History
Southern Arizona has been inhabited by human beings for several millennia. The Hohokam were the principal Pre-Columbian inhabitants of the area. In more recent times, the dominant indigenous group of Native Americans have been the O'odham tribe, which continues to reside in this area in their traditional homeland.
Several Spanish missions were established in the early 18th century by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino in what was then known as the Pimería Alta. After the Mexican-American War of 1846-47, much of Southern Arizona was purchased by the United States from Mexico for $15,000,000 in the Gadsden Purchase of 1854.
More recently, Southern Arizona had an important role to play during the Cold War. Davis-Monthan AFB was the home base of an air force wing of 18 heavy Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles dispersed over a wide area at launch sites – south, southwest, and southeast of Tucson. About 20 years ago, due to their advancing age and the advent of several important Strategic Nuclear Weapons Reduction treaties, all of these missiles were retired from service. All but one of their launch silos and command shelters were demolished with explosives. The remaining site, Titan II ICBM Site 571-7, about 15 miles south of Tucson on Interstate 19, serves as the Titan Missile Museum, a National Historic Landmark.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“If man is reduced to being nothing but a character in history, he has no other choice but to subside into the sound and fury of a completely irrational history or to endow history with the form of human reason.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what fatal indulgence of subordinate views and passions, a contest for an atom had defeated well founded prospects of giving liberty to half the globe.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)