National New Mexico Day Date in the current year: June 14, 2025

New Mexico is a landlocked state in the Southwestern United States. It is bordered by Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. It also shares an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora.

Long before Europeans arrived, the territory that is now New Mexico was inhabited by prehistoric Native American cultures, such as the Mogollon and the Ancestral Puebloans. The Ancestral Puebloans had such vast trade networks that the Aztecs had legends about an unseen northern empire that rivaled their own. They called this empire “a new Mexico” (Yancuic Mexico).

These legends inspired Spanish conquistadors to explore lands north of the Aztec Empire after conquering the Aztecs in the 16th century. In 1598, the Spanish claimed the area as a colony and named it Santa Fe de Nuevo México. In 1610, New Mexico Governor Pedro de Peralta founded La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís (present-day Santa Fe) and designated it the provincial capital.

However, the Spanish were expelled from their new province by the Indigenous Pueblo people in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, led by Po’pay. Several years later, when Po’pay died, the Spanish were able to restore their control of the region in 1692 without using force.

After the Mexican War of Independence in 1821, New Mexico became part of the First Mexican Empire, followed by the Mexican Republic. However, Mexican control over the province was limited and fragile for several reasons: its distance from the Mexican capital, resistance from Indigenous peoples, the desire of Hispanic settlers to maintain autonomy, and American influence resulting from trade between the U.S. and New Mexico via the Santa Fe Trail.

The United States occupied New Mexico in 1846 during the Mexican-American War. Two years later, the region was formally ceded to the U.S. by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. As part of the Compromise of 1850, New Mexico formally became a United States territory.

The newly established Territory of New Mexico included all of present-day New Mexico, most of present-day Arizona, parts of present-day Colorado and Nevada, and small portions of Utah. In 1861, the western portion of the territory was split off to create the Arizona Territory. Over time, other parts were gradually absorbed into Colorado, Nevada, and Utah as those territories and states were formed.

Despite being eligible for statehood, New Mexico’s admission was delayed because its majority-Hispanic population was considered “alien”. New Mexico was finally admitted to the Union as the 47th state on January 6, 1912.

National New Mexico Day was established as part of the National State Days project launched by National Day Calendar in 2017. This project celebrates the rich history, culture, and heritage of each state in the order that they joined the Union, beginning with National Delaware Day on July 13. In this cycle, National New Mexico Day falls on June 14.