1539 Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan priest, entered what is now Arizona.
1540 Coronado led a Spanish expedition into the region.

1692 Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit priest, began missionary work in the Santa Cruz and San Pedro valleys.

1776 Tucson was founded as a fort.

1821 Arizona became part of Mexico.
1848 Following the Mexican War, Mexico ceded to the United States an area including most of what is now Arizona.
1853 The Gadsden Purchase, which added territory to Arizona, was signed by the United States and Mexico.
1861-1872 Apache Indians led by Cochise and others terrorized white settlers in Arizona.
1863 Congress created the Arizona Territory.

1912 Arizona became the 48th state on February 14.
1936 Hoover Dam was completed.
1948 Arizona Indians received the right to vote.

1963 The Supreme Court of the United States gave Arizona rights to large amounts of Colorado River water.
1965 Arizona Judge Lorna Lockwood became the first woman chief justice of a state supreme court.
1969 Navajo Community College at Tsaile, near Lukachukai, became the first college ever built on an Indian reservation.

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Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
Eusebio Francisco Kino
Mexico
Mexican War
Gadsden Purchase

This page was last updated on 02/19/2011.