1. On September 24, 1781, Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and his party arrived at what is now Tucson, Arizona, on their way to establish a mission in San Francisco. This event marked the first Euro-American settlement in the area that is now Arizona.

2. In 1869, the first train arrived in Tucson, linking the town with the rest of the country and vastly increasing its importance as a regional center of commerce and transportation.

3. On September 24, 1960, the USS Arizona Memorial was dedicated in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to honor the 1,177 sailors and Marines who died when the battleship USS Arizona was sunk during the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. The memorial was designed by Arizona architect Alfred Preis.

4. The Phoenix Suns, Arizona's professional basketball team, played their first game ever on September 24, 1968, losing to the Seattle SuperSonics 129-118. The Suns would go on to become one of the most successful franchises in NBA history, reaching the NBA Finals twice and recording over 2,000 regular-season victories.

5. On September 24, 1996, Arizona governor Fife Symington was convicted on charges of fraud related to his business dealings prior to taking office. He was later pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2001, but the conviction remains a significant event in Arizona political history.