Sunday, May 2
On this date in 1872, two earthquake shocks were felt in Yuma at 5:45 p.m.
On this date in 1873, the first legal hanging in the state is said to have taken place across the street from a school in Yuma. The teacher, not wanting her students to witness the hanging, dismissed classes for the day.
On this date in 1878, the first issue of the Arizona Silver Belt was published at Globe City which contained an editorial suggesting the word “city” be dropped from the town’s name.
On this date in 1913, a gold nugget weighing 29 ounces (0.8 kilogram) and worth over $500 was brought in to Tucson by a man who had found it on the ground after a hard rain.
On this date in 1932, John Clum, Apache Indian agent, Mayor of Tombstone and editor of the Tombstone Epitaph, died at age 80.
Monday, May 3
On this date in 1882, President Chester A. Arthur warned Arizona that he would place it under martial law unless it showed more respect for law and order. The warning was directed chiefly at Cochise County.
On this date in 1910, Harold Steinfeld, born and educated in Tucson, was made assistant general manager of Macy’s Department Store in New York.
On this date in 1913, two motorcycles set a speed record for the Tucson-Nogales run. Their total time was three hours and five minutes.
Tuesday, May 4
On this date in 1887, a heavy earthquake hit most of the state at 2:12 p.m. In Tucson the few two-story buildings swayed threateningly, clocks were stopped and entire mountain sides in the Catalinas gave way with great clouds of dust visible for days afterward. Volcanoes were reported in the Dragoon Mountains and other mountain ranges.
On this date in 1897, the Tucson chief of police asked the city council for a horse and saddle or a buggy for patrolling the town, but his request was refused because it would cost $12 a month to feed the horse.
On this date in 1898, the Arizona Column of the Rough Riders left Prescott for Cuba amidst the greatest demonstration in that city’s history.
On this date in 1919, Tucson soldiers from the 158th Infantry came home from France.
On this date in 1929, the largest single land deal in the history of Yuma County to that date was consummated with the sale of 30,000 acres (121 square kilometers) of land in the San Christobal Valley to a California syndicate for the purpose of growing dates, citrus fruits and pecans.
Wednesday, May 5
On this date in 1910, Tucson citizens celebrated the opening of the Tucson-West Coast of Mexico Railroad.
On this date in 1917, the Arizona Legislature appropriated funds to purchase the old governor’s mansion at Prescott with the provision that the property should be used as a museum.
On this date in 1929, a company with main offices is Tulsa, Oklahoma, took over 79 mining claims in Chloride, Arizona. The combined mining claims had a shipping record of over a million dollars in copper, silver, lead and gold.
Thursday, May 6
On this date in 1896, the Bisbee Daily Review newspaper was established.
On this date in 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt made his first trip to the Grand Canyon.
On this date in 1908, the federal government ordered all river steamers to be equipped with fog bells, including those that travel on the Colorado River where there are no fogs. River Capt. Jack Mellon said the order would be followed, but said, “it’s a good deal like ordering snow plows attached to all trains on the Yuma-Tucson” division of the Southern Pacific.
On this date in 1909, Richard Sloan, Arizona Supreme Court Justice, became the last Territorial Governor.
Friday, May 7
Sunday, May 7
On this date in 1872, the first lawyers were admitted to practice law in Maricopa County.
On this date in 1913, Fred Maish, once a mayor of Tucson and wealthy cattleman of the Maish and Driscoll Cattle Co., died alone in an old adobe shack in Tucson at nearly 80 years of age.
On this date in 1916, the Yuma Game Warden reported that civil war in Mexico was scaring big game across the international line into the Yuma and Mohave Mountains.
Saturday, May 8
On this date in 1913, U.S. deputy marshals seized a Curtiss biplane which was being shipped from Tucson to Nogales in five wooden crates loaded on a flat bed wagon. The owners of the plane claimed they intended to use it for experimental purposes, but U.S. officials suspected it was being smuggled into Mexico to aid Sonoran troops in the revolution against the Mexican government.
On this date in 1920, a huge supply of machine gun ammunition intended for Mexican Revolutionists was shipped from Tucson to Nogales in coffins, but the shipment was tracked to an undertaking parlor and seized by the U.S. Marshals service.
On this date in 1929, the town of Buckeye was incorporated. It had originally been called Sidney, but the name was changed to Buckeye because most of the early settlers came from Ohio.
On this date in 1929, Constable Pickens of Mesa demonstrated a high degree of civic pride when he testified in a court case that Mesa moonshine whiskey was of much better quality than that of Gilbert.
On this date in 1950, Alexander John Chandler, the first veterinary surgeon for the territory of Arizona and the man for whom the city of Chandler is named, died.
On this date in 2013, a jury finds Jodi Arias guilty of first degree-murder in the 2008 killing of Travis Alexander at his suburban Phoenix home.
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