1846: William "Billy" Breakenridge, who became a Cochise County Deputy Sheriff, Deputy U.S. Marshal and a special officer for the Southern Pacific Railroad and who wrote the book "Helldorado" about Tombstone, is born.
1905: The first State Fair opens in Phoenix under authority of a legislative act.
1906: Tombstone Prospector describes a new innovation for the Christmas season ... "one of the novelties during the Christmas celebration this year are artificial Christmas trees ... The imitation is so exact a production of the real article that it is difficult to tell the difference between the two."
1916: Tucson experiences its first white Christmas — four inches of snow fall on the area. Extreme cold weather causes a coal shortage throughout all of southern Arizona.
1929: Part of the U.S. border is moved two blocks north to include the big municipal Christmas tree in Nogales, Ariz. so that some 3,000 children living in Nogales, Sonora could come to the tree to receive gifts of candy, toys and clothing.
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1934: George W.P. Hunt, seven-time governor of Arizona, dies at age 75. His body lay in state in the Capitol rotunda under the Great Seal of Arizona, which he helped design.
1987: Another white Christmas in Tucson — three inches of snow blankets the area. More on the area's last Christmas snowfall from the National Weather Service, Tucson Weather Forecast Office:
Back in 1987, a weather system that developed in the Gulf of Alaska on December 21st, moved into the Pacific northwest on the 22nd. On the 23rd, this storm started to gain strength over Nevada and Utah as colder air from Canadian was driven south over the western states as strong high pressure built over western Canada.
Further strengthening of this storm occurred on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as this storm moved through Arizona. Temperatures on the 24th remained steady in the lower to mid 40s until just before lunch. A cold rain started to fall just before noon, with the temperature falling into the upper 30s. The remainder of the day saw a mixture of rain and snow showers or just snow showers as the thermometer fell to the freezing mark. At the end of the day, the Tucson International airport measured one inch of snow while the University of Arizona recorded 2".
With the thermometer hovering around the freezing mark, snow showers continued during the morning hours of Christmas Day. The high temperature on Christmas Day was 43 degrees with the airport measuring an additional 2.6" of snow while the University of Arizona measured 1.7". The two day snow total was 3.6" at the airport and 3.7" at UA.
Although the airport recorded a trace of snow on Christmas Day in 1974, the last previously measured snow at the official recording location in Tucson on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day occurred in 1941 (1.2" on the 24th).Snowfall on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day in Tucson.
1911 - Christmas Day (0.5")
1916 - Christmas Day (4.0")
1941 - Christmas Eve (1.2")
1974 - Christmas Day (T)
1987 - Christmas Eve (1.0")
1987 - Christmas Day (2.6")
Want to share an important event from Tucson's history? Email it to krumore@azstarnet.com.
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