January

February

January 1, 1825 - Jose Leon took office as the first civilian mayor of Tucson, which had a population of fewer than 400 people.
January 2, 1868 - The contract was signed for construction of the first Pima County Courthouse.
January 3, 1787 - Old Bill Williams, mountaineer and frontiersman, known as Lone Elk to the Native Americans, was born. The city of Williams and the Bill Williams River were named after him.
January 4, 1999 - Arizona inaugurated five women to its top five statewide executive offices. It marked the first time in the United States that a state had an all-female line of succession for its governorship.
January 5, 1904 - The Arizona Cattle Growers Association was organized.
January 6, 1975 - Raul Castro became Arizona’s first Hispanic governor.
January 7, 1971 - The coldest temperature ever recorded in Arizona (-40 degrees Fahrenheit) at Hawley Lake in the White Mountains.
January 8, 1774 - Juan Bautista de Anza and Father Francisco Garces set out from Tubac with a party of 34 men to establish a route to California.
January 9, 1847 - The Mormon Battalion crossed the Colorado River into California after opening the first wagon route across southern Arizona.
January 10, 1921 - The 5th Arizona State Legislature convened in Phoenix. This session marked the first time the Republican Party held a majority in the Arizona State Senate.
January 11, 1921 - Electric Street cars were installed in Mesa.
January 12, 1883 - The Southern Pacific Railroad tracks were completed so that Tucson could be reached from the east coast by way of San Antonio.
January 13, 1929 - Wyatt Earp passed away at the age of 81.
January 14, 1889 - Arizona’s first Mormon academy was founded in St. Johns.
January 15, 2006 - Haile Gebrselassie set a half-marathon world record during the Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon in Tempe.
January 16, 1900 - The Gila Valley Bank, a predecessor of the Valley National Bank, opened its doors in Solomonville.
January 17, 1877 - Governor Anson P.K. Safford signed the bill moving the Territorial capitol from Tucson to Prescott.
January 18, 1952 - The Great Seal of the Navajo Tribe was adopted by the Tribal Council.
January 19, 2020 - The Arizona Historical Society hosted a pop-up museum at Dillinger Days in Tucson. It featured Dillinger Gang itema, including the bulletproof vest Dillinger wore at the time of his capture.
January 20, 1912 - Delegates representing every labor organization met in Phoenix and formed the Arizona State Federation of Labor.
January 21, 1877 - Allen’s Camp, Ariz. changed its name to St. Joseph.
January 22, 1864 - John Goodwin arrived at Fort Whipple, where he and selected officials set up the first temporary capital for the Arizona Territory.
January 23, 1916 - A levee broke and covered the city of Yuma with 4 feet of water.
January 24, 1917 - A revolt broke out in the Arizona National Guard encampment at Naco.
January 25, 1934 - Notorious bank-robber John Dillinger was captured with three others by the Tucson Police
January 26, 1878 - Phoenix's first newspaper, the Salt River Herald, began publication.
January 27, 1947 - Crown Prince Amir Saud of Saudi Arabia toured the Salt River Valley to get ideas for the agricultural development of his own country.
January 28, 1996 - The Super Bowl was played for the first time in Arizona in Tempe.
January 29, 1949 - Operation Haylift began on the Navajo Reservation as a result of a blizzard which left 35 inches of snow in the northwestern part of the reservation.
January 30, 1947 - Joaquin Lopez became the first Papago Indian to be ordained a minister in the Protestant church.
January 31, 1890 - Empire Ranch started driving 1,000 head of cattle to California to escape excessive freight rates.

February

February 1, 2007 - The Pioneer and Military Memorial Park in Phoenix was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The park encompasses seven historic cemeteries founded in 1884 and serves as the final resting place for various notable pioneers of Arizona.
February 2, 1848 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican-American War. This treaty resulted in Mexico ceding a vast portion of its northern territories to the United States, including present-day Arizona
February 3, 1915 - The town of Casa Grande gained formal incorporation, advancing infrastructure and governance in Pinal County.
February 4, 1889 - The Arizona Territorial Legislature designated Phoenix as the permanent capital of the territory, moving it from Prescott.
February 5, 1911 - The construction of Roosevelt Dam is completed.
February 6, 1899 - Henry Fountain Ashurst introduced House Bill 41. This bill led to the creation of the Northern Arizona Normal School in Flagstaff, which is now known as Northern Arizona University (NAU).
February 7, 1877 - The Arizona Territorial Legislature officially incorporated Tucson as a city.
February 8, 1881 - Gila County is created from parts of Maricopa and Pinal Counties.
February 9, 1884 - The Society of Arizona Pioneers was organized, which later became the Arizona Historical Society, dedicated to preserving the state's history
February 10, 1957 - Hadji Ali arrived in the United States with a shipload of camels destined to open the first wagon road along the 35th parallel across Arizona.
February 11, 1821 - J. Ross Browne was born in Dublin, Ireland. He later became an influential writer and artist, documenting his extensive travels in the American Southwest, including Arizona.
February 12, 1871 - Maricopa County is broken out of Yavapai County, with Phoenix becoming the county seat.
February 13, 1896 - Fifty armed men gathered at Bowie, Arizona, to prevent the entry of prizefighters from Texas after a federal law was passed banning prizefights.
February 14, 1912 – Arizona became the 48th state in the United States.
February 15, 1922 - Colonel John C. Greenway of Bisbee, Arizona, miner and well-known former Rough Rider, was appointed general in the United States Army Reserve Corps on this date in 1922.
February 16, 1913 - The first train to serve Fort Huachuca arrived at the fort.
February 17,1908 - Ellen Lynn was appointed the first woman mail carrier in Tucson. She covered her route in a horse and buggy.
February 18, 1930 - Astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh made an incredible discovery at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff: Pluto! This marked a huge milestone in space exploration, as Pluto became the ninth planet in our solar system (though it was later reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006).
February 19, 1904 - Burt Alvord, Cochise County outlaw, was wounded and captured near Naco, Arizona. He spent two years in the Yuma Territorial Prison.
February 20 ,1863 - Congress passed a bill making Arizona a separate territory of the United States.
February 21, 1925 - Tucson's first rodeo and rodeo parade were held.
February 22, 1825 - John Baptiste Salpointe, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Arizona, was born.
February 23, 1540 - Francisco Vasquez de Coronado set out on an expedition from Mexico. It was the first to explore what is now Arizona, and his men were the first Europeans to visit the Hopi Villages and to see the Grand Canyon.
February 24, 1864 - Territorial Governor John Noble Goodwin kicked off the first Arizona Territorial Census. According to the results of the census, Arizona had 4,573 residents.
February 25, 1881 - The city of Phoenix was incorporated.
February 26, 1919 - Grand Canyon National Park is created
February 27, 1998 - The Arizona Diamondbacks played their first-ever Spring Training game.
February 28, 1859 - The first Indian reservation in Arizona was established on the Gila River.
February 29, 1948 - Greyhound announced it would build a new bus station in Downtown Phoenix.

March

February

March

March 1, 1933 - The Saguaro Cactus Forest outside Tucson was set aside as a National Monument by President Herbert Hoover.
March 2, 1914 - The first electric lights were turned on in Safford.
March 3, 1865 - The Colorado River Indian Reservation was established for the Hualupai, Yavapai, and other tribes by the Colorado River.
March 4, 1930 - Calvin Coolidge dedicated the Coolidge Dam on the Gila River near Globe, Arizona.
March 5, 1918 - The town of Miami was incorporated.
March 6, 1923 - The record of appeal in the case of the Iron Cap Copper Company against the Arizona Commercial Mining Co. was delivered to Superior Court. The record weighed more than 1,000 pounds and was delivered by an express company.
March 7, 1922 - Revealed that Tucson city firemen would be outfitted in new uniforms of olive drab with black ties and brass buttons bearing the letter F.
March 8, 1899 - The town of Jerome was incorporated.
March 9, 1978 – The Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, a gathering place in front of the Arizona state capitol complex, was established in Phoenix.
March 10, 1934 - Governor Benjamin Moeur sent two detachments of the Arizona National Guard to patrol the banks of the Colorado River, where California had begun work on Parker Dam.
March 11, 1966 - Civil rights demonstrators in Tucson protested the visit of Sheriff James Clark from Selma, Alabama.
March 12, 1913 – The building of Sabino Canyon Dam got underway.
March 13, 1913 - The First Battle of Nogales began. About 25 houses in Arizona were struck by bullets and the U.S. Fifth Cavalry was positioned around Nogales ready for defensive action.
March 14, 1911 - The Phoenix Women's Club Building had its polished native granite cornerstone placed at First Avenue and Bennett Lane. It marked a significant turn in the city's architectural and social history.
March 15, 1899 - Phoenix held an international tug of war contest.
March 16, 1906 - A fire caused $4,000 in damage to the Arizona Journal newspaper office in Lowell.
March 17, 1936 - Clouds from the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma covered the state. It cut visibility to a half-mile in Tucson and left a yellow haze over Phoenix.
March 18, 1901 - Morgan Earp was killed from an ambush in Hatch’s Billiard Parlor in Tombstone.
March 19, 1873 - A Tucson army camp was moved to a site on Rillito Creek where a permanent post was built and named Fort Lowell.
March 20, 1882 - The first gas lights were lit in Tucson. Crowds gathered in the street as it marked an early step in the development of artificial lighting in the city.
March 21, 1895 - Navajo County was officially created.
March 22, 1907 - The Territorial Legislature moved the Territorial Prison from Yuma to Florence.
March 23, 1877 - John D. Lee was executed for his participation in the Mountain Meadows massacre. He was seated upon his coffin and shot by a firing squad at the site of the massacre.
March 24, 1926 - The Clifton-Springerville highway through Apache National Forest opened, paving the way for growth in Arizona's lumber industry.
March 25, 1901 - Prospectors discovered gold about four miles from Wickenburg, sparking a rush of miners to the Hassayampa River.
March 26, 1996 - The federal government initiated a week-long controlled flood from Glen Canyon Dam, sending powerful surges of Colorado River water downstream through the Grand Canyon in an unprecedented effort to restore vital ecological processes disrupted by dam operations.
March 27, 1883 - James Addison Reavis filed a claim to the richest land, towns, and mines in Arizona. The tale of the Grant later proved to be fraudulent.
March 28, 1886 - Albert Buehman, noted early Arizona photographer, was born.
March 29, 1885 - Geronimo and 20 of his warriors escaped from U.S. troops.
March 30, 1890 - Fire destroyed an entire business block in Flagstaff.
March 31, 1997 - The University of Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball team wins the state’s first ever NCAA basketball championship.

April

March

April 1, 1942 - The Desert Training Center, formed by General George S. Patton, is created.
April 2, 1919 - The first car ever started to climb Sentinel Peak in Tucson. The headlights were left on to prove the feat and the car was parked on the peak for two days so people could climb up and see it.
April 3, 1927 - The Horse Mesa Dam and Power Plant went into operation.
April 4, 1988 - Rose Mofford became Arizona’s first woman governor following the removal of Gov. Evan Mecham.
April 5, 1899 - The town of Thatcher was incorporated.
April 6, 1967 - Old Tucson Studios completed sets for a new TV series "High Chaparral." The series about an Arizona Territory rancher in the 1870s was filmed primarily at Old Tucson Studios and aired from 1967-1971.
April 7, 1970 - A significant fire erupted at the Southern Pacific Ice House in Tucson. The blaze was so intense that it took firefighters 26 hours to fully extinguish.
April 8, 1920 - The Arizona Livestock Commission warned of a looming blackleg disease outbreak, potentially costing stockmen over $1 million.
April 9, 1943 - Sharlot Hall, a Prescott historian known as Arizona’s poet-laureate, passed away.
April 10, 1874 - A patent was issued to Judge John T. Alsap by President Ulysses S. Grant for the original Phoenix townsite, 320 acres costing $550 per acre, including expenses.
April 11, 1903 - A.H. Reynolds visited Benson for the purpose of establishing experimental tobacco farms in the San Pedro Valley
April 12, 1902 - The Village of Yuma was incorporated as a town. It became a city in 1914.
April 13, 1917 - The town of Florence turned on its first electric street lights.
April 14, 1928 - American and Mexican firefighters in Nogales joined efforts to save the famous Nogales Brewery, but the building was completely destroyed by the fire.
April 15, 1862- The westernmost battle of the American Civil War involving fatalities took place at the Battle of Picacho Pass.
April 16, 1915 - Melting snow in the White Mountains caused floods which took out two dams near St. Johns.
April 17, 1911 - Sarah Bernhardt performed at the Tucson Opera House.
April 18, 1924 - The Chiricahua National Monument was established.
April 19, 1884 - Henry Chee Dodge was appointed head Chief of the Navajo Tribe.
April 20, 1825 - Charles D. Poston, “Father of Arizona,” was born.
April 21, 1928 - Maricopa and Pima counties battled over their boundaries before the State Supreme Court.
April 22, 1920 - Prominent society and club women started a boycott on potatoes to protest the price. Housewives in Phoenix were asked to support the boycott and tell five friends to do the same.
April 23, 1919 – U.S. Marshals conducted raids on two underground stills located in abandoned mining shafts near Jerome. These operations were part of the broader efforts to enforce Prohibition laws during that era.
April 24, 1880 - St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson opened by the Sisters of St. Joseph.
April 25, 1854 - The US Senate officially ratified the Gadsden Purchase, expanding U.S. territory to include parts of what is now southern Arizona.
April 26, 1901 - Notorious Arizona outlaw Black Jack Ketchum was hanged.
April 27, 1898 - Arizonans enlisted in the Rough Riders for service in the Spanish-American War.
April 28, 1700 - Father Francisco Eusebio Kino wrote in his diary that work had begun on the foundations of the first church at San Xavier del Bac.
April 29, 1904 - The first meeting of the Arizona Automobile Association opened in Tucson with a parade.
April 30, 1927 - Mrs. William Henry Brophy gave $250,000 and 25 acres of land to build the Jesuit College in Phoenix.

May

April

June

May 1, 1880 - The Tombstone Epitaph was established by publisher John P. Clum.
May 2, 1873 - The first legal hanging in the state is said to have taken place across the street from a school in Yuma.
May 3, 1882 - President Chester A. Arthur warned Arizona that he would place it under martial law unless it showed more respect for law and order.
May 4, 1919 - Tucson boys from the 158th Infantry came home from France.
May 5, 1910 - Tucson citizens celebrated the opening of the Tucson-West Coast of Mexico Railroad.
May 6, 1903 - President Theodore Roosevelt made his first trip to the Grand Canyon.
May 7, 1872 - The first lawyers were admitted to practice law in Maricopa County.
May 8, 1927 - The U.S. Army held 38 Yaqui who fled across the U.S. border after a bloody battle with Mexican troops.
May 9, 1869 - Camp Hualapai was established as Camp Toll Gate. The camp was established in the Aztec Mountains overlooking Walnut Creek
May 10, 1872 - The Tully-Ochoa wagon train was attacked in Canyon del Oro. Five men were killed and many more wounded, mules were stolen, and the wagons burned.
May 11, 1910 - Work began on the north-south territorial highway out of Prescott.
May 12, 1897 - Ed Schiefflin, who discovered the Tombstone silver mines, passed away.
May 13, 1929 - Barney Oldfield, famous racing driver, hit a road scraper on the highway near Winslow and his car overturned.
May 14, 1884 - The first Arizona Industrial Exposition was held in Phoenix.
May 15, 1922 - Arizona's last train robbery took place on the Southern Pacific line at Jayne’s Station near Tucson.
May 16, 1929 - High winds knocked the new Somerton Junior High school under construction at Somerton down.
May 17, 1910 - A carload of wild broncos was shipped from Phoenix to New York where they could be ridden at the New York Hippodrome by rodeo rider Bert Bryan.
May 18, 1929 - Federal Engineer H.J. Gault arrived in Yuma to begin the final survey of the All-American Canal.
May 19, 1892 - A stage coach line was established between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.
May 20, 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, aimed to promote the settlement of the American West.
May 21, 1954 - Dean Byron Cummings, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Arizona and Director of the Arizona State Museum, passed away.
May 22, 1925 - Citizens of Bisbee formed the Bisbee Volunteer Forest Fire Fighting Corps.
May 23, 1919 - Secretary of the Arizona Livestock Board reported that Cochise County was swarming with cattle rustlers.
May 24, 1869 - John Wesley Powell and his party began their historic exploration of the Colorado River.
May 25, 1892 - The Arizona Medical Association was organized in Phoenix. It was incorporated in 1950.
May 26, 1894 - Flagstaff was incorporated.
May 27, 1910 - After sitting idle in the Cababi Mountains for many years, it was announced that Picacho Mine was to reopen.
May 28, 1910 - The Pima County Board of Supervisors offered $500 for the arrest and conviction of the killers of stage line operator and rancher Oscar Buckalew.
May 29, 1873 - A troop of the 5th Cavalry established a camp on the San Carlos River near Gila. It became the headquarters for the military government of the San Carlos Indian Agency.
May 30, 1864 - A group of residents along Granite Creek met and established the town of Prescott, named after historian William Hickling Prescott.
May 31, 1910 - The Maricopa Reservation was quarantined because of an outbreak of whooping cough and measles.

June

April

June

June 1, 1906 - The mule drawn street car made its last run to the gates of University of Arizona beside the electric car which had gone into operation just five days before.
June 2, 1930 - Radio station KTAR brought the first national broadcast network to Arizona through its affiliation with NBC.
June 3, 1996 - Record high temperatures were reported in Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff and Wilcox.
June 4, 1871 - General George Crook assumed command of the Department of Arizona.
June 5, 1871 - Armijo, one of the principal chiefs of the Navajo Nation, passed away.
June 6, 1903 - Gov. Brodie ordered the Arizona Rangers to Morenci and Clifton where miners were striking.
June 7, 1890 - Mine fuel tanks at Pearce exploded, destroying the mill and setting part of the town on fire.
June 8, 1880 - An executive order reserved lands for the Havasupai Reservation.
June 9, 1932 - The Franciscan Order again occupied residence quarters in San Xavier Mission after an absence of 104 years.
June 10, 1903 - After two hours of torrential rain, eleven people were known drowned and many others were missing in Clifton.
June 11, 1876 - The Chiricahua Apache were moved from their reservation in Cochise County to San Carlos.
June 12, 1904 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported notable success with cotton planted as an experiment in the Yuma valley.
June 13, 1862 - Sylvester Mowry’s silver mine at Patagonia was confiscated and Mowry was arrested on charges of being a Confederate sympathizer.
June 14, 1929 - Six thousand people gather for the formal dedication of the Marble Canyon Bridge across the Colorado River.
June 15, 1868 - First post office in Phoenix is established.
June 16, 1913 - The establishment of an aviation school in Phoenix, the first in the Southwest, was announced.
June 17, 1913 - Farmers in the Upper Gila Valley went to the Supreme Court to prevent copper mines from polluting streams in the area and won their case.
June 18, 1879 - The first ice plant in Arizona went into production. S.D. Lount established his factory in Phoenix. He made his deliveries on a homemade wheelbarrow.
June 19, 1926 - A dedication of the Coronado Trail Highway was held at Hannagan Meadows.
June 20, 1910 - The Phoenix Arizona Republican announced a boom in auto sales as one company sold three machines in a single week.
June 21, 1860 - The original Baca Float Grants were made by act of Congress.
June 22, 1892 - Casa Grande Reservation is created by President Benjamin Harrison. The first prehistoric and cultural reserve in the United States.
June 23, 1881 - A fire broke out in Tombstone when a barrel of whiskey exploded in a saloon. The ensuing blaze destroyed a significant portion of the town's business district.
June 24, 1874 - The first woman Postmistress in Arizona was appointed at Walnut in Yavapai County.
June 25, 1895 - The Peralta-Reavis claims to 12,750,000 acres of land in Arizona and New Mexico were declared fraudulent by the U.S. District Court in Santa Fe.
June 26, 1869 - Leopoldo Carrillo opened Arizona’s first commercial ice cream saloon in Tucson.
June 27, 1881 - 30,000 pounds of gunpowder exploded in Zeckendorf’s powder magazine at the edge of Tucson.
June 28, 1888 - The Phoenix Herald announced the arrival of 16 ostriches, delivered to M.E. Clanton who was establishing a local ostrich farm.
June 29, 1994 - The hottest day ever recorded in Arizona occurred when the temperature at Lake Havasu soared to 128 degrees Fahrenheit.
June 30, 1910 - It was announced that the 21,938-acre abandoned military reservation of Camp Bowie would be sold at an auction by the U.S. Government.

July

September

August

July 1, 1876 - The Territorial Prison was built in Yuma, becoming the first prison in Arizona.
July 2, 1908 - The Coconino National Forest was created from parts of Black Mesa, Tonto and Grand Canyon Forest Reserves.
July 3, 1887 - The first railroad line to Phoenix began operation. Crowds gathered at the depot as the first engine pulled into town with three little girls ringing the bell.
July 4, 1888 - The beginning of professional rodeo took place in Prescott in Forbing Park. Prescott Frontier Days is officially the home of the “World’s Oldest Rodeo.”
July 5, 2011 - One of the biggest haboobs (sandstorms) hit Phoenix, measuring about a mile high and stretching about 100 miles.
July 6, 1900 - Warren Earp, youngest of the Earp brothers, was shot to death in the Headquarters Saloon in Willcox.
July 7, 1923 - The first meeting of the Navajo Tribal Council was held.
July 8, 1930 - The Arizona Supreme Court upheld the right of Cochise County to move the county seat from Tombstone to Bisbee.
July 9, 1901 - The city of Williams was incorporated.
July 10, 1917 - Two cattle cars were loaded with IWW members and strikers and removed from Jerome.
July 11, 1958 - Monument Valley Tribal Park, the first park established on the Navajo reservation, was established.
July 12, 1832 - William Kirkland, who is said to have raised the first American flag in Tucson in 1855, was born.
July 13, 1903 - Three miles from Fort Grant, at the town of Bonita, men from different troops of the 14th Cavalry became involved in a fight with revolvers, carbines, knives and sling shots. One hundred shots were fired, a house was wrecked, and one man died.
July 14, 1882 - Johnny Ringo was found shot to death in Turkey Creek Canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains.
July 15, 1883 - The city of Mesa was incorporated.
July 16, 1935 - The city of Phoenix purchases Sky Harbor Airport, which has been run by the city ever since.
July 17, 1781 - Father Francisco Garces was killed at his mission near Yuma.
July 18, 1864 - Charles D. Poston was elected Arizona’s first territorial delegate.
July 19, 1932 - Governor Hunt asked Congress for $45,000,000 in federal aid under a federal relief bill to help build more highways and employ more workers.
July 20, 1942 - Gila River War Relocation Center, an internment camp for Japanese-Americans opens southwest of Phoenix, on the Gila River Indian Reservation.
July 21, 1901 - Burton Mossman was named Captain of the Arizona Rangers and was authorized to raise a company of ten or twelve men to hunt cattle rustlers and other criminals.
July 22, 1893 - The city of Nogales was incorporated.
July 23, 1882 - The Mormon settlement of Tempe was founded after it purchased 80 acres of land.
July 24, 1896 - Globe was extensively damaged by flood.
July 25, 1939 - Tuzigoot was made a national monument by Franklin D. Roosevelt.
July 26, 1919 - Tucson gave 82 acres of land to the War Department for use as an aviation field.
July 27, 2007 - Two news helicopters collide midair while covering a police chase in Phoenix.
July 28, 1899 - Tucson businessmen paid $1,000 toward the cost of a wagon road to Globe. The shortest road then in use took 48 hours to make the trip.
July 29, 1852 - Commodore Perry Owens, the famous longhaired sheriff from Holbrook was born.
July 30, 1921 - Gov. Thomas E. Campbell canceled the state fair to save taxpayers $90,000.
July 31, 1903 - The Prescott Journal Miner announced that the hanging of two murderers “was from a professional or official standpoint” a perfect success.

August

September

August

August 1, 2006 - The new home of the Arizona Cardinals, University of Phoenix Stadium, opens in Glendale.
August 2, 1905 - Unknown assassins fired into a group of Silverbell miners for no apparent reason.
August 3, 1918 - The Casa Grande Ruins became a national monument.
August 4, 1983 - Riordan Mansion State Historic Park in Flagstaff, is opened to the public.
August 5, 1917 - The 1st Arizona Regiment was drafted into the United States Army.
August 6, 1896 - The Black Jack Christian gang attempted to rob the International Bank of Nogales.
August 7, 1909 - Arthur Joseph Bayless, founder of the A.J. Bayless grocery stores, was born.
August 8, 1933 - Arizona became the 21st state to sanction the repeal of national prohibition in a landslide vote.
August 9, 1966 - Phoenix City Council unanimously approves the "Plan for the Phoenix Mountains", thereby creating the Phoenix Mountain Preserve.
August 10, 1867 - The United States Army established Fort Crittenden between Sonoita and Patagonia.
August 11, 1936 - The municipality of South Tucson was born as 87 citizens met and voted on incorporation.
August 12, 1883 - The Florence to Globe stage and the Prescott to Ash Fork stage were both held up on the same night.
August 13, 1875 - Prescott postmaster, James Giles, disappeared with all the post office funds.
August 14, 1904 - Tucson police began a series of raids to close down the city’s opium dens.
August 15, 1928 - Floods wiped out 30 houses and a bridge in Nogales.
August 16, 1936 - Tucson discovered that its new underpass on Stone Avenue became a lake after every heavy rain. The City Council named it Lake Elmira after Elmira Doakes, a Safford school student who was the first to swim in it.
August 17, 1898 - The Apache National Forest was established as Black Mesa National Forest.
August 18, 1969 - Workers at Tucson's El Presidio Garage site began assembly of a crane described as the "biggest of its type in Arizona."
August 19, 1875 - The Navajo seized the agency at Fort Defiance.
August 20, 1929 - Heavy rains washed cattle troughs, barnyard dirt, and red soil into Winslow’s reservoir. The water turned blue-green then red.
August 21, 1865 - Fort Mason was named after Gen. John S. Mason, military commander of Arizona Territory.
August 22, 1921 - Cave Creek flooded the entire west end of Phoenix. Two feet of water engulfed the State Capitol.
August 23, 1924 - Astronomers at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff speculated that the only water on Mars comes from melting snows on the polar caps.
August 24, 1928 - Ross Santee (cowboy, writer, and illustrator), who specialized in works set in Arizona, published the full-length, self-illustrated book, “Cowboy.”
August 25, 1886 - Lt. Charles B. Gatewood, with only two Apache scouts, entered an Apache camp and persuaded Geronimo to surrender.
August 26, 1893 - A Phoenix court reporter invented and applied for the patent on a center space bar to be operated by the thumb for typewriters.
August 27, 1929 - The airship Graf Zeppelin sailed over Tucson on its around-the-world journey. Citizens watched from their rooftops as the bells of St. Augustine Cathedral rung.
August 28, 1920 - Pancho Villa and his army surrendered their arms and ammunition.
August 29, 1912 - A new state law required that every owner of a motor vehicle pay $5 per year for a license.
August 30, 1913 - G.W. Caywood, returning from a cross-country auto trip, found the last leg of his journey from Phoenix to Tucson the most difficult.
August 31, 1902 - Thomas Rynning was sworn in as Captain of the Arizona Rangers.

September

September 1, 1932 - A fire on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon destroyed the main dining room and cottages.
September 2, 1929 - A new steel bridge was opened over the San Pedro River at St. David.
September 3, 1877 - Ed Schieffelin recorded his mining claim to land in Tombstone in the Territorial courthouse in Tucson.
September 4, 1924 - The first Arizona Indian cast his ballot under an act of Congress granting citizenship to American Indians.
September 5, 1872 - The first public school in Phoenix opened.
September 6, 1898 - A tornado took the roofs off of several homes in Casa Grande, causing one death.
September 7, 1865 - Camp McDowell was established.
September 8, 1886 - Geronimo and his band were assembled and marched from Fort Bowie to Bowie Station where they were loaded on trains bound for Florida.
September 9, 1899 - The Southern Pacific train was held up at Cochise. Two Cochise County law enforcement officers were later caught and convicted of the crime.
September 10, 1936 - Francisco Hernandez, a pioneer Tucson stone mason that helped build the old courthouse, the Carnegie Library, St. Joseph Academy, and the first structure at the University of Arizona, passed away.
September 11, 1899 - The doors of the Northern Arizona Normal School, now Northern Arizona University, opened for the first time.
September 12, 1893 - Cattlemen and farmers of Cochise and Graham counties were warned to go always be armed as the Apache Kid was believed to be in the area.
September 13, 1926 - The Tucson Landmarks Association acquired the site of the El Tiradito Wishing Shrine.
September 14, 1898 - The first carload of almonds form the Salt River Valley was shipped.
September 15, 1921 - Maricopa Hall, the largest dormitory for women on the University of Arizona campus was completed and ready for occupancy.
September 16, 1962 - Route 1, between Tuba City and Cortez, Colorado, was dedicated in concurrence with ceremonies celebrating the dedication of the Four Corners Monument.
September 17, 1927 - A contract was awarded for the construction of the U.S. Veterans' Hospital in Tucson.
September 18, 1929 - The first case of bubonic plague ever found in Arizona was reported in Yuma.
September 19, 1978 - A law established a government-to-government relationship between the United States and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.
September 20, 1935 - Copper mines boosted production and job rolls were increased by 6,000 workers.
September 21, 1929 - Valentine Perez, pioneer Yuma resident and one of the first employees of the Colorado River steamers, passed away.
September 22, 1921 - Ajo Road was designated by the U.S. government as a transcontinental military highway.
September 23, 1927 - Charles A. Lindbergh arrived in Tucson to dedicate the Tucson Municipal Airport.
September 24, 1931 - Louise Foucar Marshall, the first woman professor at the University of Arizona, was acquitted of murder charges in the shooting death of her husband.
September 25, 1868 - Arizona became a separate Roman Catholic Diocese under Bishop Jean Baptiste Salpointe.
September 26, 1986 - William Rehnquist of Phoenix is appointed chief justice of the U. S. Supreme Court.
September 27, 1929 - More than 200 horned toads were entered in a race to raise funds for the construction of a road to Mt. Lemmon.
September 28, 1874 - The Tucson Citizen announced the first cotton had been grown near Tucson.
September 29, 1928 - The Madonna of the Trail statue in Springerville was dedicated to honor the women who helped pioneer the West.
September 30, 1993 - Williams Air Force Base closes after 52 years of military service.

October

November

September

October 1, 1891 - The University of Arizona opened its doors for the first time.
October 2, 1849 - Cave Couts established Fort Calhoun overlooking the Yuma Crossing to protect emigrants heading for the California Gold Field.
October 3, 1907 - The Yuma police stopped all poker games in saloons in the city.
October 4, 1915 - George W. P. Hunt sent a small detachment of state guardsmen to Clifton to help the sheriff keep order among striking miners.
October 5, 1929 - Shirley Christy, founder of the Arizona School of Music, passed away.
October 6, 1906 - Fire destroyed the roundhouse and car shops of the Gila Valley, Globe, and Northern railroads.
October 7, 1929 - All court and law offices in Prescott were closed for the funeral of Judge J. Sweeney, Yavapai County’s first superior court judge.
October 8, 1878 - Southern Pacific Railroad received a charter from the Territory of Arizona and permission to cross the Military Reservation at Yuma.
October 9, 1898 - St. Michael's Mission, in a converted trading post building, was blessed and officially dedicated.
October 10, 1910 - The Constitutional Convention convened in Phoenix.
October 11, 1929 - Tucson's first skyscraper, the 11-story Consolidated National Bank Building, was opened.
October 12, 1929 - The University of Arizona dedicated its stadium.
October 13, 1934 - Five prisoners broke out of the Holbrook Jail, locked the deputy in a cell, and escaped in a stolen car.
October 14, 1908 - Fire destroyed part of Bisbee’s business district and left many homeless.
October 15, 1930 - The first airmail arrived in Tucson at 11 a.m. aboard a tri-motored Fokker.
October 16, 1929 - Tucson residents saw “icebergs” floating in the Santa Cruz River near San Xavier Mission. The driver of an ice wagon forgot to put up his tailgate while his team crossed the river, and the ice slid off.
October 17, 1929 - The completion of the U.S. Magnetic Observatory in Tucson was announced.
October 18, 1904 - The Salt River rose in the flood over the uncompleted Roosevelt Dam, submerging the working equipment.
October 19, 1922 - The first highway bridge over Lynx Creek in Prescott was opened.
October 20, 1870 - The town site of Phoenix was laid out.
October 21, 1927 - The Temple of Music and Art was dedicated in Tucson.
October 22, 1928 - Ranchers, cowboys, politicians, and other local citizens gathered at Sasabe to celebrate the opening of the road to Tucson.
October 23, 1927 - The University of Arizona dedicated its new library building and had 60,000 volumes in its stacks.
October 24, 1929 - The first Helldorado Celebration was held in Tombstone in honor of the town’s 50th birthday.
October 25, 1923 - Inspired by Harold Bell Wright’s book, “The Mine with the Iron Door,” a group of New Yorkers organized a $100,000 corporation to search for the lost mine in the Catalina Mountains.
October 26, 1881 - Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp, along with Doc Holliday, faced off against the Clantons and the McLowrys at the OK Corral.
October 27, 1929 - The remains of the famous Indian scout Pauline Weaver were reburied on the grounds of the old governor’s mansion after having been brought back from the national ceremony in San Francisco.
October 28, 1922 - Gen. John J. Pershing arrived in Arizona and reviewed the 25th Infantry.
October 29, 1924 - Federal prohibition agents fought a battle in the Huachuca Mountains with the guards of a train loaded with liquor.
October 30, 1876 - The Chiricahua Indian Reservation was restored to public domain.
October 31, 1909 - Navajo Chief Hashkeneinii passed away.

November

November 1, 1867 - Tucson became the capital of the Territory of Arizona.
November 2, 1919 - 16 of 37 automobiles participating in a race from El Paso to Phoenix arrived in Bisbee. Only six of them finally finished the race in Phoenix.
November 3, 1992 - Arizona voters pass Proposition 300, making Martin Luther King Jr. Day the only voter-approved King holiday in a state.
November 4, 2001 - The Arizona Diamondbacks rally to beat the New York Yankees 3-2 in Game 7 of the World Series and win their first title.
November 5, 1922 - 119,000 acres of Arizona land was ordered open for settlement by veterans.
November 6, 1936 - The forerunner of the Rodeo Cowboys Association, the Cowboys Turtle Association, was formed by 61 cowboys.
November 7, 1864 - The Arizona Historical Society was founded by an Act of the First Territorial Legislature.
November 8, 1887 - Gen. Nelson A. Miles visited Tucson to receive a hero’s welcome and a ceremonial sword worth $1,000 for having ended the Apache wars.
November 9, 1871 - The White Mountain and Fort Apache Indian Reservations were established.
November 10, 1945 - The Gila River War Relocation Center is officially closed.
November 11, 1898 - The first motion picture was shown in Tucson. It was the 14-round Fitzsimmons-Corbett fight and was shown at the Tucson Opera House.
November 12, 1923 - The cornerstone of the Mormon Temple at Mesa was laid.
November 13, 1903- The Arizona Banker’s Association was organized in Phoenix.
November 14, 1882 - Frank “Buckskin” Leslie shoots the Billy Claiborne dead in the streets of Tombstone, Arizona.
November 15, 1885 - Phelps-Dodge partners bought up competing mining claims in Bisbee, creating the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company.
November 16, 1945 - Davis Monthan Air Base was selected as the storage site for B-29s.
November 17, 1914 - An arsonist in Phoenix set seven fires in four days.
November 18, 1873 - The military telegraph between San Diego and Prescott was completed.
November 19, 1952 - The one-way downtown street system was adopted by the Tucson City Council.
November 20, 1899 - Pearl Hart, Arizona’s female bandit, that had committed one of the last recorded stagecoach robberies in the United States, was tried at Florence for robbery, convicted, and sentenced to five years in prison.
November 21, 1896 - The Phoenix Post Office moved into new quarters equipped with three windows: two for gentlemen and one for ladies.
November 22, 1929 - Four new horses were brought by the University of Arizona Military Department. The horses were intended to be used for polo playing along with their regular department duties.
November 23, 1923 - Prohibition agents poured 1000 gallons of captured liquor into the Salt River.
November 24, 1914 - Sidney R. DeLong, the first elected mayor of the city of Tucson, passed away.
November 25, 1926 - Southern Pacific trains from Tucson through Yaqui country in Mexico began operating on daylight schedules only and with Mexican military guards to protect them against attack.
November 26, 1932 - Benjamin B. Moeur, governor-elect, announced that he would set an example of sacrifice by cutting his salary to $1,500.
November 27, 1928 - Police were called to the State Capitol when Gov. George W.P. Hunt and Sen. Fred Colter engaged in a fist-fight while debating a Colorado River issue.
November 28, 1927 - Tucson became the terminal of the first daily air passenger service from Los Angeles to southern Arizona.
November 29, 1933 - The first commencement of nurses from the Sage Memorial School of Nursing on the Navajo Reservation took place.
November 30, 1915 - Walnut Canyon was made a National Monument.

December

November

December 1, 1924 - The city of Benson was incorporated.
December 2, 1927 - Arizona became the first state to regulate and control airplanes engaged in the commercial transportation of passengers and freight.
December 3, 1933 - 15,000 people attended an enormous barbecue in Paradise Valley to celebrate the receipt of a federal grant for the Verde River Project.
December 4, 1856 - The first Post Office to be opened in Arizona Territory was established at Fort Buchanan in the Sonoita Valley.
December 5, 1873 - A Telegraph Ball was held in Tucson to celebrate the completion of the first military telegraph to the town.
December 6, 1779 - The First Battle of Tucson took place.
December 7, 1875 - The first herd of sheep came into Arizona by way of Hardy’s Ferry across the Colorado River near the present site of Bullhead City.
December 8, 1906 - The Petrified Forest National Monument was established by President Theodore Roosevelt. It became a national park in 1962.
December 9, 1924 - Wapatki National Monument was established by President Calvin Coolidge.
December 10, 1880 - The first railway mail service in the territory was established between Tucson and Los Angeles.
December 11, 1915 - University of Arizona students built the huge letter “A” on Sentinel Peak in the Tucson Mountains.
December 12, 1929 - Federal prohibition agents arrested three bootleggers after a wild chase down Speedway Boulevard in Tucson.
December 13, 1936 - The highway over Hoover Dam was opened.
December 14, 1889 - A Tucson jury acquitted all the defendants in the Wham robbery case.
December 15, 1903 - Billy Stiles and Burt Alvord, convicted train robbers, broke out of the Tombstone jail and took 11 other prisoners with them.
December 16, 1938 - The first Navajo Tribal Fair was held at Window Rock.
December 17, 1920 - State leaders held a banquet in Phoenix and formed an Arizona unit of Boy Scouts.
December 18, 1933 - The building and plant of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson were destroyed by fire. The Star continued to publish at the Tucson Citizen plant.
December 19, 1907 - Tonto National Monument was created.
December 20, 1925- 1,200 boxes of dynamite exploded at the United Verde Copper mine causing damage to walls and windows in Jerome.
December 21, 1920- Educational circles were shocked when only five applicants were able to pass the teacher’s examination in Maricopa County and none could pass at all in Pima County.
December 22, 1941- An electric air raid siren was installed on a Sabino Canyon Road estate.
December 23, 1929- Bishop Daniel Gercke dedicated the bells of the little chapel at St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson.
December 24, 1915- The Phoenix Business Association opened a campaign to get Congress to buy land from Mexico on the Gulf of California so that Arizona could build a seaport.
December 25, 1929- Part of the U.S. border was moved two blocks north to include the big municipal Christmas tree in Nogales, AZ so that some 3,000 children living in Nogales, Sonora could come to the tree to receive gifts of candy, toys, and clothing.
December 26, 1864- The Supreme Court of the Territory of Arizona held its first session.
December 27, 1940- A construction program began at Tucson's municipal airport that included 128 buildings to house 3,000 U.S. Army Air Corps men.
December 28, 1881- Virgil Earp was shot in the back and crippled for life.
December 29, 1919- A fire broke out in the 96th Aero Squadron camp at Douglas and 250 aerial bombs exploded.
December 30, 1911- Federal Court sat for the last time in Tombstone.
December 31, 1914- Arizona saloons reported a rush of business as they prepared to close at midnight in compliance with the new Arizona law.

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