Current Issue: May 2008

This week in New Mexico History

May 5, 1903 — President Theodore Roosevelt visits Santa Fe and is given a rousing welcome, large parade and is entertained by Gov. Miguel A. Otero. He visited the state several times after many New Mexico "Rough Riders" enlisted in 1898.

May 6, 1942 — Corregidor Island surrenders to Japan, ending a five-month Philippines defense by many New Mexico National Guardsmen of the 200th and 515th coastal artillery units. Many died in the Bataan Death March and three years of inhumane captivity.

May 7, 1935 — The Pueblo ruins of Kuaua and Puaray along the Rio Grande north of Albuquerque are opened to the public as Coronado State Monument. Historians believe that Francisco Vazquez de Coronado encountered these villages during his epic explorations.

May 9, 1950 — A fire crew fighting the Capitan Gap fire in Lincoln National Forest rescues a bear cub clinging to a tree. The burned animal later became known as Smokey Bear and the cub grew into a national symbol for the prevention of forest fires. The bear lived on and later died of natural causes and his body was returned from Washington, D.C., to be buried in the same area of the Lincoln fire.