Video: 'Statehood: What Took So Long'

(Saturday, January 6, 1912, 1:35 p.m. EST) — New Mexico was admitted as the 47th state of the United States today after U.S. President William Howard Taft signed the proclamation.

New Mexico had been eligible for statehood 60 years earlier but was delayed due to its majority of the population being “alien” (i.e. Mexican-American).

William C. McDonald was its first governor, and Albert B. Fall and Thomas B. Catron were its first U.S. Senators.