A New Mexico Time Line

• 1536 Cabeza de Vaca enters New Mexico from Texas
• 1539 Franciscan friar, Marcos de Niza, explores New Mexico
• 1540 Fran Vasquez Coronado explored New Mexico
• 1590 First attempt to colonize New Mexico made by the Spaniard Gaspar de Sosa
• 1598 Juan de Oñate founded the first permanent Spanish colony,at San Juan
• 1609 Governor Pedro de Peralta established Santa Fe
• 1610 Pedro de Peralta, governor of New Mexico, founds Santa Fe, moves capital there
• 1680 The Pueblo Indians revolted and drove the Spaniards out of northern New Mexico
• 1692 Diego de Vargas reconquered New Mexico for Spain
• 1901 Tomas Ketchum hung
• 1909 Oil discovered near Datyon
• 1912 New Mexico Statehood
• 1916 Mexican bandits raided Columbus
• 1922 Geologists discovered oil in the southeastern and northwestern regions of New Mexico
• 1930 Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• 1940 Conchas Dam on Canadian River completed
• 1945 The first atomic bomb was exploded at Trinity Site near Alamogordo
• 1949 Los Alamos, sight of an atomic research laboratory, becomes 32nd county
• 1950 Paddy Martinez,a Navajo Indian,founded uranium in the northwest region
• 1960 Large molybdenum deposit found near Questa
• 1962 Navajo Dam on San Juan River completed
• 1970 Completion of the San Juan-Chama project brought water to north-cental New Mexico