Sunday, April 5
On this date in 1898, the mining camp of Congress was destroyed by fire, resulting in two deaths and $50,000 worth of property damage.
On this date in 1899, the town of Thatcher was incorporated.
On this date in 1910, the Territorial Board of Control accepted bids and ordered construction of the Pioneers’ Home in Prescott.
On this date in 1919, a Victory Fair opened in Tucson to celebrate the end of World War I. A squadron of military airplanes flew from San Diego to present an aerial exhibition, and troops of the 10th Cavalry from Fort Huachuca marched in the parade.
Monday, April 6
On this date in 1916, Phoenix Union High School and Globe High School were the first in the state to be accepted by the North Central Association of Accredited Schools and Colleges.
On this date in 1920, the funeral of Robert N. Leatherwood was held. Leatherwood was a former mayor of Tucson and Pima County sheriff. He had helped locate mines in the Quijotoa District, operated a livery stable and planted peach and apple orchards in the Catalina Mountains.
On this date in 1920, Mexican strikers abandoned a freight train loaded with tomatoes 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Nogales, Mexico, and every truck in the twin towns was requisitioned to salvage the freight and unload it in Nogales, Arizona.
On this date in 1992, Donald Eugene Harding was executed by lethal gas at the state prison in Florence for the 1980 murders of two businessmen in Phoenix. Harding, 43, was the first person executed in the state since Manuel Silvas in 1976 and was the last to be executed while the gas chamber was the official execution method.
Tuesday, April 7
On this date in 1913, the State Board of Control ordered that Gov. George W.P. Hunt’s official car be taken from him and announced that he could pay his own transportation or walk just like everyone else.
On this date in 1920, The Arizona Daily Star announced that Lee Parker, trapper for the U.S. Biological Survey, had trapped seven mountain lions in the Canelo Hills near Patagonia. On that same day, another trapper shot four lions in the Catalina Mountains.
Wednesday, April 8
On this date in 1893, the governor of Arizona Territory commuted the sentences of two editors of Arizona newspapers, convicted of criminal libel, from five days at the Yuma state penitentiary to five days in the Pima County Jail.
On this date in 1910, farmers and stockmen of the Prescott area complained of packs of wild dogs killing livestock. The dogs were said to be descendants of domestic dogs which had run away to live in the mountains around Prescott with the wolves, and were very large and vicious.
On this date in 1914, four troopers of the U.S. 9th Cavalry were wounded on American soil by wild bullets as Sonora state troops and Mexican Federals fought for possession of Naco.
On this date in 1920, the Arizona Livestock Commission warned that stockmen faced a possible loss of more than $1 million unless the disease of blackleg could be brought under control promptly.
Thursday, April 9
On this date in 1910, Frank Aley, a mineralogist, humorist and writer, known by the pen name of “Mescal,” died at Calumet Hospital in Douglas. He had apparently been fatally injured in a fall from a horse.
On this day in 1920, several people were injured and a number of buildings were damaged or destroyed when the powder magazine at the United Verde Mine at Jerome exploded.
On this day in 1926, a tornado ripped through a 20-foot (6-meter) strip of east Phoenix, leveling six homes.
On this day in 1943, Sharlot Hall, a Prescott historian knows as Arizona’s poet-laureate, died.
Friday, April 10
On this date in 1845, Gen. George J. Roskruge, who served four terms as Pima County surveyor and three terms as Tucson city engineer and who was unanimously elected the first president of the Association of Civil Engineers of Arizona, was born.
On this date in 1903, Mason Greenlee, pioneer from Kentucky for whom Greenlee County is named, died.
On this date in 1904, Sister Euphrasia, one of five sisters who came to Tucson in 1871 from St. Louis to establish the academy of St. Joseph, died.
On this date in 1907, the Western Federation of Miners attempted to organize and strike the mines at Bisbee without success.
Saturday, April 11
On this date in 1903, A.H. Reynolds visited Benson to look into establishing experimental tobacco farms in the San Pedro Valley.
On this date in 1910, it was announced that Phoenix contractor R. Toohey had been given the contract for construction of the Globe-Roosevelt Highway.
On this date in 1919, Dr. Merrill P. Freeman, pioneer Tucson banker, member of the Board of Regents and Arizona historian, died.
On this date in 1938, Dr. Andrew E. Douglass, noted developer of the tree-ring dating technique, retired as director of the Steward Observatory.
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