New Mexico's first 100 years: Lots of history ... and more to come
SANTA FE - Turning 100 years old guarantees that one has endured bumps, bruises, bad times.In New Mexico's case, reaching its first century also meant it had a vital part in America's triumphs and advances. Indeed, the state played a key role in saving the planet from dictators.
New Mexico became the 47th state on Jan. 6, 1912. It had been a U.S. territory for more than 60 years before that. Statehood was achieved as the Mexican Revolution raged to the south.
William Howard Taft was America's president, fighting for another term in a three-way campaign. He would lose.
Jim Thorpe was training for the upcoming Olympic Games in Stockholm, but not many people had time to focus on such diversions.
Most Americans lived in rural areas 100 years ago. There was no minimum wage. Many workers were on the job 12 hours a day, six days a week. In that time, the American West was growing to its limits. New Mexico received statehood eight days before Arizona did. They were the last of the lower 48 states to be admitted to the union. Alaska and Hawaii would become states in 1959.
Four years after statehood, New Mexico became familiar to the rest of America. It happened when a Mexican revolutionary's army attacked a small New Mexico border town.
During World War II, New Mexico housed the laboratory in Los Alamos that would be critical to the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb. The bomb would first be tested in the state's southern desert.
Atomic bombs ended the war and spared American soldiers from a dangerous land invasion of Japan. Nuclear warfare also led to an arms race that critics said made the world more cynical and dangerous.
After World War II, federal dollars for labs and military bases remained critical to New Mexico's economy.
Now, for every dollar New Mexico residents pay in federal taxes, the state gets back more than $3.30 in federal allocations, says U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
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