1853 - The Gadsden treaty was signed. The United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a strip of land that is now the southern part New Mexico and Arizona, where Tucson is located.
Though it looks small on the map, this area is the size of Pennsylvania.
It actually has a web site, http://www.gadsdenpurchase.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, where you can read the strange history of this diplomatic business. James Gadsden, then ambassador to Mexico, wanted to buy that piece of land as part of a planned transcontinental railroad that would link the West to the South and divert economic development from the North.
1890 - The massacre at Wounded Knee occurred.
1903 - About 600 people were killed in a fire in a theater in Chicago -- more than were killed in the Great Chicago Fire.
1940 - California's first freeway opened, between Los Angeles and Pasadena.
Southern California has been free of traffic problems ever since.
- Jim
The last time I was in California I swore I would never return...and I haven't! 