Though Valentine's Day is a more widely recognized celebration, Arizonans still celebrate Feb. 14, 1912 as the birthday of the state.

On this day 84 years ago, Arizona was admitted to the United States of America, becoming the 48th state of the union.

During discussion of statehood, it was proposed that Arizona and New Mexico enter the union as one state, but the popular vote of more than 200,000 residents in the Arizona Territory defeated that proposal.

President William Howard Taft refused to sign Arizona into statehood until a clause in Arizona's constitution providing for the recall of judges was omitted. The first governor was Democrat W.P. Hunt, who served for 14 years.

But long before Arizona became a state, it had an interesting history. The Arizona Territory was allied with the Confederacy during the Civil War, and one battle of the war was fought at Picacho Pass in 1862.

In 1885, the University of Arizona was established by Territorial legislation on land donated by two gamblers and a saloon keeper.

July 4, 1888, Prescott, the original state capital, held the first organized rodeo in the world that charged admission and awarded prizes, enhancing Arizona's reputation for being the "Wild West," populated by cattle ranchers and cowboys.

Although Arizona's landscape has been used as a backdrop for John Wayne movies about cowboys and saloon shoot-outs, the state is also known for its advances in astronomy.

In 1930, the planet Pluto was discovered at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff.

Several famous people are from Arizona, including Sandra Day O'Conner, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court; Rex Allen, a country music artist whose song "I Love You, Arizona" is listed as one of Arizona's state songs; and Wyatt Earp, who gained his reputation as a gunfighter in Tombstone.

Geraldo Rivera graduated from the UA, and Andrew Douglass, a former professor at the UA, is known worldwide for his advances in using pieces of wood to date prehistoric ruins.

The name "Arizona" comes from two Papago Indian words that loosely mean "place of the young spring," yet Arizona is hardly known for its water resources.

Instead, the sixth-largest state in the Union is known for the "five C's" - cotton, citrus, copper, cattle and climate € which provide the main staple of Arizona's economy.

The state motto "Ditat Deus" means "God Enriches," but tourists also enrich Arizona's economy. With attractions such as the Petrified Forest, Oak Creek Canyon, London Bridge, Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon, which brings in over 4 million tourists annually, tourists flock to Arizona, doubling the population of some Arizona cities in peak seasons.

People wishing to find out more about Arizona can contact the Arizona Historical Society.