Today in New Mexico History:
March 1, 1873 — Catherine McCarty, mother of Billy the Kid, married William H. Antrim in Santa Fe. Antrim was one of the Kid's many aliases.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 2, 1867 — All the territory north of 37th parallel was given to Colorado in the Civil Expenses Appropriation act. NM lost 122,469 square miles. 14 Statutes at Large 466
Today in New Mexico History:
March 2, 1867 — Congress abolished peonage in New Mexico, 14 Statutes at Large 546.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 2, 1881 — Billy the Kid wrote the fourth of six letters to Gov. Lew Wallace from a Santa Fe jail, asking for a meeting to discuss their 1879 agreement and his criminal case.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 3, 1891 — Congress replaced the New Mexico Surveyor General with the Court of Private Land Claims. The court assumed the function of validating Spanish and Mexican land grants because of the failures of the Surveyor's office since 1854.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 4, 1862 — Govenor Henry Connelly fled Santa Fe with 120 wagons toward Las Vegas just ahead of Confederate troops who were quickly advancing up the Rio Grande Valley.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 7, 1539 — Fray Marcos de Niza and Estevan, the Moor, left Culiacan, Mexico, to explore New Mexico. Later Zuni Indians kill Estevan, but de Niza returned with false stories confirming the Seven Cities of Cibola. The Indians distrusted Estevan because he wore jewelry depicting serpents and, also, because he demanded women from the pueblo.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 8, 1823 — The short-lived Mexican empire of Augustine Iturbide ended, primarily because of insufficient funds to pay the army. By the time news reached New Mexico, Iturbide had already been executed.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 9, 1916 — General Ramon Banda Quesada led an attack, ordered by Mexican revolutionary leader Francisco "Pancho" Villa, on the small community of Columbus. After the attack, the Mexican insurgents retreated back into Mexico.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 10, 1862 — The Confederate army marched into Santa Fe to find that the Palace of the Governors had been abandoned. Troops raised the Confederate flag over the Palace.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 11, 1907 — Chaco Canyon National Monument opened under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service with impressive Ancestral Pueblo stone ruins that date back to 1000 B.C.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 11, 1925 — With the signature of Gov. Arthur Hannett, New Mexico adopted the current state flag, a red Zia symbol on a field of yellow, that replaced the original flag and symbolized the Spanish royal colors.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 13, 1879 — Billy the Kid wrote the first of six letters to Gov. Lew Wallace, offering to testify against others in the Lincoln County War for immunity. They met four days later in Lincoln.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 14, 1933 — The Legislature created the New Mexico Motorcycle Patrol (chief and nine patrolmen), but the state police replace them two years later because of the number of Patrol accidents.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 16, 1903 — The New Mexico Assembly created Leonard Wood County, named after the former Rough Rider and U.S. Army Chief of Staff, but the public demanded the county be renamed Guadalupe in 1905.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 16, 1916 — Gen. John "Black Jack" Pershing led American troops from Columbus, N.M., 400 miles into Mexico in search of Pancho Villa's men who led a raid on the town the week earlier. They eluded his pursuit.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 17, 1879 — Gov. Lew Wallace and Billy the Kid met in Lincoln on the condition that The Kid testify against others involved in the Lincoln County War in exchange for immunity.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 18, 1938 — The second Rio Grande Compact is signed in Santa Fe by Colorado, Texas and New Mexico to distribute equal water from the Rio Grande Basin, but New Mexico since has had trouble delivering the quota to Texas.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 23, 1862 — Confederate forces under General Henry H. Sibley formally captured Santa Fe. Two separate advance units entered the capital on the 10th and 13th and reported that the city was unguarded.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 25, 1999 — First nuclear waste arrives at the Carlsbad Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), more than twenty years after Congressional authorization.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 27, 1881 — Billy the Kid wrote his last letter to Governor Lew Wallace, reminding him of their 1879 agreement and asking for help in The Kid's upcoming criminal trial in Mesilla.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 27, 1953 — At 7:25 pm, an Air Force F-86 jet fighter at 600 knots saw and chased a bright orange circle flying at 800 knots and executing three fast rolls, Project Bluebook # 2524.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 26-28, 1862 — Confederate soldiers defeated outnumbered Union troops near Glorieta Pass, but the Union's covert destruction of Rebel supplies in the rear forces the graycoats to evacuate to the south.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 28, 1881 — Billy the Kid began his journey from Santa Fe to La Mesilla where he would be tried and convicted of killing Sheriff William Brady in 1878.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 30, 1609 — Founding of Santa Fe. Viceregal instructions were given to Don Pedro de Peralta to build a presidio and six districts around a plaza. The new settlement was named La Villa Real de Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis. Recently discovered documents, however, suggest that Santa Fe actually might have been founded two years earlier.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 30, 1914 — Adolfo Padilla was lynched in Santa Fe. He was facing charges of having brutally beaten and killed his young wife, when he was pulled from the jail by his neighbors and stabbed to death multiple times. This was the last reported lynching in New Mexico, and the first since statehood.
Today in New Mexico History:
March 30, 1982 — The space shuttle landed for the first, and so far only, time in New Mexico. The Columbia at White Sands Missile Range landed on the Northrup Strip, renamed later that year as the "White Sands Space Harbor".
Today in New Mexico History:
March 31, 1950 — The town of Hot Springs in Sierra County officially changed its name to Truth or Consequences at the urging of national game show host Ralph Edwards, who sponsored a national contest with incentives to any community in the nation that would change its name to that of his popular game show.
Today in New Mexico History:
April 1, 1878 — Sheriff William Brady and George Hindman were ambushed and killed on the streets of Lincoln. Among those suspected of the murders was Billy the Kid, who later was tried and convicted of the deed.
Socorro Public Library Archive 
Today in New Mexico History:
March 11, 1925 — With the signature of Gov. Arthur Hannett, New Mexico adopted the current state flag, a red Zia symbol on a field of yellow, that replaced the original flag and symbolized the Spanish royal colors.
