Timeline Arizona
Return to home
State site: http://www.state.az.us/
Facts: http://www.governor.state.az.us/kids/facts.html
Ariz.Local History Net.: http://www.usgennet.org/~alhnazus/index.html
Ariz. Arch. Council: http://www.doitnow.com/~cerci/AAC/webpage.htm
Arizona is about the same size as Italy.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, Par p.27)
The state flower is the white budding of the saguaro cactus; the state
amphibian is the Arizona tree frog; the state neckwear is the bolo tie.
(WSJ, 3/11/98, p.A1)
The Arizona story began when the sea covered
everything
and the land was an ocean floor. As the water receded and the earth's
crust
began to dry and settle, volcanoes spouted hot lava, mountain ranges
were
pushed high into the air, remaining water became rivers and streams
cutting
deep canyons, and some areas became so dry, deserts were formed. This
process
of land formation took millions of years, and when the earth ceased its
restlessness, in Arizona it left a pattern of great variety and
contrast.
The southwest corner of the state became desert, with craggy,
barren mountains rising abruptly from its level floor; while in the
southeast
corner rolling hills with sparse vegetation and the "Wonderland of
Rocks"
developed. Sweeping from the eastern border and curving northward
through
the center of Arizona a cool, green mountain and valley wonderland was
formed. Its altitudes, varying from 2,000 to 8,000 feet, are sharply
cut
by the Mogollon Rim, a sheer cliff extending for more than 200 miles
and
itself rising to heights of 7,500 feet. Here lakes and streams were
formed
and the greatest stand of Ponderosa Pine in the nation grew.
Above the Rim, near Flagstaff, a part of the earth was pushed
up to a height of 12,670 feet to form San Francisco Peaks, the highest
elevation in the state. It is snow-clad most of the year. In the
northeast
corner a vast desert-like plateau emerged. Millions of years ago its
edge
to the south was a part of a vast forest. Through the ages it was
buried
under volcanic ash, waters, sand and mud and then uncovered again to
become
today's petrified forest, with fallen trees now turned to multi-colored
stone.
To the west of Navajo land the elements seem to have made a
last furious fling and left the Colorado River flowing a mile deep
through
the rainbow-hued Grand Canyon. Humans lived in this area 20,000 years
ago.
Traces of early agricultural civilizations are found throughout the
state.
High, almost inaccessible cliff dwellings still stand in silent
evidence
of another prehistoric race.
Even the vast irrigation system surrounding Arizona's capital
city, Phoenix, follows ancient patterns of canals used to irrigate the
HoHokam farmlands with water from the Gila and Salt Rivers. From tree
ring
studies, we know that from 1276 to 1299 A.D. there was a great drought
which ended the prehistoric civilization. When Columbus discovered
America,
Arizona was inhabited by ancestors of present day Indians.
The written history of Arizona began when the Spaniards sent
exploration parties northward from Mexico. The first was a Franciscan
priest
named Marcos de Niza, who entered the territory in 1539. Other Spanish
missionaries followed to establish missions to bring Christianity to
the
Indians. Tumacacori Mission, north of Nogales, was founded by Padre
Kino
at the center of an Indian settlement. Padre Kino also laid the
foundations
for San Xavier del Bac Mission on the outskirts of today's Tucson.
(Time, 1990s Almanac)
2Bil BC The Grand Canyon floor was
formed. Joseph Wood Krutch in 1957 wrote his book “Grand Canyon: Today
and All Its Yesterdays.” In 1998 Stephen J. Pyne wrote: “How the Canyon
Became Grand.”
(SFEC, 10/4/98, BR p.12)
6Mil BC-5Mil BC The carving of the Grand Canyon
dramatically accelerated during this period. By modern times it
stretched 277-miles, 18 miles at its widest point, with depths up to
6,000 feet. In 2008 evidence suggested that the canyon could be 17
million years old.
(SFC, 3/7/08, p.A6)
2.8Mil BC Volcanic eruptions in the area of
Flagstaff, Arizona, began building a 16,000-foot volcano. It later
became known as the San Francisco Mountain and in 2006 stood at
12,643-feet.
(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.G4)
250Mil-200Mil The Chinle Formation of sedimentary
rock was laid down by rivers in much of New Mexico and Arizona during
this period. In 2007 scientists reported that fossil bones found in the
Chinle Formation indicated that dinosaurs and their early relatives
lived side by side for millions of years before the relatives died off
leaving dinosaurs to dominate.
(SFC, 7/20/07, p.A4)
190Mil BC In 2008 scientists discovered numerous
dinosaur footprints dating to this time at the Vermilion Cliffs
National Monument along the Utah and Arizona state border.
(SFC, 10/22/08, p.A4)
1.25 Mill-250,000BC Over this period there were 13 major periods of
eruption by volcanoes in the Grand Canyon with more than 150 lava flows
into the canyon. These are described in the 1997 book “Late Cenozoic
Lava Dams in the Western Grand Canyon,” by W.K. Hamblin.
(NH, 9/97, p.37,39)
1 Million BP A Grand Canyon lava dam created a lake
larger than Lake Mead and Lake Powell combined. It extended from
Toroweap Canyon back through Lake Powell to beyond Moab, Utah-- a
distance of more than 400 miles.
(NH, 9/97, p.39)
740000BC The Red Mountain cinder cone at Flagstaff,
Arizona, dated to this time.
(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.G4)
50000BC Arizona’s Barringer Crater was created about
this time by a meteor. Named after mining engineer Daniel Barringer, it
measures 3/4 of a mile wide and 640 feet deep and is suspected to have
resulted from a meteor of about 100 feet in diameter. An iron meteor
100 feet in diameter and weighing about 60,000 tons crashed into the
desert at about 45,000 miles per hour near Winslow, Az. A crater 4,000
feet wide and 570 feet deep was created. 85% of it melted and the rest
broke into bits called Canyon Diablo meteorites.
(SFC, 7/2/99, p.A7)(www.barringercrater.com/science/)
8000BC About this time Vulcan’s Throne was formed
from a volcanic eruption near the rim of the inner gorge of the Grand
Canyon over Toroweap Canyon, Az.
(NH, 9/97, p.40)
8000BC In 2007 workers digging at the future site of
a Wal-Mart store in suburban Mesa, Az., unearthed the bones of a
prehistoric camel that's estimated to be about 10,000 years old.
(AP, 4/28/07)
1690BCE A kernel of corn was found in 1997 in the
McKuen Cave in Eastern Arizona that dated to this time.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, Z1 p.2)
c1,000BCE Irrigation canals were made in the Tucson
basin.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, Z1 p.2)
c800BCE Large villages with dome-shaped "pit houses"
were constructed in the American southwest and the inhabitants made
plainware pottery bowls.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, Z1 p.2)
c200-1450 The Hohokam people lived in the area of
Tucson.
(SSFC, 3/31/02, p.C6)
c300-1300 The Anasazis inhabited the Canyon de Chelly
and the Canyon del Muerto in northeast Arizona over this period.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, p.T8)
c500-1100 The Sinagua people lived in the area of
Sunset Crater.
(AM, 3/04, p.48)
c1000 The Sinagua Indians made
granaries in the cliffs along the Verde River some 100 miles north of
Phoenix.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.T6)
1040-1100 Eruptions at Sunset Crater, Az., are
believed to have lasted over this period.
(NH, 6/97, p.56)(AM, 3/04, p.50)
1040-1275 As many as 12 families occupied the White
House of Canyon de Chelly.
(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.T10)
1100 A volcano erupted about this
time in the area of Flagstaff, Arizona.
(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.G4)
1100-1300 About this period volcanic ash and molten
rock sprayed the area of the Wupatki Basin near Flagstaff, Arizona for
as long as 200 years.
(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.G5)
1125 Sinaguan people built a
5-story limestone dwelling, later known as Montezuma Castle, near
Sedona, Az.
(SSFC, 7/6/03, p.C9)
1130-1150 Tree growth rings revealed that a drought
occurred in the southwest US. This period corresponded with the
abandonment of Anasazi dwelling sites in Arizona.
(Hem., 5/97, p.79)
1540 Aug 25, Explorer Hernando de
Alarcon traveled up the Colorado River.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1540 Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, a
Spanish conquistador, became the first European to know the Colorado
and the Grand Canyon.
(NG, 5.1988, Mem Forum)(SFEC, 10/4/98, BR p.12)
1691 Father Eusebio Kino founded
the Tumacacori mission 45 miles south of Tucson.
(SSFC, 3/31/02, p.C6)
1776 Spanish explorers encountered
the native Havasupai Indians in Arizona.
(SSFC, 2/19/06, p.F4)
1846 Dec 11, A herd of wild cattle
stampeded the rear companies of the Mormon Battalion near Tombstone,
Arizona. As a result of what came to be known as the Battle of the
Bulls, approximately 12 bulls were killed, two mules were gored, and
three men were wounded, including future California governor,
Lieutenant George Stoneman.
(HNQ, 2/12/02)
1847 Miners of Don Miguel Peralta
discovered gold about this time in the Superstition Mountains of
Arizona. His family abandoned the claim after their mining party was
massacred by Apache Indians.
(AHHT, 10/02, p.16)(AH, 10/02,
p.16)(www.ghostradiox.com/qfg/legend_peralta.asp)
1848 May 30, Mexico ratified the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo giving US: New Mexico, California and parts
of Nevada, Utah, Arizona & Colorado in return for $15 million.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1848 Mexico was forced to sell
most of the territory that is now Arizona to the United States
following its defeat in the Mexican-American war.
(AP, 5/20/10)
c1850s The immigrant Oatman family
was ambushed by the Mohave Indians near the Colorado River.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T8)
1852 The Hopi people of northern
Arizona arranged for a diplomatic packet to reach Pres. Fillmore via a
delegation of 5 prominent men from the Tewas of Tesuque Pueblo in New
Mexico, who sought legal protection from Anglo and Hispanic settlers.
(NH, 11/1/04, p.26)
1853 Dec 30, The United States
bought some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as
the Gadsden Purchase. It included parts of Arizona and New Mexico
(29,640 sq. miles) south of the Gila River. The purchase was ratified
by Congress on April 25, 1854.
(AWAM, Dec. 94, p.31)(HFA, ‘96, p.28)(AHD,
p.537)(AP, 12/30/97)
1857 Army Lt. Joseph Ives surveyed
the Grand Canyon with “wondering delight,” but concluded that it was
“altogether valueless.” His chief scientist John Strong Newberry
declared that it was a geological paradise.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, BR p.12)
1861 Mar 16, Arizona Territory
voted to leave the Union.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1862 Jan 18, Confederate Territory
of Arizona formed.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1863 Feb 24, Arizona was organized
as a territory.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1864-1865 Army Col. Kit Carson, directed by Brig.
Gen. James Carleton, forced the move of some 9,000 Dineh Navajo from
Canyon de Chelly in Arizona to the Bosque Redondo reservation near Fort
Sumner, New Mexico. About half the people survived in what came to be
known as the Long Walk. In 2006 Hampton sides authored “Blood and
Thunder: An epic of the American West,” an account of the Navaho move.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A26)(SFEC, 5/4/97, z1 p.4)(SSFC,
1/7/01, p.T9)(WSJ, 10/7/06, p.P12)
1868 Navaho Indians living under
confinement near Fort Sumner, New Mexico, were allowed to return to
their homelands in Arizona following a visit by Gen. William Tecumseh
Sherman. Some 7,100 survivors of the 1864 Long Walk had been released
onto a New Mexico reservation of 5,500 acres. The Navajo returned to
Hopi land where 3.5 million acres, 1/6th of their former homeland, was
returned.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A26)(SFEC, 5/4/97, z1 p.4)(WSJ,
10/7/06, p.P12)
1869 May 24, John Wesley Powell
departed Green River City, Wyoming, with 9 men on an expedition to
explore the canyons of the Green and Colorado River. Over 3 years he
led two expeditions to explore the Grand Canyon. Three members of the
first expedition were killed, reportedly by Indians. His written
account was suspected to be inflated if not fictitious. A 1997 novel by
Oakley Hall, “Separations,” depicted the events.
(HFA, ‘96, p.127)(SFC, 4/23/97, p.D5)(ON, 5/02, p.1)
1870s-1880s Clarence E. Dutton, Army engineer,
surveyed the Colorado Plateau and wrote his “Tertiary History of the
Grand Canyon District.”
(SFEC, 10/4/98, BR p.12)
1871 Apr 30, Apaches in Arizona
surrendered to white and Mexican adventurers; 144 died.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1871 Sep, John Wesley Powell began
a 2nd expedition to survey the Grand Canyon, this time with a
congressional grant of $10,000.
(ON, 5/02, p.5)
1872 Oct 12, Apache (Chiricahua)
leader Cochise signed a peace treaty with General O.O. Howard in
Arizona Territory.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1872 Dec 28, A U.S. Army force
defeated a group of Apache warriors at Salt River Canyon, Arizona
Territory, with 57 Indians killed but only one soldier.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1874 Jun
8, Cochise (b.~1810), Chiricahua Apache war chief (his name meant “his
nose”) and leader of the Chokonen band, died on a reservation in the
Dragoon Mountains in southeastern Arizona.
(http://tinyurl.com/aqhkr)
1878 Tombstone’s Boothill
was laid out as a burial plot and was originally called the Tombstone
Cemetery. On that rocky hill at the edge of town lie many of the
legendary characters of the "Town Too Tough To Die." The Clantons,
McLaurys and other legendary Western figures were buried in Tombstone’s
cemetery. During the wild and lawless years of the settling of the
West, some sort of graveyard could be found near almost every town or
camp. Because many of the people in those settlements died rather
quickly and unexpectedly, usually with their boots on, and were buried
with their boots still on, these cemeteries became known as "boot
hills."
(HNQ, 4/28/01)
1879 Nov 29, Wyatt Earp arrived in
Tombstone, AZ.
(MesWP)
1880 Jan, Morgan Earp arrived in
Tombstone.
(MesWP)
1880 Summer, Doc Holliday arrived
in Tombstone.
(MesWP)
1880 Jul 27, Wyatt Earp was
appointed Pima County Deputy Sheriff.
(MesWP)
1880 David King Udall (1851-1938),
while living in Nephi, Utah, was called to be the Mormon bishop in St.
Johns, Arizona, a small and primarily Hispanic Catholic community.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_King_Udall)
1880 Daniel Mooney, a prospector,
plunged to his death and gave his name to Mooney Falls in Havasu
Canyon, Arizona.
(SSFC, 2/19/06, p.F4)
1881 Feb 5, Phoenix, Ariz., was
incorporated.
(AP, 2/5/97)
1881 Jul 4, Virgil Earp was town
sheriff of Tombstone by this time.
(MesWP)
1881 Oct 26, Wyatt Earp, his two
brothers and “Doc” Holliday showed up at the OK Corral in Tombstone,
Arizona, to disarm the Clanton and McLaury boys, who were in violation
of a ban on carrying guns in the city limits: "Gunfight at the O.K.
Corral." Billy Clanton and Tom and Frank McLowery were killed; Earp’s
brothers were wounded. This was the notorious “Showdown at the OK
Corral.” In 1992 the “Encyclopedia of Western Lawmen and Outlaws” by
Jay Robert Nash was published. In 1999 Allan Barra published "Inventing
Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends."
(SFC, 8/19/96, p.A3)(AP, 10/26/97)(SFEC, 6/14/98,
p.T6)(SFEC, 1/17/99, BR p.5)
1881 Nov 7, Wyatt Earp and Doc
Holliday, two participants in Tombstone, Arizona’s, famous Gunfight at
the O.K. Corral, were jailed as the hearings on what happened in the
fight grew near.
(HN, 11/7/98)
1881 Dec 1, Virgil, Wyatt and
Morgan Earp were exonerated in court for their action in the Gunfight
at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1881 Dec 28, Virgil Earp was
ambushed by Cowboys and shot twice.
(MesWP)
1881 The only recorded
19th-century incident in which Indian scouts turned against the U.S.
Army occurred at Cibicue Creek in Arizona Territory. At Cibicue Creek,
White Mountain Apache scouts were asked to campaign against their own
kin, resulting in a mutiny against the army soldiers. Three of the
mutinous scouts were later court-martialed and executed.
(HNQ, 2/27/99)
1882 Mar 18, Morgan Earp was
gunned down while playing pool.
(MesWP)
1882 Jul 14, Johnny Ringo, a fast
draw gunman, was found dead in Tombstone.
(SFC, 4/22/00, p.E3)
1882 The US government confined
the Havasupai Indians to a 518-acre reservation in Havasu Canyon,
Arizona.
(SSFC, 2/19/06, p.F4)
1883 James Addison Reavis (d.1914)
began to press a claim to some 12 million acres of Arizona. He held an
alleged document from Ferdinand VI that assigned the land to a nobleman
named Peralta in 1748. In 1896 Reavis was convicted of conspiring to
commit fraud.
(AH, 4/01, p.20)
1884 David King Udall, the Mormon
bishop in St. Johns, Arizona, was indicted on charges of unlawful
cohabitation. He was never convicted, because his second wife lived in
another town, and prosecutors could not locate her to compel testimony
against him.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_King_Udall)
1885 John Wesley Powell named
Sunset Crater, a 100-foot volcano 15 miles northeast of Flagstaff, Az.
(AM, 3/04, p.46)
1886 Apr 11, General Nelson A.
Miles arrived at Fort Bowie, Ariz., to begin his assignment to
subjugate or destroy a band of Apaches led by Geronimo.
(ON, 10/06, p.1)
1886 Apr 27, A band of Apaches led
by Geronimo attacked a ranch west of Fort Huachuca and killed 3
American citizens.
(ON, 10/06, p.1)
1886 Sep 4, Elusive Apache leader
Geronimo (1829-1909) surrendered to General Nelson A. Miles (1839-1925)
at Skeleton Canyon, Ariz. This ended the last major US-Indian war.
(HN, 9/4/98)(ON, 10/06, p.4)
1887 Charles Lux died. His firm,
Miller and Lux, by this time owned some 700,000 head of cattle in
Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Over 700 miles of private telegraph lines
connected their ranches.
(SSF, 1976, p.2)
1888 Jul 4, Many believe that the
first rodeo in America was held in Prescott, Arizona, on this day.
Before this, informal competitions were frequently held among ranch
hands from a single ranch or from neighboring spreads, but they were
not full-scale rodeos. The Prescott event went on to become an annual
contest.
(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1889 May 11, Major Joseph
Washington Wham took charge of $28,000 in gold and silver to pay troops
at various points in the Arizona Territory. The money was soon stolen
in a train robbery.
(HN, 5/11/99)
1890 Jul 13, John C. "Pathfinder"
Fremont (76), US explorer, governor (Ariz), died. He was buried in
obscurity in Sparkill, NY. Fremont (b.1830) was the 1st Republican
presidential candidate in 1856. In 1999 David Roberts authored "A Newer
World: Kit Carson, John C. Freemont and the Claiming of the American
West." In 2002 Tom Chaffin authored “Pathfinder: John Charles Fremont
and the Course of American Empire.” In 2007 Sally Denton authored
“Passion and Principle: John and Jessie Fremont, the Couple Whose
Power, Politics and Love Shaped Nineteenth-Century America.”
(WUD, 1994, p.567)(SFEC, 2/13/00, BR p.5)(SSFC,
12/22/02, p.M1)(SSFC, 7/1/07, p.M1)
1891-1899 During this period the Hopi of Arizona
began to produce silver jewelry. A man named Sikyatala learned
silversmithing from a Zuni man.
(NH, 11/1/04, p.30)
1892 The settlement of Goldfield,
Arizona, got its start when low grade gold ore was found in the area
between the Superstition Mountains and the Goldfield Mounts. Low-grade
or not, a town soon sprang up and on October 7, 1893 it received its
first official post office.
(Econ, 4/17/10,
p.34)(www.goldfieldghosttown.com/history.html)
1892 Barbed wire that fenced the
west at this time is on display at Oracle Junction, Arizona, and
includes Curtis 4 Point.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.173)
1894 Percival Lowell (1855-1916),
American astronomer, built a private observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona
and commenced a decade long series of observations with emphasis on
Mars. He "confirmed" water filled canals and proclaimed Mars the home
of an advanced civilization.
(Smith., 8/95, p.72)(SFC, 11/29/96,
p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Lowell)
1897 May 19, Frank Luke Jr.
(d.1918), WW I ace fighter, was born in Phoenix.
(AH, 6/02, p.18)
1902 Sedona, Arizona, was founded.
It was named after Sedona Schnebly, the daughter of one of the 1st
settlers, wealthy landowner T. Carl Schnebly and his wife.
(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.C6)
1904 Oct, 1, Forty orphans (aged
2-6), shipped west in the company of nuns by a New York Foundling
Hospital, arrived at the copper mining towns of Clifton and Morenci.
Anglo townspeople opposed their adoption by Mexican American citizens,
terrorized the adopting families and took some of the children for
themselves. In 1999 Linda Gordon authored "The Great Arizona Orphan
Abduction."
(SFEC, 1/9/00, Par p.6)
1906 The town of Oatman in the
western Black Mountains was founded.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T8)
1906 Pres. Theodore Roosevelt
stood at the rim of the Grand Canyon. He descended to the bottom in
1908 and declared it a national monument.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, BR p.12)
1908 Jan 11, The Grand Canyon
National Monument was created with a proclamation by President Theodore
Roosevelt. It became a national park in 1919.
(AP, 1/11/08)
1909 Jan 1, Barry Goldwater
(d.1998) was born in Phoenix, son of Baron and Josephine Goldwater. His
grandfather was an immigrant Polish peddler and founder of the
Goldwater department store chain.
(SFC, 5/30/98, p.A3)
1911 Feb 6, 1st old-age home
opened in Prescott, Ariz.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1911 Mar 18, Theodore Roosevelt
opened the Roosevelt Dam in Phoenix, Ariz., the largest dam in the U.S.
to date.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1911 Aug 22, President William
Taft vetoed a joint resolution of Congress granting statehood to
Arizona. Taft vetoed the resolution because he believed a
provision in the state constitution authorizing the recall of judges
was a blow at the independence of the judiciary. The offending clause
was removed an Arizona was admitted to statehood on February 14, 1912.
Afterward, the state restored the article in its constitution.
(HNQ, 11/21/99)
1912 Feb 14, Arizona became the
48th state of the Union, the final area of the continental United
States to attain statehood.
(AP, 2/14/98)(AP, 5/20/10)
1912 Nov 4, Arizona and Kansas
granted women the right to vote. Wisconsin voted against suffrage for
women.
(HN,
11/5/98)(http://library.wisc.edu/etext/WIReader/WER0124-12.html)
1915 Miners near Oatman struck a
vein of gold that led to a $10 million haul.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T8)
1918 Sep 12, Lt. Frank Luke Jr.
destroyed a German balloon. Over the next 6 days he destroyed 9 more
and earned the name “the Arizona Balloon Buster.”
(AH, 6/02, p.18)
1918 Sep 29, Lt. Frank Luke Jr.
(1897-1918) against orders destroyed 3 German balloons and downed 2
pursuing fighters in a final flight of vengeance for the loss of his
wingman Lt. Joseph Wehner. Luke received a posthumous medal of honor.
(AH, 6/02, p.18)
1919 Feb 26, Congress established
Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.17)(AP, 2/26/98)
1922 Jun 15, Morris “Mo” Udall
(d.1998), U.S. Congressman from Arizona (1961-1991), was born in St.
Johns, Az. He was one of 6 children in a pioneer Mormon family and was
instrumental in investigating the Mai Lai Massacre in Vietnam and later
sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976.
(HN, 6/15/99)(SFC, 12/14/98, p.A5)
1922 The Colorado River Compact
allocated 7.5 million acre-feet of water from the upper basin states
(Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico) to be delivered to the lower
basin sates (California, Arizona and Nevada) plus the rights to divert
another 1 million acre-feet from the river’s lower tributaries.
(SFEC, 8/24/97, p.A10)(SFCM, 7/17/05, p.6)
1923 Aug 5, Richard Kleindienst
(d.2000), who became the attorney general under Pres. Nixon, was born
near Winslow.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D9)
1923 Pedro Guerrero started a
Phoenix tamale stand that grew to become Rosarita Mexican Foods. The
Mesa plant was closed in 1999 by ConAgra.
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.C3)
1927 Mar 31, Cesar Chavez
(d.1993), California union leader of agricultural workers (United Farm
Workers), was born in Yuma, Az.
(SFEC,10/19/97, p.C3)(SFC, 3/29/00, p.A3)(MC,
3/31/02)
1927 The 4-story Monte Vista Hotel
was built in Flagstaff, Arizona.
(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.G4)
1929 Nov 30, Joan Ganz Cooney,
television executive, was born in Phoenix, Az. She founded the
Children's Television Workshop and was the mastermind behind “Sesame
Street.”
(HN, 11/30/00)(MC, 11/30/01)
1929 The Arizona Biltmore opened.
It was designed by Albert McArthur and Frank Lloyd Wright. McArthur, an
apprentice of Wright, was declared by Wright in 1930 as the architect
of record.
(SFEM, 4/19/98, p.24)
1930 Feb 18, Planet X (Pluto), the
ninth planet of our solar system, was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh
(1907-1997) at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. It is 2.76
billion miles (5,888 million km.) from the sun at the closest point of
its orbit. Pluto was later designated a "dwarf planet."
(SFEC, 1/19/97, p.B6)(SFC, 10/23/99, p.B7)(AP,
2/18/07)
1930 Mar 13, The Lowell
Observatory in Arizona announced Clyde Tombaugh’s Feb 18 discovery of a
new planet, later named Pluto.
(HN, 3/13/98)(NH, 6/03, p.20)
1934 Jan 22, In Tucson, Arizona, a
fire broke out at the Hotel Congress, where members of the Dillinger
gang were staying. Firefighters salvaged baggage belonging to the gang
and the next day one of the firefighters spotted one the gang’s mug
shots in an issue of True Detective magazine. Within a few days 5
members of the Dillinger gang were arrested including John Dillinger
and girlfriend Evelyn Frechette. In 2009 Elliot Gorn authored
“Dillinger’s Wild Ride: The Year That Made America’s Public Enemy
Number One.”
(SFC, 7/1/09, p.E3)
1934 The Arizona governor called
out the state militia and navy (2 ferryboats) to halt California’s
construction of the Colorado River Aqueduct. It took an act of Congress
and a Supreme Court decision to get the project restarted.
(SFC, 5/26/00, p.A5)
1936 Sep 11, President Roosevelt
dedicated Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) by pressing a key in Washington
to signal the startup of the dam’s first hydroelectric generator in
Nevada. The Dam was completed ahead of schedule. It was the first and
most important link in a chain of dams, canals and aqueducts built to
harness the Colorado River. The colossal mass of concrete is wedged
into Black Canyon on the Arizona-Nevada border, 32 miles SE of Las
Vegas. Paul L. Wattis, headed the construction company that built
Boulder Dam.
(AP, 9/11/97)(HNQ, 4/3/02)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A22)
1936 Nov 2, Rose Elizabeth
Bird (d.1999), future California Supreme Court Justice, was born on a
chicken farm in Arizona.
(www.law.stanford.edu/library/wlhbp/articles/RoseBird120699.htm)
1937 Frank Lloyd Wright arrived
with his apprentices from their Wisconsin headquarters. He purchased an
800-acre tract for $3.50 an acre at Mariposa Mesa and began
construction of Taliesin West.
(SFEM, 4/19/98, p.21-23)
1939 Mar 28, Clark Gable (d.1960)
and Carol Lombard (d.1942) stayed at the Oatman Hotel for their
honeymoon.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T8)
1939 Mar 29, Clark Gable (38)
married Carole Lombard (29) in Arizona while filming “Gone With the
Wind.”
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.47)
1940 The population of Mesa,
Arizona, was about 7,000. this roughly doubled in each of the next 5
decades and by 2008 Mesa numbered almost half a million residents.
(Econ, 12/6/08, p.42)
1943 Donkeys began to roam free in
the Black Mountains after the gold mines closed down.
(SSFC, 6/17/01, p.T8)
1946 Jul 15, Linda Ronstadt
(singer: group: The Stone Poneys: Different Drum; solo: Blue Bayou,
You're No Good, When Will I Be Loved, It's So Easy, Ooh Baby Baby, Hurt
So Bad; actress: Pirates of Penzance), was born in Tucson, Arizona.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Ronstadt)
1947 May 25, Jessi Colter [Miriam
Johnson], country singer (I'm Not Lisa), was born in Phoenix.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1948 The Baptist Foundation of
Arizona was created by the Southern Baptist Convention to manage
endowment funds for charities. In 1999 fund losses were estimated at
$100 million on assets of $483 million.
(WSJ, 9/1/99, p.C1)
1949 Barry Goldwater was elected
to the Phoenix City Council as part of a group committed to cleaning up
prostitution and gambling.
(SFC, 5/30/98, p.A1)
1952 Barry Goldwater upset
Democratic Senator Ernest McFarland by a 6,000 vote margin and won his
first term in the Senate.
(SFC, 5/30/98, p.A3)
1953 In Colorado City, Arizona, a
mass police raid against members of the Fundamentalist Church of the
Latter Day Saints (FLDS) led to the arrest of scores of men and the
separation of children from their families. FLDS members were avowed
polygamists.
(Econ, 10/15/05, p.33)
1954 Mar, Dorothy Gay Howard (18)
of Phoenix, Arizona, was reported missing. Her nude and battered body
was found on April 8 along a creek in Boulder, Colorado. She was buried
as Jane Doe until her identity was established by DNA testing in 2009.
(www.dailycamera.com/ci_13658937?source=most_viewed)
1956 Jun 30, A United DC-7 and a
TWA Lockheed Constellation collided during a thunderstorm over the
Grand Canyon (Arizona) killing all 128 people.
(WSJ, 6/20/06, p.D3)(SFC, 6/30/09, p.D8)
1958 Jul 11, Monument Valley,
straddling the Arizona-Utah border, became the 1st Navajo Tribal Park.
(SSFC, 10/6/02, p.C15)
1959 Apr 9, Frank Lloyd Wright
(b.1869), American architect (Guggenheim Museum, NYC), died in Arizona.
In 1998 Ken Burns produced his video documentary "Frank Lloyd Wright."
An earlier British documentary of Wright was made c1983. In 1987
Brendan Gill authored the Wright biography: "Many Masks." In 2004 Ada
Louise Huxtabel authored “Frank Lloyd Wright.”
(SFC, 9/25/97, p.B2)(SFEC, 11/8/98, DB p.48)(SFEC,
2/20/00, p.T10)(WSJ, 11/9/04, p.D12)
1960 Builder Del Webb opened the
Sun City retirement community near Phoenix, Ariz.
(WSJ, 10/13/04, p.D6)
1960-2005 The population of Phoenix, Az., grew from
664,000 to 3.6 million.
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.35)
1961 State Congressman Stuart
Udall was tapped to serve as the interior secretary for Pres. Kennedy.
His brother, Mo Udall, won the seat in a close special election.
(SFC, 12/14/98, p.A5)
1963 Sep 13, The last bucket of
concrete was poured on the Glen Canyon Dam (Arizona) on the Colorado
River to form Lake Powell. It marked the beginning of a 290 mile
stretch of the river from the dam through the Grand Canyon to Lake
Mead. It was built to provide power to six Western states. The lake
filled by 1980. [last source says the lake filled within 5 years]
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.E-3)(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A10)(SFEC,
8/24/97, p.A1)(NH, 9/97, p.40)
1964 Jan 12, Jeffrey Bezos, later
founder of Amazon.com, was born in Albuquerque.
(SFEC, 10/10/99, p.B3)
1964 Nov 3, President Johnson
soundly defeated Republican challenger Barry Goldwater to win a White
House term in his own right. Johnson won over 61% of the vote with 486
electoral votes to Goldwater’s 52.
(AP, 11/3/97)(SFC, 5/30/98, p.A3)
1964 Richard Kleindienst helped
Barry Goldwater win the nomination for president and then mounted his
own campaign for governor. He was defeated by Sam Goddard.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D9)
1965 Sedona, Arizona, artists Joe
Beeler, Charlie Dye, John Hampton and George Phippen founded The Cowboy
Artists of America at the local Cowboy Club, which was then called the
Oak Creek Tavern.
(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.C6)
1966 Richard Kleindienst resumed
his political activities and directed the successful of John R.
Williams for the governorship.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D9)
1967 Feb 28, Henry Luce (68),
American publisher, died in Phoenix. He and Briton Hadden (1898-1929)
published the first issue of Time magazine on March 3, 1923. In 2010
Alan Brinkley authored “The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American
Century.”
(AP,
2/28/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Luce)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.82)
1968 Apr 18, London Bridge was
sold to US oil company. It was later erected in Arizona.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1968 Nov 5, Barry Goldwater
(1909-1998), former Republican presidential candidate (1964), was
re-elected in Arizona to the US Senate.
(SFC, 5/30/98,
p.A3)(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAgoldwater.htm)
1968 Don Thomson (d.2001) helped
create Channel 21, the 1st UHF Spanish-language television channel.
(SFC, 2/10/01, p.A22)
1970 Paolo Soleri (b.1919),
Italian-American architect, led the ground breaking at Arcosanti, a
model ecocity in the high Arizona desert. It was a prototype arcology
designed for 5,000 residents, combining compact buildings with huge
solar greenhouses on a 4,000 acre preserve about 60 miles north of
Phoenix. Soleri projected a people density of 215 per acre vs. 72 in
Delhi and 33 per acre in New York City. Since then some 6,000
architectural students have come to help with the building and learning
about its design. The site attracted some 50,000 visitors every year.
(PacDis, Spring/'94, p. 28)(AP,
10/15/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Soleri)
1971 An Arizona law under Gov.
Jack Williams (1909-1998) outlawed secondary boycotts and harvest-time
strikes, tools used by the growing UFW.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.12)(http://rulers.org/indexw2.html)
1971 Arizona indicted Weather
Underground members John Allen Fuerst (25) and Roberta Brent Smith (25).
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.E3)
1974 Jun 30, Jose Jesus Ceja
murdered Linda and Randy Leon after breaking into their home in Phoenix
to steal marijuana. He was convicted and served 23 years before being
executed in 1998.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.A8)
1975 Jan 3, President Ford signed
Public Law 93-620. This Act, written to enlarge the Grand Canyon
National Park, also provided in Section 10 for the enlargement of the
adjacent Havasupai Indian Reservation by 185,000 acres and designated a
contiguous 95,300 acres of the enlarged National Park as a permanent
traditional use area of the Havasupai Indians of Havasu Canyon, Arizona.
(SSFC, 2/19/06,
p.F4)(www.tribal-institute.org/envirotext/89.htm)
1976 Jan 31, Ernesto Miranda,
famous from the Supreme Court ruling on "Miranda Rights," was stabbed
to death in Arizona.
(HN, 1/31/99)
1976 Mar 2, Bob Lurie (b.1929),
real estate magnate, led a group to acquire ownership of the San
Francisco Giants baseball club. Lurie closed the $8-million transaction
with Arizona cattleman Arthur "Bud" Herseth as his 50-50 partner.
(www.stadiumforrent.com/sfr/sfr-ch23a.html)
1976 Jun 13, Don Bolles, Arizona
Republic investigative reporter, died as a result of injuries suffered
when a bomb blew up his car 11 days earlier. He had been working on an
alleged Mafia story at the time of his death.
(AP, 6/13/04)
1976 San Jose State Prof. John
Sperling launched the for-profit Univ. of Phoenix with $26k in personal
savings. It was founded to cater to the need of working adults. By 2010
it was the 2nd largest university system in America with over 200
campuses across the country.
(https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/)(SFC, 2/16/02,
p.A15)(Econ, 9/10/05, Survey p.19)(Econ, 9/11/10, p.73)
1976 Navaho weavers wove the
largest Navaho rug in the world. The 800-pound rug measured 38x26 feet
and used 25 different Navaho styles.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A7)
1977 Jun 27, The US Supreme Court
struck, in Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, down state laws and bar
association rules that had prohibited lawyers from advertising their
fees for routine services.
(AP, 6/27/08)
1978 Apr 27, Convicted Watergate
defendant John D. Ehrlichman was released from an Arizona prison after
serving 18 months.
(AP, 4/27/97)
1978 Jun 29, Bob Crane (b.1928),
the man who played Colonel Robert Hogan in the TV show "Hogan’s
Heroes," was found bludgeoned to death in Scottsdale, Az. John Henry
Carpenter (d.1998 at 70), a prime suspect, was tried and acquitted in
1990.
(SFC, 9/12/98,
p.C3)(www.franksreelreviews.com/shorttakes/crane.htm)
1978 Aug 26, Charles Boyer
(b.1897), film actor (Gaslight, Rogues), committed suicide in Phoenix,
Az., 2 days after his wife's death from cancer.
(http://www.imdb.com)
1979 Mel Zuckerman and his wife
Enid opened Canyon Ranch, America’s first total vacation and fitness
resort, on an old dude ranch in Tucson, Arizona. By 2007 it was
recognized as a premium health-spa of choice for the super rich.
(Econ, 1/6/07, p.51)
1980 Jun 20, Lake Powell,
straddling the Arizona-Utah border behind the Glen Canyon Dam,
completed its fill, which began in 1963
(SFEC, 8/24/97,
p.A1)(www.lakepowell.com/travel/glen-canyon-dam.cfm)
1980 Hispanics in Phoenix Arizona,
numbered about 15% of the population. By 2005 the number reached 42%.
(Econ, 11/18/06, p.32)
1981 Apr 22, In the largest US
bank robbery, more than $3.3 million was stolen in Tucson Ariz. 4 men
were later arrested for the robbery.
(http://tinyurl.com/2otzju)
1981 Jul 7, President Reagan
announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become
the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
(AP, 7/7/97)
1981 Elana Steinberg (34) was
stabbed to death in her home in Scottsdale. Her husband Steven
Steinberg later said he killed her while sleepwalking. Dr. Martin
Blinder, California psychiatrist, testified that the murder was
committed under a scenario of “dissociative reaction” and Steven
Steinberg was acquitted.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.A19)
1982 In Marana, Az., Karl LeGrand,
a German citizen, stabbed to death a bank manager during a bungled
robbery attempt with his brother Walter LaGrand. Karl was convicted and
died by lethal injection Feb 24, 1999. Walter was executed a week
later. A UN court in 2001 upheld that the US violated international law
in the case.
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A3)(SFC, 6/28/01, p.A8)
1983-1984 Twelve Navajo weavers in Arizona completed
the 26x28 foot “Little Sister” rug. It was a smaller version of a
larger rug woven in 1976, and recorded as the largest Navajo rug in the
world. In 1997 the rug was put up for auction to raise funds for a
community health clinic.
(SFC, 10/11/97, p.A7)
1984 The Biosphere project in
Oracle, Arizona, began and was designed to last 100 years.
(Wired, 2/98, p.172)
1984 Charles Keating, Arizona land
developer, bought Lincoln Savings & Loan. He then proceeded to loot
the institution’s federally protected deposits by booking phony profits
on sham land and securities transactions and fooled auditors and
investors about the failing health of Lincoln and its parent American
Continental Corp. He was convicted on state charges in 1991 and federal
charges in 1993. The federal charges were overturned in 1996.
(SFC, 6/22/96, p.A3)(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A1,15)
1985 Mar 8, Thomas Creighton (33)
died at the Univ. of Arizona after having three heart transplants in a
46-hour period.
(HN, 3/8/98)(http://tinyurl.com/tbw75)
1987 Barry Goldwater retired from
the US Senate.
(SFC, 5/30/98, p.A3)
1988 Jan 8, An Arizona state grand
jury indicted Gov. Evan Mecham (1924-2008) and his brother, Willard, on
charges of concealing a campaign loan. Both were later acquitted on
these charges.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Mecham)(SFC,
2/23/08, p.B5)
1988 Feb 5, The Arizona House
impeached Gov. Evan Mecham, setting the stage for his conviction in the
state Senate.
(AP,
2/5/97)(http://politicalgraveyard.com/special/trouble-disgrace.html)
1988 Mar 15, NFL owners approved
the move of the St Louis Cardinals to Phoenix.
(www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nfl/az/cardsarizona.html)
1988 Apr 4, The Arizona Senate
convicted Gov. Evan Mecham of two charges of official misconduct, and
removed him from office. Mecham was the first U.S. governor to so
censured in nearly six decades.
(AP, 4/4/98)
1988 Jun 16, Impeached and ousted
Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham and his brother, Willard, were found innocent
by a Phoenix jury of concealing a $350,000 campaign loan.
(AP, 6/16/98)
1988 Mo Udall, Arizona state
representative, authored “Too Funny to be President.”
(SFC, 12/14/98, p.A5)
1988 Arizona purchased the land
for Kartchner Caverns State Park and opened it to visitors in 1999. The
2 1/2 mile cave system was discovered by Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen in
1974.
(USAT, 11/12/99, p.1D)
1990 Gila River Telecommunications
Inc. (GRTI) was founded as a nonprofit telephone company. It serviced
the 620-square-mile Gila River reservation of the Pima Indians, who had
inhabited the area for over 2,000 years.
(WSJ, 7/7/00, p.B1)
1991 May 4, Morris K. Udall
(d.1998), (Rep-D-Ariz), resigned due to Parkinson's disease.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1991 Aug 10, Nine Buddhists were
found slain at their temple outside Phoenix, Arizona. Two teen-agers
were later arrested; one pleaded guilty to murder, the other was
convicted of murder.
(AP, 8/10/01)
1991 Sep 26, In Oracle, Arizona, 4
men and 4 women began a two-year self-sufficiency stay inside a $150
million, sealed-off structure on 3.15 acres known as Biosphere 2.
(AP, 9/26/97)(Wired, 2/98, p.172)(SSFC, 2/20/05,
p.F5)
1991 Nov 20, California Democrat
Alan Cranston accepted a Senate reprimand for his dealings with former
savings-and-loan chief Charles H. Keating Jr., but then denied he was
guilty of many of the allegations, prompting an angry rebuttal by New
Hampshire Republican Warren B. Rudman.
(AP, 11/20/01)
1991 Dec 4, Charles Keating,
Arizona land developer and chairman of Lincoln Savings and Loan
Association, was convicted on 17 counts of securities fraud in state
court. Keating was one of the most controversial figures in the savings
and loan scandals of the late 1980s. Keating's sales personnel
persuaded depositors to put their money into high-risk junk bonds.
(SFC, 6/22/96, p.A3)(MC, 12/4/01)
1991 Postal worker Ray Krone was
arrested for the murder of bartender Kim Ancona. Krone was convicted in
1992 and again in 1996. In 2002 DNA evidence proved his innocence.
(SFC, 11/19/04, p.A2)
1991-2000 Arizona’s population expanded by 40%.
(WSJ, 1/30/00, p.A1)
1993 Apr 23, Labor leader Cesar
Chavez died in San Luis, Ariz., at age 66. He founded the United Farm
Workers Union on his birthday Mar 31, 1962. In 1996 a 2-hr documentary
of his life was made: "The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the
Farmworkers Struggle."
(SFC, 11/2/96, p.E1)(AP, 4/23/98)(SSFC, 4/7/02,
p.A14)
1993 Sep 26, Eight people emerged
from the glass dome of Biosphere Two in the Arizona desert after being
sealed inside for two years in an experiment dogged by setbacks and
controversy. In 2006 Jane Poynter, one of the participants, authored
“The Human Experiment, Two Years and Twenty Minutes Inside Biosphere 2.”
(SFC, 11/25/96, p.A3)(AP, 9/26/98)(SFC, 10/10/06,
p.C2)
1993 An international competition
rated Phoenix, Az., and Christchurch, New Zealand, as the world’s best
governed cities.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.32)
1993 Africanized honey bees, aka
killer bees, first moved into Arizona.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.B8)
1993 Dec 6, Don Ameche (85), actor
(Cocoon), died in Scottsdale, Ariz., of prostate cancer.
(AP, 12/6/98)
1994 Mar 6, In Arizona a 2nd
7-member crew entered the Biosphere 2. Their mission was cut short
under management problems and reorganization.
(SFC, 11/25/96, p.A3)
1994 Arizona toughened its
insanity defense law by replacing the plea phrase “not guilty by reason
of insanity” to “guilty except insane.”
(SFC, 4/20/06, p.A7)
1994 Richard Fass, a US undercover
DEA agent, was shot and killed by alleged agents of Mexican drug ring
leader Augustin Vasquez Mendoza in Glendale, Ariz. Mendoza was arrested
in Mexico in 2000.
(SFC, 7/11/00, p.A10)
1995 Aug 26, Evelyn Wood (86),
speed reading guru, died in Tucson, Arizona. The Salt Lake City school
teacher, began popularizing her “Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics” in the
late 1950s after seeing her graduate-school professors speed-read
through a paper.
(www.readfaster.com/evelynwood.asp)(WSJ, 7/25/06,
p.D1)
1996 Dec 2, Arizona financier
Charles Keating Jr., a central figure in the most notorious
savings-and-loan debacle of the 1980s, won a new federal trial because
jurors had learned of his prior fraud conviction in state court before
convicting him of fraud and racketeering. Keating negotiated a plea
settlement in 1999 with no additional prison time and no admittance of
swindling elderly investors. Charges against his son were also dropped.
(AP, 12/2/97)(SFC, 4/7/99, p.A3)
1996 Republican Governor Fyfe
Symington was indicted on 22 counts of bank fraud, attempted extortion
and perjury.
(SFC, 5/21/97, p.A3)
1996 Passenger train service ended
in Phoenix, Az.
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.36)
1997 Jan, Yarmila Falater died
after she was stabbed 44 times by her husband, Scott Falater. In 1999
Scott pleaded that he was sleep walking and not able to remember the
murder. Falater (43) was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in
prison without chance of parole in 2000.
(SFC, 6/7/99, p.A2)(SFC, 6/26/99, p.A3)(SFC,
1/11/00, p.A4)
1997 Aug 9, An Amtrak train
derailed on a bridge near Kingman, Arizona, and 183 of 350 passengers
were injured. A flash flood had undermined supports for a small bridge.
(WSJ, 8/11/97, p.A1)(AP, 8/9/07)
1997 Aug 12, In Arizona a flash
flood from a storm 15 miles away killed ten hikers in the Lower
Antelope Canyon near Lake Powell. The group leader of the Trek-America
outfit, that catered mostly to Europeans, was the only survivor.
(SFC, 8/14/97, p.A3)(SFC, 8/15/97, p.A2)(AP, 8/12/98)
1997 Aug 31, In Phoenix, Az.,
bounty hunters in search of a bail jumper killed a couple that
apparently knew nothing about the sought bail jumper. Chris Foote (23)
and Spring Wright (20) were killed by 5 bounty hunters. Matthew
Brackney (20), his father David Brackney (45) and Michael Martin
Sanders (40) were in custody and 2 others were sought by authorities.
Arizona laws allow bounty hunters to break down doors and use guns to
bring bail jumpers back to jail without a court order, warrant or
license. There were an estimated 2,000 bounty hunters nationwide. Brian
Jay Robbins and Ronald Eugene Timms were arrested on Sep 3. On October
30, 1998 Michael Martin Sanders was judged guilty of murder, and nine
other felonies including burglary, aggravated assault and unlawful
imprisonment. Co-defendant Ronald Timms pleaded guilty to second-degree
murder and testified against Sanders, saying the men planned to break
into Foote's home because they mistakenly believed there would be a
large amount of drugs and cash there. The rest were charged with second
degree murder and various counts of felonious assault.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.A3)(SFC, 9/4/97,
p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/lp6bs)
1997 Aug, Two jurors in the
Symington trial received telephoned death threats and offers of bribes.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A3)
1997 Sep 3, Arizona Gov. Fife
Symington, the great-grandson of steel baron Henry Clay Frick, was
found guilty by a jury on 7 counts of lying to get millions in loans to
shore up his collapsing real estate empire. He was later sentenced to 2
1/2 years in prison, charged a fine of $60,000, and ordered to serve 5
years of probation. Symington's conviction was overturned in 1999; he
was pardoned by President Clinton in January 2001 as prosecutors again
pursued the case.
(WSJ, 9/4/97, p.A1)(SFC, 9/4/97, p.A3)(SFC, 2/3/98,
p.A2)(AP, 9/3/02)
1997 Sep 5, In Arizona Sec. of
State Jane Dee Hull assumed the role of governor, the 3rd current
female governor in the US after Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey
and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.
(SFC, 9/6/97, p.A5)
1997 Dec 6, An asteroid was
discovered by J.V. Scotti at the Univ. of Arizona. It was recognized as
one of 108 potentially hazardous asteroids.
(NH, 10/98, p.88)
1997 The Arizona Private School
Tax Credit gave a $500 tax credit to taxpayers donating funds to both
religious and nonreligious private schools.
(SFC, 10/5/99, p.A3)
1998 Feb 5, A federal judge
in Los Angeles threw out Charles Keating's state securities fraud
conviction for a second time, saying the trial judge had given jurors
flawed instructions. In 1999, on the eve of the retrial of the federal
case, Keating entered a plea agreement: he admitted to having committed
bankruptcy fraud by extracting $1 million from American Financial Corp.
while already anticipating the collapse that happened weeks later; in
return, the federal prosecutors dropped all other charges against him
and his son, Charles Keating III. Keating, an Arizona land developer,
was sentenced to the four years he had already served.
(AP,
2/5/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Keating)
1998 Mar 30, It was announced that
nearly a dozen Mexican gray wolves were released into the White
Mountains after an absence of 30 years.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.A3)
1998 Apr 20, The Goldman
Environmental Awards were presented to six winners in SF. The prizes
were increased to $100,000. Kory Johnson (19) of Phoenix won for
organizing Children for a Safe Environment.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A8)
1998 Apr 19-20, Grasshoppers by
the millions descended on communities along the lower Colorado River.
(SFC, 4/21/98, p.A3)
1998 Apr 28, The Arizona Supreme
Court struck down as unconstitutional a voter-approved law requiring
English be used in official state and local business.
(SFC, 4/29/98, p.A4)
1998 May 29, Barry Goldwater
(b.1909), former Senator from Arizona, died in Paradise Valley, Ariz..
In 2008 John W. Dean and Barry Goldwater Jr. authored “Pure Goldwater.”
(SFC, 5/30/98, p.A1)(AP, 5/29/99)(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A13)
1998 Jun 23, Maureen O’Sullivan
(b.1911), film actress, died in Scottsdale, Arizona. She had starred as
Jane in the Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller.
(SFC, 6/24/98,
p.C2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maureen_O%27Sullivan)
1998 Dec 12, Mo Udall, former
state Representative from Arizona, died at age 76. He had served in the
House from 1961-1991.
(SFC, 12/14/98, p.A5)(WSJ, 12/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Arizona enacted covenant
marriage legislation that was designed to make divorce much more
difficult for couples that choose the option.
(Econ, 2/12/05, p.31)
1998 Michael Block and his wife
Olga founded their first BASIS school in Tucson, Arizona. A 2nd campus
was later added in Scottsdale. Their grade 5-12 charter schools strived
to compete with the best schools in the world.
(Econ, 10/31/09,
p.40)(www.greatschools.net/arizona/tucson/1560-BASIS-Tucson/)
1999 Feb 24, In Arizona Karl
LaGrand (35), a German citizen, was executed by lethal injection for
the 1982 murder of a bank manager.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.A3)
1999 Mar 3, In Arizona Walter
LaGrand (37), a German citizen, was executed with cyanide gas for the
1982 murder of a bank manager. Germany later filed a complaint with the
World Court for human rights violations because neither he nor his
brother were not informed of their right to assistance from the German
consulate.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.A3)(USAT, 9/17/99, p.13A)
1999 Jun 28, Sun Orchard Inc. of
Tempe recalled all nonpasteurized orange juice after it was found to be
the likely source for an outbreak of salmonella poisoning in Washington
and Oregon.
(SFC, 6/29/99, p.A6)
2000 Jan 11, Pres Clinton signed a
proclamation for the Grand Parashant National Monument with 1.014
million acres along the northern boundary of the Grand Canyon; the
71,100 acre Agua Fria National Monument near Phoenix; and the
California Coastal National Monument, which includes thousands of
islands, rocks and reefs along the 840 mile California coast.
(SFC, 1/12/00, p.A3)(WSJ, 1/12/00, p.A4)
2000 Feb 3, Richard Kleindienst,
former attorney general under Pres. Nixon, died at age 76 in Prescott.
(SFC, 2/4/00, p.D9)
2000 Feb 22, Sen. John McCain beat
Gov. George W. Bush in the Michigan primary 50-43% and in the Arizona
primary 60-30%.
(SFC, 2/23/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 8, A Marine Corps
aircraft, MV-22 tilt-rotor Osprey, with at least 18 people aboard
crashed at the Avra Valley Airport near Tucson. All 19 Marines onboard
were killed in the crash.
(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.A15)(SFEC, 4/10/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 19, In Arizona Richard
Glassel (61) killed 2 women and injured 4 others in a retirement
community in Peoria.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A10)
2000 Nov 9, Pres. Clinton
established the 293,000-acre Vermillion Cliffs as a national monument.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.A6)
2001 Apr, Mark Warren Sands (50)
became a suspect in the arson of 8 luxury homes in Phoenix and
Scottsdale. Sands pleaded guilty Nov 7.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A18)
2001 May 23, In Arizona 12 illegal
Mexican immigrants were found dead due to dehydration. 2 more were
found dead the next day. In 2002 Jesus Lopez-Ramos, one of 3 smugglers,
was sentenced to 16 years in prison. In 2004 Luis Alberto Urrea
authored "The Devil's Highway: A True Story," about the ill-fated
crossing.
(SFC, 5/24/01, p.A3)(SFC, 5/25/01, p.A3)(SFC,
2/23/02, p.A5)(SSFC, 4/11/04, p.M2)
2001 Jul 1, Anthony Hayes (14) of
Phoenix died at the America’s Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactor’s Association
boot camp near Buckeye. Abuse was suspected.
(SFC, 7/4/01, p.A6)
2001 Jul 5, Kenneth Williams, an
FBI agent in Phoenix, Arizona, wrote to bureau headquarters that al
Qaeda could be sending terrorists to train as student pilots. He urged
the investigation of Middle Eastern men enrolled in American flight
schools. [see Jul 10]
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A19)(SFC, 5/22/02, p.A18)
2001 Jul 10, Kenneth Williams, an
FBI agent in Phoenix, Arizona, issued a memorandum that requested
detailed examination of US flight schools for al Qaeda terrorists.
Mid-level officials rejected the request. [see Jul 5]
(SFC, 5/22/02, p.A18)
2001 Aug 10, A tourist helicopter
crashed near the Grand Canyon and 6 people were killed.
(SSFC, 8/12/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 15, In Mesa, Arizona,
Balbir Singh Sodhi, an Indian immigrant gas station owner, was shot to
death. A Lebanese clerk was targeted but not injured. Police later
arrested Frank Roque (42) for 2 shootings but not the 1st murder. Roque
was convicted of murder Sep 30, 2003.
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.A8)(SFC, 9/29/03, p.A3)
2001 Sep 29, Sen. John Kyl, an
Arizona Republican, said a nuclear launch would be the most appropriate
response in the case of a massive biological weapons attack.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A19)
2001 Oct 21, The Arizona
Diamondbacks won the National League championship, defeating the
Atlanta Braves 3-2 in game five.
(AP, 10/21/02)
2001 Nov 4, In Phoenix the Arizona
Diamondbacks beat the NY Yankees 3-2 in game 7 of the World Series.
(SFC, 11/5/01, p.A1)
2001-2005 Some 80 million pinõn trees died in
Arizona and New Mexico due to drought.
(WSJ, 7/31/06, p.A1)
2002 May 11, Joseph Bonanno (97),
former Mafia boss known as "Joe Bananas," died in Tucson, Az. His
autobiography was titled “A Man of Honor.”
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.A23)(AP, 5/11/03)
2002 May 14, Three men were
arrested for plotting to kill Gov. Jane Hull and Maricopa County
Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
(SFC, 5/16/02, p.A3)
2002 Jun 18, The Rodeo-Chediski
Fire began some 110 miles northeast of Phoenix. It soon covered over
60,000 acres including the community of Pinedale. Leonard Gregg (29)
started the fire to get work and was arrested June 30. The fire came
under control on July 7 and ended up raging over 470,000 acres of
eastern Arizona.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodeo-Chediski_fire)(SFC, 7/1/02,
p.A1)(Arch, 9/02, p.16)
2002 Jun 30, Leonard Gregg, a
part-time firefighter, was charged with starting one of the two
wildfires that merged into a monstrous blaze in eastern Arizona. Gregg
faced trial on federal charges. Gregg later pleaded guilty and was
sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AP, 6/30/07)
2002 Jun 23, Two fires in Arizona
merged and approached the town of Show Low. The Rodeo-Chediski fire
grew past 375,000 acres.
(SFC, 6/24/02, p.A1)(SFC, 6/26/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 9, Kris Eggle (28),
Arizona park ranger, was killed by a gunman at the Mexican border of
organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
(WSJ, 1/22/03, p.A1)
2002 Sep 6, Salvatore Gravano, mob
turncoat aka Sammy the Bull, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In
1998 Gravano, took over his son’s failing Arizona drug-dealing
operation, an ecstasy drug ring. Gravano pleaded guilty in 2001.
(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A6)(SFC, 9/7/02, p.A4)
2002 Oct 28, In Arizona Robert
Flores (41), a failing nursing student, shot and killed 3 professors
and then himself at the College of Nursing in Tucson.
(SFC, 10/28/02, p.A4)
2002 Janet Napolitano was elected
Democratic governor of Arizona.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.28)
2003 Apr 12, Phoenix police
arrested Corey Morris (24) in connection with the deaths of at least 5
prostitutes.
(SFC, 4/14/03, p.A9)
2003 May, Freecycle, a global
recycling phenomenon started operating in Arizona. By 2008 it had grown
to more than 4 million members in more than 4,100 cities. It boasted of
keeping more than 300 million tons of trash out of landfills every day
and inspired imitators.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2003 Jun 14, A car driven by
Phoenix Bishop Thomas O'Brien struck and killed pedestrian Jim Reed;
O'Brien was later convicted of leaving the scene of an accident and
sentenced to probation.
(AP, 6/14/04)
2003 Jun 16, Thomas J. O'Brien
(67), the Roman Catholic bishop of Phoenix, was arrested in connection
with a fatal hit and run accident 2 days earlier. In 2004 O'Brien was
sentenced to 4 years probation.
(SFC, 6/17/03, p.A14)(WSJ, 3/29/04, p.A1)
2003 Jun 19, In Arizona a wildfire
burned up to 250 homes on Mount Lemon, north of Tucson.
(SFC, 6/20/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 20, Wildfires fueled by
high winds burned 250 homes in southern Arizona.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2003 Jul 30, An 8-inch gasoline
pipeline between Phoenix and Tucson ruptured and created a local fuel
shortage. Gov. Janet Napolitano hoped for restoration by Aug 24.
(SSFC, 8/24/03, p.A3)
2003 Sep 19, Joy Risker (25)
disappeared following dinner in San Diego with her husband Sean Goff.
Risker was one of 2 women married to Goff. In 2006 Goff admitted that
he stabbed Risker during an argument, mutilated her body and buried her
in the Arizona desert.
(SFC, 7/19/06, p.B10)
2003 Oct 8, In Arizona officials
at Safford Middle School strip-searched Savana Redding (13) after she
was suspected of distributing 4 ibuprofen pills. In 2009 the US Supreme
Court ruled 8-1 that the school officials had violated her rights.
(SFC, 6/26/09,
p.A8)(www.freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f800000000b8d2720)
2003 Nov 4, In Arizona Mexican
President Vicente Fox stressed the importance of continuing a dialogue
on immigration issues with the United States as he started a tour of 3
border states.
(AP, 11/5/03)
2003 Nov 4, A shootout in Arizona
left 4 dead and 5 wounded along I-10. Police described a car chase and
gun battle among immigrant smugglers.
(WSJ, 11/5/03, p.A1)
2004 Jan 15, Gov. Napolitano
proposed a 10% increase in the Arizona budget to $7.2 billion.
(USAT, 1/16/04, p.10A)
2004 Feb 26, A mail bombing
injured Don Logan, the diversity director in Scottsdale, Arizona. In
2009 Illinois twins Dennis and Daniel Mahon (58) were indicted for the
bombing. They had allegedly intended to promote racial discord on
behalf of the White Aryan Resistance.
(SFC, 6/26/09,
p.A5)(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529121,00.html)
2004 Mar 26, Phoenix Bishop Thomas
O'Brien was sentenced to four years' probation and 1,000 hours of
community service for a deadly hit-and-run that claimed the life of
pedestrian Jim Reed.
(AP, 3/26/05)
2004 Apr 22, Pat Tillman, former
safety for the Arizona Cardinals, was killed in an ambush in
Afghanistan. He had walked away from millions of dollars to join the
Army Rangers and serve his country. In late May the Army said that
Tillman was likely killed by friendly fire. In 2005 a new Army report
said top officials held back information that Tillman was killed by
“friendly fire.” In 2007 a Pentagon report found no plot to conceal
evidence, but recommended that officers be held accountable for making
misleading statements about Tillman’s death. A general was censured on
July 31, 2007. In 2009 Jon Krakauer authored “Where Men Win Glory: The
Odyssey of Pat Tillman.”
(AP, 4/24/04)(AP, 5/29/04)(SFC, 5/4/05, p.A9)(SFC,
3/27/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/1/07, p.A1)(SSFC, 9/20/09, p.B1)
2004 May 18, Randy Johnson (40)
pitched a perfect game to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 2-0
victory over the Atlanta Braves.
(SFC, 5/19/04, p.D1)
2004 Aug 12, Dust storms on I-10
in Arizona caused vehicle pile-ups that left 4 dead.
(WSJ, 8/13/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 14, Arizona, California
and Nevada joined with the federal government to undertake a 50-year,
$620 million project to restore wildlife habitat along 342 miles of the
lower Colorado River.
(SFC, 9/15/04, p.A8)
2004 Sep 20, The diocese of
Tucson, Arizona, filed for bankruptcy protection in seeking relief from
debt due to sex-abuse settlements.
(WSJ, 9/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 13, In Tempe, Ariz.,
Pres. Bush and Sen John Kerry held their 3rd and final debate trading
blows on taxes, gun control, abortion and jobs, striving to cement
impressions in voters' minds in the run-up to Election Day.
(SFC, 10/14/04, p.A1)(AP, 10/13/05)
2004 Oct 16, In Arizona a stolen
truck filled with suspected illegal immigrants sped away from deputies
and rolled over at a busy intersection near an Army post, causing an
11-car crash that killed six people and seriously injured 15.
(AP, 10/17/04)
2004 Oct 24, Arizona's Emmitt
Smith broke Walter Payton's NFL record for 100-yard games rushing with
his 78th.
(AP, 10/24/05)
2004 Nov 2, Arizona voters passed
Prop. 200 aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration. It required
proof of citizenship before receipt of public benefits or voting.
(SFC, 11/5/04, p.A4)(Econ, 10/21/06, p.32)
2004 Nov 21, Scientists released
water from Glen Canyon Dam and flooded the Grand Canyon in an effort to
restore the Colorado river ecosystem.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A2)
2004 Nov, Tom and Jackie Hawks of
Arizona were tied to an anchor and thrown overboard from their yacht
off Southern California. In 2009 Skylar Deleon (29) of Long Beach was
convicted of their murder and sentenced to death.
(SFC, 4/11/09,
p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylar_Deleon)
2004 John McAfee, computer
software multi-millionaire, formed a network of runways in New Mexico
and Arizona for recreational light sport aircraft.
(WSJ, 4/21/07, p.A10)
2005 Jan 8, Richard P. Rodriguez
(29) stabbed to death Angela M. Smith (51) in Tucson, Az. Rodriguez was
found dead of a gunshot wound the next day in Blythe, Ca., near the
Arizona border. He had grown up in the evangelical sex cult “Children
of God” also known as the Family. Smith, a member of the cult, was
involved in his upbringing. The cult was later linked to the San Diego
based Family Care Foundation. In 2007 Don Lattin authored “Jesus
Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge.”
(SFC, 1/11/05, p.B8)(SSFC, 2/6/05, p.A1)(SSFC,
10/20/07, p.M1)
2005 Apr 3, In Arizona Minuteman
anti-immigrant activists began showing up to guard the border against
illegal crossings. Grupo Beta, a Mexican government-sponsored
organization that tries to discourage people from crossing illegally
and aids those stranded in the desert, began patrolling that area along
with state police officers.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 May 12, The US government
said FBI agents in Arizona had arrested 16 current and former law
enforcement officers and US soldiers who had accepted over $220,000 in
bribes to help move drugs past checkpoints.
(SFC, 5/13/05, p.A4)
2005 May 20-2005 May 23, In
Arizona 12 illegal immigrants were reported dead while crossing the
border under triple digit heat.
(SFC, 5/23/05, p.A3)
2005 Jun, In Colorado City,
Arizona, Warren Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of the
latter Day Saints (FLDS) was indicted on 2 charges of organizing
child-bride marriages. Jeffs was jailed in February, 2008. In June,
2010, a judge dismissed all state charges against Jeffs after 2 alleged
victims no longer wanted to proceed with prosecution.
(Econ, 10/15/05, p.33)(SFC, 6/10/10, p.A5)
2005 Jun 24, In Yuma, Arizona, 6
people, including 4 children, were killed. Police said a man was seen
running from the scene and had not been apprehended.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jul 21, In Phoenix, Az., a
blistering heat wave was blamed for the deaths of 18 people. 10 were
homeless; the other two were elderly women.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 25, Intel announced plans
to build a $3 billion computer microprocessor fabrication plant in
Arizona.
(SFC, 7/26/05, p.D1)
2005 Aug 23, In Arizona 2
employees were gunned down outside a Wal-Mart store in Glendale, a
Phoenix suburb. In 2009 Ed Liu, the accused gunman, was committed to a
mental hospital instead of a trial on murder charges. Liu was
accused of shooting Patrick Graham (35) and Anthony Spangler (18) as
they collected shopping carts.
(http://tinyurl.com/boc95v)(SSFC, 2/22/09, p.A8)
2005 Samih Fadl Jamal, ring leader
of a national theft operation based in Mesa, Arizona, was convicted of
20 charges related to the sale of $22 million of stolen baby formula.
He was sentenced to 10 years.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.D3)
2006 Jan 24, A Mexican government
commission said it will distribute at least 70,000 maps showing
highways, rescue beacons and water tanks in the Arizona desert to curb
the death toll among illegal border crossers.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 26, Mexico said it will
suspend its plan to distribute maps to migrants wanting to cross the US
border illegally. An official said the decision was made because the
maps would show anti-immigrant groups where migrants likely would
gather.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, The Arizona Supreme
Court ordered first-term Republican Rep. David Burnell Smith to leave
office at midnight for violating a state's public campaign financing
system during his 2004 primary race.
(AP, 1/27/06)
2006 Feb 7, Phoenix Coyotes
assistant coach Rick Tocchet was charged with financing a nationwide
gambling ring based out of New Jersey.
(AP, 2/7/07)
2006 Feb 20, Archbishop Paul C.
Marcinkus (84), a former Vatican bank chief linked to a huge Italian
banking scandal in the 1980s, was found dead in his home in Sun City,
Ariz.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2006 May 18, Visiting one of the
busiest crossing sectors between the US and Mexico, President Bush said
in Yuma, Ariz., that it made sense to put up fencing along parts of the
border but not to block off the entire 2,000 mile length to keep out
illegal immigrants.
(AP, 5/18/07)
2006 Jun 22, A 2,585-acre fire
approached Slide Rock State Park in northern Arizona. The blaze started
June 18 in a camp used by transients and spread quickly.
(AP, 6/22/06)
2006 Jun 29, In Newark, NJ, a
district judge sentenced Andrew Mantovani (24) to 2 years and 8 months
in prison for operating the largest online marketplace for stolen
credit card and debit card information. Mantovani of Scottsdale, Ariz.,
was co-founder of Shadowcrew, one of a number of online bazaars for
stolen personal information. To date 18 Shadowcrew members had pleaded
guilty.
(WSJ, 7/3/06, p.B5)
2006 Jul 15, Phoenix, Ariz.,
residents were reported to be in fear of 2 serial killers, who have
struck in recent months. Six killings were being attributed to the
"Baseline Killer," whose name refers to the street where he is believed
to have committed his first crimes. The 2nd suspected predator, dubbed
the "Serial Shooter," has been definitively linked to the Dec. 29
wounding of one man and authorities believe he could be responsible for
a total of five shooting deaths.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Aug 3, In Phoenix, Ariz.,
Dale S. Hausner (33) and Samuel John Dieteman (30), accused of shooting
two dozen people, including six fatally, were arrested after police
tailed them for a week. In 2009 Hausner was convicted of 6 murders. In
2009 Dieteman was sentenced to life in prison for random shootings in
the Phoenix area in 2005 and 2006.
(AP, 8/5/06)(WSJ, 3/28/09, p.A2)(SFC, 7/30/09, p.A4)
2006 Aug 7, In Arizona 9 illegal
immigrants died when their SUV, crammed with up to 22 people, flipped
while trying to evade pursuit by the Border Patrol.
(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 6, In Phoenix, Arizona,
police arrested Mark Goudeau (42), a construction worker, for 2 sexual
assaults. In December police identified Goudeau as the Baseline Killer
and recommended charging him with 71 counts including 9 murders
committed from August, 2005, to June, 2006.
(www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=39736)(SFC,
12/8/06, p.A13)
2006 Nov 7, Arizona became the
first US state to defeat an amendment to ban gay marriage. The
passage of Proposition 200 would entitle one voter to win $1 million
just for voting in the nation’s first ballot box lottery.
(SFC, 11/4/06, p.A1)(AP, 11/8/06)
2006 Nov 14, Brandon Webb of the
Arizona Diamondbacks won a wide-open race for the NL Cy Young Award.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2006 Dec 21, The US Census Bureau
said Arizona had deposed Nevada as the fastest growing US state.
(WSJ, 12/22/06, p.A1)
2007 Jan 12, Francisco Javier
Dominguez-Rivera (22) of Puebla, Mexico, was killed in a confrontation
with the unidentified agent north of the US-Mexico border in Arizona
between Bisbee and Douglas. On Jan 16 the Mexican government sent a
diplomatic note to the United States protesting the fatal shooting.
(AP, 1/16/07)
2007 Jan 21, More than a foot of
snow fell on parts of northern Arizona, while children as far south as
Tucson got a rare chance to play in the snow.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Feb 23, Phoenix Sky Harbor
International Airport became the first in the United States to begin
testing new X-ray screening technology that can see through people's
clothes.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2007 Mar 20, In Arizona the
Hualapai Indian tribe invited a select few to the unveiling of the
horseshoe-shaped deck over the Grand Canyon in advance of a public
opening planned for March 28. Tour packages with deck access will range
in price from $49.95 to $199. The deck, which juts 70 feet beyond the
canyon's edge, will accommodate up to 120 guests at a time.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 21, Sonia Falcone, former
Miss Bolivia (1988), was ordered to leave the United States after
pleading guilty to employing four illegal immigrants as household
servants at her $10.5 million mansion in Paradise Valley, Ariz.
(www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/86326?source=rss&dest=STY-86326)
2007 Apr 6, Arizona authorities
found at least 80 suspected illegal immigrants in a house west of
Phoenix and arrested two suspected smugglers.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 May 1, The design for the
Arizona quarter, chosen by Gov. Janet Napolitano, was announced. It
includes a "Grand Canyon State" banner across the middle of the
quarter, separating the canyon view with a multi-rayed sun above and a
saguaro in a desert landscape below. The 48th of the state series will
be released in 2008, followed by Alaska and Hawaii.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 23, Jordin Sparks (17) of
Glendale, Ariz., was crowned the newest and youngest "American Idol."
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 Jul 2, Arizona Gov. Janet
Napolitano signed a bill imposing stiff penalties on employers who hire
illegal immigrants.
(Econ, 7/7/07,
p.35)(www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0702sanctions02-ON.html)
2007 Jul 27, In Phoenix, Arizona,
2 news helicopters covering a police chase on live television collided
and crashed to the ground, killing all four people on board.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Sep 5, Contest organizers in
Tucson, Az., said Kelly McBee, a 30-year-old mother of three from
northern Wyoming, is the new Mrs. America. McBee won the national crown
in a ceremony at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 15, In western Mexico a
bus carrying tourists including passengers of a flight from Phoenix
crashed, killing at least 17 people.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 16, The Phoenix Mercury
beat the Detroit Shock 108-92 to win their first WNBA title.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2007 Sep 20, It was reported that
Arizona Prof. Piere Balthazard planned to use data from brain scans of
visionary leaders to plot a map of a “leader’s” brain. He then planned
to use the map to help train others use their brains similarly.
(WSJ, 9/20/07, p.B1)
2007 Sep 28, Traveler Carol Anne
Gotbaum of New York died in a holding cell at Sky Harbor International
Airport in Phoenix; authorities say Gotbaum accidentally asphyxiated
herself after being chained to a bench.
(AP, 9/28/08)
2007 Dec 7, US federal officials
outlined a new plan on how to allocate water to California, Arizona and
Nevada from the Colorado River in case of shortages.
(SFC, 12/10/07, p.A9)
2007 Dec 14, A man accused of
being the Phoenix Baseline Killer was sentenced to 438 years in prison
for the sexual assaults of two sisters. As of 2008 Mark Goudeau still
faced trial for the slayings of eight women and a man in 2005-2006; he
has pleaded not guilty.
(AP, 12/14/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Arizona new laws
targeting employers who hire illegal immigrants took effect, with
experts predicting the move may cost the state's economy billions of
dollars in lost income and taxes.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Feb 22, Arizona Republican
Rep. Rick Renzi was indicted on charges of extortion, wire fraud, money
laundering and other matters in an Arizona land swap scam that
allegedly helped him collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in
payoffs.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 21, Evan Mecham (b.1924),
former Arizona Gov. (1987-1988), died. He was impeached, indicted and
subjected to a recall campaign in 1988 for misuse of state funds and
inflammatory racial opinions.
(SFC, 2/23/08, p.B5)
2008 Apr 23, Officials said the US
is scrapping a $20 million virtual fence, developed by Boeing Corp., on
the Arizona-Mexico border because the system failed to adequately alert
border patrol agents to illegal crossings.
(SFC, 4/24/08, p.A7)
2008 Apr 27, In Arizona a truck
jammed with as many as 60 illegal immigrants crashed near Arizona City
killing 4 people.
(SFC, 4/28/08, p.A3)
2008 May, Evaristo Ortiz-Jimenez
(36), Mexican human smuggler, and 4 others held hostage 21 illegal
immigrants in a Phoenix, Az., drop house. In 2009 they were indicted by
a federal grand jury and in Sep Ortiz-Jimenez was sentenced to 25 years
in prison. 3 other defendants were yet to be sentenced.
(http://lawfuel.com/show-release.asp?ID=20423)(SFC,
9/23/09, p.A10)
2008 Jun 2, Scott Coles (48),
Arizona financier, was found dead of apparent suicide. His firm
Mortgages Ltd., a company founded by his father in 1963, entered
bankruptcy on June 24.
(WSJ, 7/16/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 29, A helicopter ferrying
a patient with a medical emergency from the Grand Canyon collided into
another chopper carrying a patient near a northern Arizona hospital,
leaving six people dead and critically injuring a nurse.
(AP, 6/30/08)
2008 Jul 28, The propeller-driven
"Zephyr" aircraft, owned by QinetiQ Group PLC, began a flight over the
Arizona desert and continued for an unofficial record of 83 hours and
37 minutes, more than doubling the official world record set by
Northrop Grumman's "Global Hawk" in 2001. The 66 pound- (30 kilogram-)
plane was launched by hand and flown by autopilot and via satellite.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Arizona an SUV
packed with suspected illegal immigrants flipped over southeast of
Phoenix killing at least 9 people. There were 19 people in the vehicle.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 27, A US officials
announced that Francisco Celaya Carrilo, a Mexican immigration officer,
had been caught in Arizona with 170 pounds of marijuana.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A11)
2008 Nov 5, In St. Johns, Arizona,
a boy (8) fatally shot his father, Vincent Romero (29) and Timothy
Romans (39) of San Carlos, with a .22-caliber rifle.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Phoenix, Az., known as
America’s kidnapping capital, reached a 10-year high with 359
kidnappings. The majority were committed by drug and immigrant
smugglers.
(SFC, 12/28/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 21, Arizona’s Republican
Sec of State, Janice Brewer (b.1944), became governor after Democrat
Janet Napolitano vacated her office to become Pres. Obama’s Sec. of
Homeland Security.
(Econ, 11/7/09,
p.33)(www.azgovernor.gov/About_Gov.asp)
2009 Jan 30, A trip to the Grand
Canyon turned deadly when a bus carrying Chinese tourists overturned on
an Arizona highway near the Hoover Dam, killing seven people and
injuring 10 others, several critically.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Super Bowl XLIII at
Tampa, Florida, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals
27-23.
(SFC, 2/2/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 28, Paul Harvey (b.1918),
news commentator and talk-radio pioneer, died in Arizona. His staccato
style made him one of the nation's most familiar voices. Harvey had
been heard nationally since 1951, when he began his "News and Comment"
for ABC Radio Networks.
(AP, 3/1/09)(SSFC, 3/1/09, p.A12)
2009 Apr 10, In Arizona Samuel
Valdivia (18), a high school student, was caught with his math teacher,
Tamara Hofmann (48) in her bedroom, and was stabbed to death by
boyfriend Sixto Balbuena (20), who was himself a former student of
hers. Balbuena, a Navy sailor on leave from California, was arrested on
a charge of second-degree murder after police found him covered in
blood and told them about the killing.
(AP, 4/15/09)
2009 Apr 19, In Arizona Doug
Georgianni (51) was shot and killed while collecting data from a
traffic enforcement camera inside an SUV in Phoenix. The next day
police arrested Thomas Patrick Destories (68) on 1st degree murder
charges.
(WSJ, 4/21/09, p.A7)(WSJ, 4/22/09, p.A6)
2009 May 16, The Tucson Citizen,
Arizona’s oldest continuously published daily newspaper, published its
final print edition. The Citizen will continue with an online edition
with just commentary and opinion.
(SFC, 5/16/09, p.A5)
2009 May 30, In Arizona a home
invasion in rural Arivaca left Brisenia Flores (9) and her father Raul
Flores Jr., dead. In June 3 people were arrested for the murders. Two
of the people arrested headed up a splinter Minuteman group, and were
looking for drugs and money to fund their efforts to keep illegal
immigrants and drug runners out of the country. On Feb 14, 2011, Shawna
Forde, head of the Minutemen American Defense group, was found guilty
of murder. On Feb 22 a jury sentenced her to death.
(SFC, 2/15/11, p.A10)(Econ, 3/5/11, p.38)
2009 Jun 6, In southern Arizona a
sport utility vehicle crammed with at least 27 people crashed just
before midnight killing 10 undocumented immigrants.
(SFC, 6/8/09, p.A6)
2009 Jun 24, In Arizona Trenda
Lynne Halton of Peoria was indicted for recruiting as many as 136
people to pose as college students and defrauding the government out of
nearly $154,000 in student aid money.
(SFC, 6/25/09, p.A5)
2009 Jun 24, In Arizona a private
plane crashed killing 4 people. The plane was returning to Texas from
California and carried over 12 pounds of marijuana and over $8,000 cash.
(SFC, 6/27/09, p.A5)
2009 Jul 16, In Phoenix, Arizona,
4 boys, all Liberian refugees (9-14) lured a Liberian girl (8) to a
storage shed and raped her. Charges against one of the boys, aged 8,
were dropped on Dec 16 after a judge ruled the boy was not competent to
stand trial.
(SFC, 8/10/09, p.A4)(SFC, 12/17/09, p.A12)
2009 Aug 5, In Arizona Brenda
Arenas (15), was shot in the head during a botched carjacking in
Tucson. She died in her mother's arms soon after the attack. Her
3-year-old sister watched the crime from the backseat of the car. On
Jan 29, 2011, Orel Vasquez (20) Christian Vasquez (26), and Juan Leon
(29) approached a border crossing point at Nogales and told US officers
they were wanted for the shooting and were turning themselves in.
(Reuters, 1/30/11)
2009 Aug 14, Real estate lender
Colonial BancGroup Inc. was shut down by federal officials in the
biggest US bank failure this year. The FDIC, which was appointed
receiver of the Montgomery, Ala.-based Colonial and its about $25
billion in assets, said the failed bank's 346 branches in Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Texas will reopen at the normal times
starting on Aug 15 as offices of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T.
Regulators also closed four other banks: Community Bank of Arizona,
based in Phoenix; Union Bank, based in Gilbert, Ariz.; Community Bank
of Nevada, based in Las Vegas; and Dwelling House Savings and Loan
Association, located in Pittsburgh. The closures boosted to 77 the
number of federally insured banks that have failed in 2009.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Sep 30, In Arizona a new law
took effect allowing people with concealed weapons permits to enter
bars and restaurants, that haven’t posted signs banning guns. Those
carrying weapons would not be allowed to drink alcohol.
(SFC, 9/30/09, p.A8)
2009 Oct 8, In Arizona 21 people
were taken to area hospitals with illnesses ranging from dehydration to
kidney failure after being overcome while sitting in a sweat-lodge at
the Angel Valley resort in Sedona. Kirby Brown (38) of Westtown, N.Y.,
and James Shore (40), of Milwaukee died upon arrival at a hospital. On
Oct 17 Liz Neuman (49) from Minnesota died from multiple organ damage.
The lodge was run by self-help guru James Arthur Ray. On Feb 3, 2010,
Ray was arrested on 3 counts of manslaughter.
(SFC, 10/10/09, p.A4)(SSFC, 10/11/09, p.A6)(AP,
10/18/09)(SFC, 2/4/10, p.A6)
2009 Oct 20, In Arizona Faleh
Hassan Almaleki (49), an Iraqi immigrant, ran his Jeep Cherokee over
his daughter, Noor Almaleki (20), after she refused an arranged
marriage and went to college. Noor died of her injuries on Nov 2, 2009.
On Feb 22, 2011, Faleh Hassan Almaleki was convicted of 2nd degree
murder.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing_in_the_United_States)(SFC,
2/23/11, p.A4)
2009 Oct 30, US banking regulators
closed nine banks in California, Illinois, Texas and Arizona. They were
all divisions of privately held FBOP Corp. based in Oak Park, Ill.
(SSFC, 11/1/09, p.A15)
2010 Jan 4, Solis Palma, a Mexican
migrant, was shot and killed after he reportedly attacked a US Border
Patrol agent in southern Arizona with rocks.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 15, In Arizona an
oversight board voted to close 13 state parks in response to budget
cuts. Since July the Legislature has cut 61% of the state parks budget.
(SFC, 1/16/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 17, Arizona made $735
million by selling more than a dozen state buildings, including the
state's Capitol.
(http://tinyurl.com/yjd8vjr)
2010 Jan 28, In Arizona police Lt.
Eric Shuhandler (42) was shot in the face as he walked back toward a
pickup after finding the passenger had an arrest warrant. Shuhandler,
the father of two girls, was rushed to a hospital, where he died
shortly before midnight. A high-speed, 50-mile chase ended near the
small mountain mining community of Superior when the suspects jumped
out and opened fire on police before falling to the ground in a hail of
bullets. The suspects were identified as Christopher A. Redondo (35) of
Globe, and Daimen Irizarry (30) of Gilbert. Both were expected to
survive.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Arizona a
helicopter crashed north of Phoenix killing 5 people onboard including
Thomas Stewart (64), the head of Services Group of America.
(SFC, 2/16/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 19, Pres. Obama, speaking
in Nevada targeted Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada in
a $1.5 billion “innovation fund” to assist homeowners struggling
against foreclosure.
(SFC, 2/20/10, p.A1)
2010 Mar 5, In Arizona 6 people
were killed when a passenger bus hit another vehicle and rolled over on
the interstate south of Phoenix.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 27, Robert Krentz (58), a
prominent Arizona rancher near the Mexican border, was shot while
working at his remote cattle ranch on the Arizona-Mexico border. His
family's ranch sprawled over 35,000 acres. Investigators tracked the
footprints of the suspected gunman about 20 miles south to the border
with Mexico, prompting some authorities to blame smugglers or illegal
immigrants for the killing.
(Reuters, 4/1/10)
2010 Apr 15, US federal agents,
some in black hoods, swarmed over five Arizona shuttle businesses in a
major crackdown on human trafficking, arresting dozens of van operators
and smugglers accused of transporting illegal immigrants from the
Mexican border to Phoenix.
(AP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 16, Arizona Gov. Jan
Brewer signed into law a bill making Arizona the third state allowing
people to carry a concealed weapon without requiring a permit.
(AP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 19, Arizona lawmakers
passed a controversial immigration bill requiring police in the state
that borders Mexico to determine if people are in the United States
illegally, a measure critics say is open to racial profiling.
(Reuters, 4/20/10)
2010 Apr 21, In Arizona the
Havasupai Indian tribe ended a 7-year legal fight with Arizona State
Univ. over blood samples members gave to university researchers for
diabetes research that were also used to study schizophrenia,
inbreeding and ancient population migration. Tribal members called it a
case of genetic piracy.
(SFC, 4/22/10, p.A6)
2010 Apr 23, Arizona’s Gov. Jan
Brewer signed into law SB1070, a bill that supporters said would take
handcuffs off police in dealing with illegal immigration. Arizona, with
an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants, was the nation's busiest
gateway for human and drug smuggling from Mexico.
(AP, 4/24/10)(Econ, 7/31/10, p.25)
2010 May 8, In northern Mexico the
body of Ronald C. Ryan (67), a US citizen from Phoenix, Az., was found
the partially buried near a creek on the outskirts of Santa Ana, Sonora
state. He had been reported missing May 3. State police had reported
detaining three men the following day who had left Ryan's pickup truck
at a carwash in Santa Ana.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 11, Arizona Gov. Jan
Brewer signed a bill targeting a school district's ethnic studies
program, hours after a report by United Nations human rights experts
condemned the measure. The measure prohibits classes that advocate
ethnic solidarity, that are designed primarily for students of a
particular race or that promote resentment toward a certain ethnic
group. State schools chief Tom Horne, who has pushed the bill for
years, said he believes the Tucson school district's Mexican-American
studies program teaches Latino students that they are oppressed by
white people.
(AP, 5/12/10)
2010 May 13, The Los Angeles City
Council voted to boycott Arizona businesses, making it the largest city
to take such action to protest the state's tough new law targeting
illegal immigration.
(AP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 18, Arizona voters
approved a 1% sales tax increase.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100519/ap_on_re_us/us_arizona_sales_tax)
2010 May 20, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon also took his opposition to a new Arizona immigration
law to Congress, saying it "ignores a reality that cannot be erased by
decree." Calderon also urged the US Congress to reinstate a ban on
assault weapons to help cut cross-border gun smuggling and reduce drug
gang violence for its southern neighbor.
(AP, 5/20/10)(Reuters, 5/21/10)
2010 Jun 8, The US Supreme Court
derailed a key part of Arizona's campaign finance system by at least
temporarily blocking extra money for publicly funded candidates
outspent by privately financed rivals or targeted by independent
groups' spending.
(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 21, In Arizona the
Schultz fire around Flagstaff spread to 8,850 acres as some 300
firefighters battled the blaze.
(SFC, 6/22/10, p.A5)
2010 Jul 6, The Obama
administration sued Arizona to throw out the state's
toughest-in-the-nation immigration law and keep other states from
copying it. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Phoenix said the law,
due to take effect July 29, usurps the federal government's
"pre-eminent authority" under the Constitution to regulate immigration.
(AP, 7/6/10)
2010 Jul 28, US District Judge
Susan Bolton put most of Arizona’s new immigration law, SB1070, on hold
in a key first-round victory for the federal government in a fight that
may go to the US Supreme Court.
(AP, 7/29/10)(Econ, 7/31/10, p.25)
2010 Jul 28, In Arizona a medical
helicopter crashed on a Tucson street killing all three people aboard.
(SFC, 7/29/10, p.A6)
2010 Jul 30, In Arizona 3
convicted murderers escaped from a private prison. Daniel Renwick (36)
was caught on Aug 1. Terry Province (42) and John McCluskey (45)
remained at large. On Aug 4, the burned remains of Linda and Gary Haas
(61) were found in a charred camper in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Province
and McCluskey were linked to their killing as was Casslyn Welch (44), a
woman who helped them escape. Province was captured on Aug 9 in
Meeteetse, Wyoming. On Jan 28, 2011, Province was sentenced to 38 years
in prison.
(SFC, 8/2/10, p.A5)(SSFC, 8/8/10, p.A7)(SFC, 8/9/10,
p.A5)(SFC, 1/29/11, p.A6)
2010 Aug 19, Authorities in
eastern Arizona arrested John McCluskey (45) and his alleged accomplice
Casslyn Welch (44) at a campsite in the Apache-Sitgreaves National
Forest. McCluskey fled July 30 with two other inmates from a private
prison in northwest Arizona and evaded authorities in at least six
states before being caught.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Aug 28, In Arizona Brian Diez
(26) shot 5 people including the mother of his 2 children and her
boyfriend before fleeing with the children to southern California. Diez
shot and killed himself the next day. 5 people died in the shootings at
Lake Havasu.
(SFC, 8/30/10, p.A5)
2010 Sep 2, The US Justice Dept.
sued Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa county, for failing
to turn over documents in an investigation of his aggressive operations
against illegal immigrants.
(SFC, 9/3/10, p.A7)
2010 Sep 28, Mayor Octavio Garcia
Von Borstel (29) of Nogales, Az., was arrested by FBI agents on
multiple charges including bribery, theft, fraud and money laundering.
(SFC, 9/29/10, p.A7)
2010 Oct 6, Northern Arizona was
hit by 3 tornadoes. 28 cars of a parked freighttrain were derailed. 15
homes in Bellemont were made uninhabitable.
(SFC, 10/7/10, p.A8)
2010 Oct 8, The remains of Lexis
Roberts (12) from Nevada were found in Louisiana. A warrant was later
issued for Thomas Steven Sanders (53). In 1994 family members had
declared Sanders dead, seven years after he vanished. In November the
remains of a woman, believed to be her mother, Suellen Roberts (31)
were found in Arizona.
(http://tinyurl.com/2dwr8pa)(SFC, 11/5/10,
p.A8)(SFC, 11/16/10, p.A18)
2010 Oct 10, In Chandler, Arizona,
Martin Alejandro Cota-Monroy's body was found in a suburban Phoenix
apartment, his severed head a couple feet away. Detectives suspected
that Cota-Monroy's killing was punishment for stealing drugs. A police
report on Feb 2, 2011, said that Cota-Monroy stole 400 pounds of
marijuana and some meth from the PEI-Estatales/El Chapo drug
trafficking organization. Cota-Monroy told the cartel that the Border
Patrol had seized the drugs, but the cartel learned the truth and hired
men to kidnap and kill him in Nogales, Mexico. Cota-Monroy fled to the
Phoenix area, leading the cartel to hire assassins to go to Arizona,
befriend Cota-Monroy and kill him. One man, Crisantos Moroyoqui, was
later charged in the killing, and three others were believed to have
fled to Mexico.
(AP, 10/30/10)(AP, 3/3/11)
2010 Oct 14, On the Arizona and
Nevada border a soaring bypass bridge high above the Colorado River
near Hoover Dam was dedicated after nearly eight years and $240 million
worth of work. The bridge, which officially opens next week, is named
for former Nevada Gov. Mike O'Callaghan and Pat Tillman.
(AP, 10/14/10)
2010 Oct 17, In Arizona a
commercial tour bus drifted off a highway near Meadview and rolled over
several times killing 2 people and injuring several others.
(SFC, 10/18/10, p.A5)
2010 Oct 26, Arizona executed a
convicted murderer by lethal injection in a case that stirred
controversy after it emerged that one of the drugs being used to end
the inmate's life was obtained in Britain. Jeffrey Landrigan (50),
convicted of the murder of Chester Dean Dyer in 1989, was executed at a
state prison in Florence. Dyer, who was strangled to death, was found
by a co-worker on December 15, 1989, after he failed to show up for
work. Landrigan was the 24th person executed in Arizona since the state
resumed capital punishment in 1992. 132 inmates remained on the state's
death row.
(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Nov 2, Arizona voters by a
narrow margin approved a measure to legalize medical marijuana.
(SSFC, 11/14/10, p.A14)
2010 Nov 10, US investigators said
authorities have dismantled a major cell of a human smuggling ring that
may be responsible for the transportation of thousands of illegal
immigrants from the US-Mexico border to Phoenix and other parts of the
country. 9 people were arrested after a yearlong investigation and 62
vans were seized from the group. The group was led by a Mexican man
named as Mark Rodriguez-Banks (29), aka Ricardo Morales-Mejia.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Dec 8, Pres. Obama signed
legislation to pay American Indians and black farmers some $4.6 billion
for government mistreatment over many decades. The legislation settled
4 long-standing Native American water rights in Arizona, New Mexico and
Montana.
(SFC, 12/9/10, p.A18)
2010 Dec 12, The Washington Post
reported that 8 out of the 12 top US gun dealers whose products fuel
Mexico's drug violence are located in the state of Texas. 3 others were
in Arizona, and one was in California. There are 3,800 gun retailers in
Texas, 300 in Houston alone.
(AFP, 12/12/10)
2010 Dec 13, US immigration agents
discovered a 13-foot drug tunnel stretching from the Mexican border to
a metered parking space in Arizona, where vehicles with holes cut in
the bottom would park and take marijuana from people inside the
underground space.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 13, Sheila Verke, a
64-year-old substitute teacher and single parent from Fort Mohave,
Arizona, claimed a $95.3 million Powerball jackpot.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 14, In Arizona a shootout
between border patrol agents and bandits near the border with Mexico
left American agent Brian A. Terry (40) dead and a suspect wounded.
(AP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 17, The states of Arizona
and Nevada sued Bank of America Corp., accusing the largest US bank of
routinely misleading consumers about home loan modifications.
(Reuters, 12/17/10)
2010 Dec 26, In Arizona Gavin
MacFarlane (28) opened fire inside a Phoenix strip club killing 2
people and wounding 2 others.
(SFC, 12/28/10, p.A6)
2011 Jan 5, A US Border Patrol
agent was involved in a shooting on the Arizona border with Mexico that
resulted in the death of Ramses Barron Torres (17), who was trying to
illegally scale the border fence.
(Reuters, 1/5/11)(SFC, 1/7/11, p.A2)
2011 Jan 7, Arizona police said
they've found the bodies of two of the three men reported missing after
test-driving a Jeep in the Salt River bottom in southwest Phoenix. The
men reportedly took their Jeep out to the river bottom a day earlier to
test the vehicle and never returned home.
(AP, 1/8/11)
2011 Jan 8, Rep. Gabrielle
Giffords (40) of Arizona was shot in the head when an assailant opened
fire outside a grocery store during a meeting with constituents in
Tucson. The dead included US District Judge John Roll (63); Christina
Greene (9); Giffords aide Gabe Zimmerman (30); Dorothy Morris (76);
Dorwin Stoddard (76); and Phyllis Scheck (79). 9 others were wounded.
Giffords underwent a two-hour surgery and remained unconscious. The
shooter was in custody and was identified as Jared Loughner (22).
(AP, 1/8/11)(AP, 1/9/11)
2011 Jan 25, A federal indictment
was unsealed in Phoenix, Az., and charged 20 people for participating
in a ring that bought more than 700 guns to be smuggled into Mexico for
use by a drug cartel. Police arrested 17 suspects in a multi-agency
operation across the Phoenix valley. Three other suspects remained at
large.
(AP, 1/26/11)(Reuters, 1/26/11)
2011 Feb 17, Federal prosecutors
in Arizona said two illegal immigrants from Mexico, Jose
Beltran-Bermudez and Yazmin Arvayo-Palafox, have been indicted after
they were found to possess a combined 222 assault rifles and 5 pistols
that authorities say were headed to Mexico.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 17, US Federal
authorities said police have arrested nine people and seized 300
firearms, including assault rifles, in a raid targeting an arms ring
that allegedly sold weapons to Mexican drug traffickers. Operation Too
Hot to Handle netted a haul of around 300 guns, mostly Kalashnikov-type
rifles and semi-automatic pistols, seized in Arizona, Texas and Mexico.
(Reuters, 2/17/11)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Arizona
End of file.