Sunday, June 11
On this date in 1822, Abraham Harlow Peeples, who came to Arizona in 1863 and with Pauline Weaver organized the prospecting expedition which discovered the Rich Hill gold placers, was born.
On this date in 1868, philanthropist and civic leader Maie Bartlett Heard was born. She later endowed the Heard Museum in Phoenix, donated land for the Phoenix Civic Center, founded the Welfare League and gave a gymnasium to the Phoenix YMCA.
On this date in 1876, the Chiricahua Apaches were moved from their reservation in Cochise County to San Carlos.
On this date in 1928, more than 1,000 acres of timberland were destroyed in the Ajo Mountains by a raging forest fire.
Monday, June 12
On this date in 1888, an Apache Indian who had fired one shot that killed two men was tried for murder in one of the deaths and acquitted. He later was tried again for the murder of the second man and convicted on precisely the same set of facts.
On this date in 1904, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported noteworthy success with cotton planted in the Yuma valley as an experiment.
On this date in 1930, Tucson celebrated the opening of its greatly enlarged municipal airport.
On this date in 1936, fire destroyed a service station, cafe and several tourist cabins at Salome. Exploding gasoline tanks from the burning service station threatened to spread the blaze over the entire town.
Tuesday, June 13
On this date in 1862, Sylvester Mowry’s silver mine at Patagonia was confiscated and Mowry was arrested on charges of being a Confederate sympathizer.
On this date in 1901, the first commencement exercises were held at Northern Arizona Normal School with class of four graduates.
On this date in 1908, 2,000 residents of the Salt River Valley watched as Gov. Joseph H. Kibbey pulled the lever which raised gates on the newly completed Granite Reef Dam.
On this date in 1913, Thomas E. Farish, author and mining engineer, was appointed state historian.
Wednesday, June 14
On this date in 1879, an executive order set aside the Salt River Indian Reservation for Pima and Maricopa Indians.
On this date in 1909, artist Ettore “Ted” DeGrazia was born in Morenci.
On this date in 1928, two sections of the west end of the new Blythe-Ehrenberg bridge over the Colorado River were washed out by high water.
On this date in 1929, 6,000 people gathered for the formal dedication of the Marble Canyon Bridge across the Colorado River.
Thursday, June 15
On this date in 1869, the Phoenix Post Office was established.
On this date in 1899, John B. “Pie” Allen died in Tucson. Allen was elected to three terms in the Arizona Legislature and served as territorial treasurer from 1867 to 1872.
On this date in 1965, James Mitchell Barney, Arizona historian and nephew of Col. James Barney who owned the Silver King Mine, died.
Friday, June 16
On this date in 1888, the entire downtown section of Holbrook was destroyed by a fire that originated in a wool warehouse. The town was quickly rebuilt, however, with even larger and more substantial buildings.
On this date in 1896, the new electric plant at the Yuma Territorial Prison was destroyed by fire.
On this date in 1910, the Tucson Fire Department’s horse drawn wagons raced through city streets at 9 p.m. in response to an alarm. Suddenly a man appeared in the middle of the street waving a red lantern. The drivers veered to one side, and learned later they had barely avoided plunging into a 6-foot ditch which had been dug across the street for a sewer line.
On this date in 1913, the establishment of an aviation school in Phoenix, the first in the Southwest, was announced. The school’s instructor, Jacques Neyvatte, guaranteed to make students expert fliers in six weeks.
On this date in 1988, Gov. Evan Mecham and his brother, Willard, were acquitted of criminal charges of concealing a $350,000 campaign loan. The acquittal came two months after Mecham was removed from office by a State senate conviction in an impeachment trial on charges of obstruction of justice and misuse of state funds.
Saturday, June 17
On this date in 1913, farmers in the Upper Gila Valley went to the Supreme Court to prevent copper mines from polluting streams in the area. They won their case.
On this date in 1917, the Rev. John H. Clifford in a sermon delivered at the First Baptist Church in Tucson, charged that the Pima County Jail was a “seminary of vice and corruption, a hotbed of brutality, a breeder of disease - in fact, a very inferno of all that is horrible and revolting.”
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