Famous Years in Arizona History Quiz

Answer: 1966

The Miranda v. Arizona decision established the obligation for the police to inform a suspect of his/her rights. The court case came about when Ernesto Miranda was arrested by the Phoenix Police Department in 1963 on kidnapping and rape charges. He signed a confession to the crime after a couple hours of interrogation, but he had not been advised of his right to counsel or his right to remain silent.

His lawyer tried to get the confession thrown out for these reasons, but Miranda was convicted, and an appeal to the Arizona State Supreme Court was unsuccessful.

But the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Miranda, and his conviction was overturned. However the reprieve was temporary; Miranda was tried again and convicted without the confession.

Answer: 1912

Arizona was the last of the continental states to join the union, becoming the 48th state on February 14, 1912. Arizona waited a long time for the honor; it had first become a territory way back in 1863, and when the residents pressured the government to be considered for statehood, the U.S. Senate proposed admitting New Mexico and Arizona as one state. Arizonans didn't like that idea, so they continued to campaign for separate statehood, and in 1910 held a convention to prepare a state constitution.

After a few fixes, the constitution met the approval of President Taft, and he signed the official papers making Arizona a state at 10:23 AM on Valentine's Day 1912.

Answer: 1881

It was only a 30-second gunfight but it remains one of the most famous in the Old West. The gunfight took place in Tombstone, AZ, on October 26, 1881, and was a battle between the Clanton-McLaury gang and the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. There were nine participants involved with three members of the Clanton-McLaury gang being killed and a couple of the Earp brothers wounded.

The skirmish was largely lost to history until author Stuart Lake mentioned it in a book on Wyatt Earp, and John Ford decided to use it for the movie, "My Darling Clementine".

Answer: ca. 1100

The Oraibi village is located in northeastern Arizona surrounded by the Navajo Nation and is one of the oldest continuously occupied settlements in the United States. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964. Although surrounded by the Navajo, the Hopi are a separate tribe with a distinct language and culture, and they arrived in the area much earlier than the Navajo.

Answer: 1936

Constructed between 1931 and 1936 on the border of Arizona and Nevada, Hoover Dam was built both to generate hydroelectricity and to control the Colorado River. At 726 ft (221 m), the concrete arch-gravity dam was the tallest in the world at the time it was built. The reservoir created by Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, is the largest in capacity in the United States.

Answer: 1853

More than two-thirds of the future state of Arizona was obtained by the United States in 1848 through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo after the Mexican-American War. The bottom third of the state was purchased from Mexico in 1853 when a railroad developer named James Gadsden wanted the land to set up a route for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Gadsden was the American Ambassador to Mexico at the time which is why his name appeared on the treaty.

The treaty was signed in 1853 and ratified in 1854. Land that eventually became part of New Mexico was also included in the purchase.

Answer: 1981

Although she was born in El Paso, TX, Sandra Day O'Connor's family owned a ranch in southeastern Arizona where she spent her early childhood. She returned to the state after her marriage and became an assistant Attorney General and State Senator before becoming a judge.

She was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Reagan in 1981 and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, making her the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Answer: ca. 1400

The Anasazi (also known as the Ancestral Pueblo), Mogollon and Hohokam people are believed to have lived in areas over most of eastern Arizona since prehistoric times. But by around 1400 CE, all three cultures had disappeared. There is no official consensus on what happened to the people; some sources believe that they migrated to other areas while other sources believe they were integrated into other Pueblo tribes, such as the Hopi, or the Athabaskan people (the Navajo and Apache), who migrated into the area now known as Arizona between 1100 and 1500 CE.

Answer: 1539

Marcos de Niza was a Franciscan friar who had come to the New World in 1531 to convert the natives. He spent time in Peru and Guatemala before arriving in Mexico in 1536. He then headed north and crossed into the future state of Arizona on April 12, 1539.

A Spanish explorer named Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca may have actually reached Arizona a few years before de Niza, but de Vaca did not keep detailed records of his journey as did de Niza.

Answer: 1752

Located about 40 miles south of Tucson and 25 miles north of the Mexican border, Tubac was originally established by the Spanish as a military garrison stopover for travel between Mexico and California and to protect missions in the area. The site was briefly abandoned in the 1770s and mid-1800s following repeated attacks by the Apaches before it became part of the U.S. territory following the Gadsden Purchase.

It was once again briefly abandoned during the U.S. Civil War, but since then the community has grown, and it has now been reborn as an artists' colony.