1200's - 1500's: Pueblo Indians established villages along the Rio
Grande and its tributaries
1536: Cabeza de Vaca, Estevan the Moor, and others began rumors of the
Seven Cities of Cibola Gold:
1540: Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, while searching for that gold,
discovered the Grand Canyon
1598: Juan de Onate established San Juan de los Caballeros as the
capital
1600: San Gabriel founded as the second capital
1601: Colonists deserted San Gabriel
1609: Governor Pedro de Peralta established new capital at Santa Fe
1626: Spanish Inquisition established
1641: Governor Luis de Rosas assassinated
1680: Pueblo Indians forced colonists and Spaniards to retreat to Mexico
1706: Villa de Albuquerque founded
1743: French trappers reached Santa Fe
1807: Zebulon Pike led first Anglo-American expedition to New Mexico
1821: Mexico declared independence from Spain; Santa Fe Trail opened
1828: Gold discovered in Ortiz Mountains
1837: Governor Albino Perez and top officials assassinated in revolt
against Mexican taxation
1846: Mexican-American War began; Stephen Watts Kearny annexed New
Mexico to U.S.
1848: Mexican-American War ended; Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed
1850: New Mexico designated a territory; denied statehood
1854: Gadsden Purchase added 45,000 square miles to territory
1861: Confederates invaded New Mexico; Territory lost northern-most
section; Territories of Arizona and Colorado created
1863-1864: The Long Walk - Navajos and Apaches relocated to Bosque
Redondo
1868: Navajos and Apaches return to homelands
1878: Railroad arrived
1881: Billy the Kid shot
1886: Geronimo surrenders; Indian uprisings ceased
1898: Thomas Alva Edison produced first motion picture in New Mexico
1910: New Mexico Constitution drafted
1912: New Mexico became 47th state
1916: Francisco "Pancho" Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico
1920: Women won the right to vote
1922: Oil discovered on Navajo Reservation
1942: New Mexico soldiers forced to endure World War II Bataan Death
March
1945: World's first atomic bomb detonated at Trinity bomb site southern
New Mexico
1947: Alleged crash of UFO near Roswell
1948: Native Americans won right to vote in elections
1950: Uranium discovered
1980: Deadliest prison riot in U. S. occurred at New Mexico State
Penitentiary
1982: Space shuttle Columbia landed at Holloman Air Force Base
1998: New Mexico celebrated cuartocentenario, 400th anniversary of its
founding
2000: Valles Caldera National Preserve established
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