According to ehangzhou, Arizona is a state in the southwestern United States, bordering New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and California, and has an international border with the states of Sonora and Baja California in Mexico. The name of the state is believed to come from the Native American word arizonac, which means “the place by the small spring”. Arizona is also called the Grand Canyon State. Arizona’s motto is Ditat Deus (English God Enriches, or in Danish: God Enriches ).
100 FVT-1500 EVT – The Hohokam culture lived in the area where Tucson and Phoenix are located today.
700-1200 – The Pueblo people lived in the countryside and the city of Hopi was founded.
1539 – Father Marcos de Niza, explorer in search of the seven golden cities of Cibola, explores Arizona north of Sonora, declaring the site Spanish property.
1540 – Francisco Coronado also explores the area in search of Cibola.
1692 – The Jesuit order arrives in Arizona and founds a Spanish Catholic mission church about 10 miles [16 km] south of Tucson on the San Xavier Indian Reservation, later in 1700.
1752 – Tubac becomes the first permanent settlement in Arizona.
1821 – All of Arizona is ruled by Mexico.
1846-48 – Mexico-America War begins.
1862 – Confederate troops occupy Tucson ; Chief Cochise and Apacher Indians attacked soldiers at the Apache Pass.
1863 – Arizona Territory is founded by Congress, with Prescott as its capital.
1864 – European immigrants discover some very well-preserved rock buildings near the city of Camp Verde, set up to protect them from the Yavapai and Apache Indians whose land they occupy. The rock building dates from around the year 700, built by the Sinagua people. They named them after Montezuma (actually Moctezuma ) II the Aztec emperor (of Mexico ). The Europeans mistakenly believed that the emperor had a connection to the construction of the buildings.
1869 – John Wesley Powell, later known for being the first to classify the language of the Native Americans, explored the Grand Canyon in a boat along the Colorado River.
1881 – The first railroad tracks cross the state.
On October 26, 1881, the shooting duel at OK Corral took place in Tombstone. The episode subsequently became part of the myth of the Wild West, and it has been described in a large number of westerns and books ever since.
1886 – The Apache chief Geronimo finally surrenders and the Native American wars end.
1889 – Phoenix becomes the capital. At the same time, it is today the state’s largest city with 1.3 million residents, making the city the 6th largest in the United States. Including the entire Phoenix metropolitan area, the population reaches 3.3 million.
1911 – The large dam project named after President Theodore Roosevelt is finally completed.
1912 – Arizona was the US ‘s 48th state on Valentines Day, February 14.
1919 – Grand Canyon National Park is established.
1930 – The dwarf planet Pluto is discovered by astronomers at the Lowell Observatory.
1936 – The Hoover Dam is completed. The dam was originally named Hoover Dam after President Herbert Hoover, later it was renamed Boulder Dam, but in 1947 the dam got its old name back.
1948 – Native Arizona Indians are granted the right to vote.
1968 – London Bridge is sold and moved from England to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, to save Robert McGulloch’s chainsaw factory and the city. The bridge became the city’s attraction and the second largest tourist attraction in Arizona after the Grand Canyon.
2002 – Forest fires in June sweep through half a dozen cities, forcing 25,000 residents to flee. See pictures here.
2007 – Arizona Senator John McCain announces his candidacy for president. The following year, he won the nomination as a candidate for the presidency.
2009 – Two people die and 19 others are taken to hospital after an accident in a sweat lodge at a spiritual growth center in Sedona. ( Angel Valley )
2011 – Politician Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head on January 8 during a political rally in front of a supermarket in her hometown of Tucson and was seriously injured. Several others were also injured in the episode; six of them deadly. Jared Lee Loughner was arrested at the scene and charged with attempted murder and was described by the Pima County Sheriff as being “mentally unbalanced”. Giffords was in a medical coma after the shooting.