Sunday, Oct. 23
On this date in 1775, the expedition under command of Juan Bautista de Anza left Tubac to open a land route to California.
On this date in 1863, General Orders No. 27, dated at Santa Fe, New Mexico established a new military department called the District of Northern Arizona.
On this date in 1882, seven notorious criminals escaped from the Pima County Jail in Tucson.
On this date in 1907, newspapers announced there had been six murders in Graham County in one month.
On this date in 1919, the city of Tucson placed cigar boxes on street corners as depositories for contributions to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Fund, and Col. James McClintock, noted Arizona historian, complained about “undignified methods.”
On this date in 1920, Ralph Cameron, candidate for Congress, suggested that the Colorado River Indian Reservation be given to ex-servicemen.
On this date in 1921, cattle rustling became so common in the Salt River Valley that cattlemen decided to “shoot (rustlers) where they stood and leave them where they fall.”
On this date in 1927, thousands gathered in Mesa to attend four-day ceremonies dedicating the new Mormon temple.
On this date in 1927, the University of Arizona dedicated its new $450,000 library building and boasted of the 60,000 volumes in its stacks.
On this date in 1933, Jack Smith, Coconino County pioneer and last surviving Civil War veteran in Flagstaff, died at the age of 85. A spring in the San Francisco Mountains, which provided the main water supply for Flagstaff, was named for him.
Monday, Oct. 24
On this date in 1831, the Buena Vista Land Grant, 18,640 acres in Santa Cruz County, was given to Dona Josefa Morales.
On this date in 1925, people from the Fox Moving Picture Corporation arrived at Fort Huachuca to film a Western movie. One hundred San Carlos Apache Indians and cavalrymen from the fort were to take part in the filming of “The Thoroughbred.”
On this date in 1929, Jerry W. Sullivan, 86, pioneer rancher of Yavapai County, died. Sullivan had arrived in Arizona in 1867.
On this date in 1929, the first Helldorado Celebration was held in Tombstone in honor of the town’s 50th birthday. The weather was very cold, and many visitors were stranded in Bisbee in a blinding snowstorm. The municipal power plant in Tombstone failed on the first night of Helldorado, plunging the town into total darkness.
Tuesday, Oct. 25
On this date in 1848, the 1st Dragoons reached Tucson en route to California.
On this date in 1871, Sylvester Mowry, owner of the Mowry Mine in Patagonia and one of Arizona’s earliest and most enthusiastic boosters, died.
On this date in 1923, a group of New Yorkers, inspired by Harold Bell Wright’s book, “The Mine with the Iron Door,” organized a $100,000 corporation to search for the lost mine in the Catalina Mountains.
On this date in 1928, the Federal Land Office said it would begin to distribute 69,000 acres of land near Yuma to veterans who wished to build a home.
Wednesday, Oct. 26
On this date in 1880, the Arizona Gazette, later renamed the Phoenix Gazette, was established at Phoenix.
On this date in 1881, Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp, with Doc Holliday, fought it out at the OK Corral with the Clantons and the McLowrys. Three men were killed and two were wounded in less than a minute.
On this date in 1925, the first school of aviation opened in Tucson with Clifford Maus as instructor.
Thursday, Oct. 27
On this date in 1870, Sharlot Hall, writer and historian and founder of the Sharlot Hall Museum in the Old Governor’s Mansion at Prescott, which she had helped preserve and restore, was born.
On this date in 1887, ground was broken in Tucson for the University of Arizona.
On this date in 1922, funeral services were held for James Cooper Goodwin - legislator in the 19th Territorial and Second and Third State Legislatures, former Rough Rider, promoter of canals and railroads in the Mesa-Tempe area, and of farming and mining ventures.
On this date in 1929, in an impressive ceremony in Prescott, 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.
Friday, Oct. 28
On this date in 1896, the Phoenix City Council decided to levy a fine of $50 or a sentence of 50 days in jail for riding a bicycle faster than 8 mph on the city streets.
On this date in 1922, Gen. John J. Pershing arrived in Arizona and reviewed the 25th Infantry at Camp Stephen D. Little near Nogales, and the 10th Cavalry at Fort Huachuca.
On this date in 1933, Arizona officially switched from hanging to the gas chamber as the means of execution.
Saturday, Oct. 29
On this date in 1922, fire destroyed the pool hall, old stage office, justice building, a restaurant, grocery, dry goods store and barber shop in Winkelman. Two other buildings were dynamited to prevent the spread of flames.
On this date in 1924, federal prohibition agents fought a battle in the Huachuca Mountains with the guards of a pack train loaded with liquor.
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