This date in Utah history
Moments from Utah's past, in calendar order. Each entry links to the record it comes from. The homepage shows the entry for today's date, or the next one coming up.
January
Utah becomes the 45th state
President Grover Cleveland issued a proclamation on Jan. 4, 1896, admitting Utah to the Union as the 45th state. It ended an effort that began in 1849, when newly arrived settlers first asked Congress for statehood. They petitioned seven times over 45 years before Utah was admitted.
The Bear River Massacre
On Jan. 29, 1863, U.S. Army troops of the Third California Volunteers under Col. Patrick E. Connor, sent from Camp Douglas near Salt Lake City, attacked a Northwestern Shoshone winter camp on the Bear River near present-day Preston, Idaho. The Shoshone call the place Boa Ogoi. The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation counts some 350 of its people killed.
February
Salt Lake City opens the Winter Olympics
President George W. Bush opened the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games at Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium on the night of Feb. 8, 2002, five months after the Sept. 11 attacks. "On behalf of a proud, determined, and grateful nation, I declare open the Games of Salt Lake City," he said.
Utah Territory passes women's suffrage
Utah's acting territorial governor signed "An Act conferring upon women the elective franchise" on Feb. 12, 1870. Two days later, women voted in Salt Lake City's municipal election. Congress took the vote away from Utah women in 1887 with the Edmunds-Tucker Act.
Seraph Young casts her ballot
Seraph Young voted in Salt Lake City's municipal election on Feb. 14, 1870, two days after Utah Territory's suffrage act was signed. The Deseret Evening News reported that it believed she was the first woman to record her vote in that election. Her ballot is remembered as a milestone in the history of women's voting in the United States.
The University of Deseret is founded
The school now called the University of Utah was officially founded as the University of Deseret on Feb. 28, 1850, less than three years after Latter-day Saint settlers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Brigham Young had assembled its board of regents. Its first classes met that November, and it took its current name in 1892.
March
Utah's constitutional convention begins
Delegates met on March 4, 1895, to begin writing a constitution for the future state of Utah, the main requirement Congress set in its 1894 Enabling Act. Over two months they debated the structure of state government, the separation of church and state and woman suffrage.
The Castle Gate mine disaster
Explosions tore through a coal mine at Castle Gate in Carbon County on March 8, 1924. A headlamp ignited methane gas, which set off airborne coal dust in a chain of blasts. The disaster changed the lives of more than 100 families, and a state relief fund later helped widows and their children.
April
Arches National Monument is created
President Herbert Hoover signed Presidential Proclamation No. 1875 on April 12, 1929, establishing Arches National Monument. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower later changed its boundaries. Arches became a national park in 1971 and was enlarged again in 1998.
May
The Winter Quarters mine disaster
At 10:25 a.m. on May 1, 1900, an explosion ripped through the Winter Quarters No. 4 mine near Scofield and into the No. 1 mine, both run by the Pleasant Valley Coal Company. Scofield residents rushed to rescue miners. State coal mine inspector Gomer Thomas later wrote a series of letters on the disaster and how to prevent another.
Delegates sign Utah's constitution
Utah's constitutional convention read, adopted and signed the handwritten copy of the state constitution on May 8, 1895, each delegate signing as his name was called. Clerk Joseph A. Smith had copied the whole document in one hand. Eight absent delegates had until Oct. 15 to add their names. Voters approved it that November.
The transcontinental railroad is completed
The first transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869. The site is now Golden Spike National Historical Park, where crowds gathered for the 100th anniversary in 1969 and about 50,000 visitors came over three days for the 150th in 2019.
June
Bryce Canyon becomes a national monument
Bryce Canyon National Monument was established on June 8, 1923, under the U.S. Forest Service. Congress approved a Utah National Park there in 1924 and renamed it Bryce Canyon National Park in 1928, but the park did not become official until that September, after state and private land inside it was sold to the United States.
July
Golden Spike comes under federal ownership
Golden Spike National Historic Site was established under federal ownership on July 30, 1965, at the place where the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. The site had been designated in 1957 but was not federally owned. Congress made it a national historical park in 2019.
September
Farnsworth transmits a television image
Philo T. Farnsworth used his newly designed image dissector to send the image of a single straight line to a receiver in the next room of his San Francisco laboratory on Sept. 7, 1927. Farnsworth had studied at Brigham Young University in Provo and opened a radio repair business in Salt Lake City, where he met the investors who funded his lab.
Congress creates Utah Territory
Congress established Utah Territory on Sept. 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850, giving the region a territorial government. Sen. Henry Clay had introduced the territorial bill that January. Utah remained a territory for more than 45 years, until statehood in 1896.
Topaz opens in the Sevier Desert
The Central Utah Relocation Center, later named Topaz, officially opened on Sept. 11, 1942, in the Sevier Desert of central Utah. The federal government held Japanese Americans there during World War II after removing them from the West Coast. Most of the people held at Topaz came from the San Francisco area.
Bryce Canyon National Park becomes official
Bryce Canyon National Park was officially established on Sept. 15, 1928, when the remaining state and private land inside it was sold to the United States and management passed from the U.S. Forest Service to the National Park Service. Congress had approved the park in 1924 and its current name that February.
October
States sign the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact
Representatives of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming signed the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact in Santa Fe, N.M., on Oct. 11, 1948. It divides the Upper Basin's share of Colorado River water among them. The compact took effect only after each state's legislature ratified it and Congress approved it.
Timpanogos Cave becomes a national monument
President Warren G. Harding signed a proclamation on Oct. 14, 1922, setting aside Timpanogos Cave National Monument in American Fork Canyon. It came 14 months after the cave's rediscovery and less than a month after an official request for protection from people in nearby communities worried about mining and vandalism.
Settlers arrive at what became Payson
Three wagons carrying the families of James Pace, Andrew Jackson Stewart and John Courtland Searles arrived on Oct. 20, 1850, at the site of today's Payson, according to the Payson Historical Society. More families followed that November and December. The settlement was first named Peteetneet, after a Ute leader who lived in the area.
The transcontinental telegraph is completed
The transcontinental telegraph was completed on Oct. 24, 1861, when the Overland Telegraph Company's line reached Salt Lake City, days after the Pacific Telegraph Company finished the eastern section. That evening Brigham Young wrote the first telegram sent from Salt Lake City to San Francisco. Messages could now cross the country far faster than the Pony Express.
Camp Douglas is established
Col. Patrick E. Connor's Third California Volunteer Infantry established Camp Douglas near Salt Lake City on Oct. 26, 1862, with orders to protect the overland mail route and keep watch on the Latter-day Saint settlers. Named for the late Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, the post became Fort Douglas. The fort was transferred to the University of Utah between 1991 and 1993.
Arches National Park grows
President Bill Clinton signed Public Law 105-329 on Oct. 30, 1998, enlarging Arches National Park. It was the latest of several boundary changes since President Herbert Hoover created Arches National Monument in 1929; Congress had made it a national park in 1971.
Topaz closes
The Central Utah Relocation Center, known as Topaz, closed on Oct. 31, 1945. After the Supreme Court's decision in a case brought by Mitsuye Endo, who was held at Topaz, many people were free to leave, and many went home to California when the war ended that August. Most of the camp's buildings were later sold, moved or torn down.
November
Martha Hughes Cannon wins a state Senate seat
Physician Martha Hughes Cannon was elected to the Utah Senate on Nov. 3, 1896, the first woman elected to a state senate in the United States. She was one of five Democrats running at large in Salt Lake County; her husband, Angus Cannon, was among the Republicans. She served two terms and focused on public health.
Voters approve Utah's constitution
Utah voters ratified the proposed state constitution on Nov. 5, 1895, by a vote of 31,305 to 7,607. Delegates had drafted it at a convention earlier that year. The president's proclamation announcing the result and admitting Utah to the Union as a state followed on Jan. 4, 1896.
The University of Deseret's first classes
The University of Deseret held its first classes on Nov. 11, 1850, with 25 male students. Women were admitted in the second term, making it one of the first schools in the West to do so. Founded that February, the school was renamed the University of Utah in 1892.
Arches becomes a national park
President Richard M. Nixon signed Public Law 92-155 on Nov. 12, 1971, changing Arches from a national monument to a national park. Arches had been protected since 1929, when President Herbert Hoover proclaimed the monument, and its boundaries were changed several times along the way.
Zion becomes Utah's first national park
President Woodrow Wilson signed the law establishing Zion National Park on Nov. 19, 1919, making it Utah's first national park. The canyon had been protected since 1909 as Mukuntuweap National Monument; Wilson enlarged it and renamed it Zion National Monument in 1918. Sen. Reed Smoot of Utah introduced the park bill.
December
Capitol Reef becomes a national park
President Richard Nixon signed Public Law 92-207 on Dec. 18, 1971, establishing Capitol Reef National Park, five weeks after Arches became a national park. The area had been protected since Aug. 2, 1937, when President Franklin Roosevelt signed a proclamation creating Capitol Reef National Monument.