Arizona to celebrate 106 years on Feb. 14
This upcoming Wednesday doesn’t just mark Ash Wednesday or Valentine’s day, but another birthday for the “Baby State”, Arizona. While Arizona’s statehood might not be the first thing to come to your mind when thinking of February 14th, it’s unique backstory is one all its own. It wasn’t an easy or short process making the leap from a territory to a state, in fact that came forty-nine years later. During this time the territory had earned a reputation for gunfights, drunkards, prostitutes and utter disregard for the law. It would be another 14 years after the Spanish-American War before Arizona would join the union.
Arizona becomes 48th state in the Union
The morning of Wednesday, Feb. 14, 1912 at 10:23 a.m., President William Howard Taft signed the papers in Washington D.C. making Arizona the 48th state.
Arizona’s flag officially adopted in 1917
The Arizona flag displays 13 rays of red and gold on the top half of the flag represent both the 13 original colonies of the Union, and the rays of the Western setting sun. Red and gold were also the colors carried by Coronado’s Spanish expedition in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola in 1540. The bottom half of the flag has the same Liberty blue as the United States flag. Since Arizona was the largest producer of copper in the nation, a copper star was placed in the flag’s center.
