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 20^TH CENTURY CHRONOLOGY

1906 U.S. owner of Cananea cooper mine in Sonora calls in Arizona Rangers to put down a workers’ strike.

1910 Moderate Francisco Madero proclaims "Plan of San Luis Potosi" – calling for revolt against Diaz and free elections. Beginning of Mexican Revolution as rebellions break out in the north and in Puebla.

1911 After 35 years of rule, Diaz resigns and goes in exile to France.  Madero returns from exile in the U.S. and is elected President in October.  Emiliano Zapata declares Madero a traitor, drafts "Plan of Ayala," and calls for land redistribution.

1913 Victoriano Huerta (with U.S. involvement) has Madero killed and assumes Presidency.  Pancho Villa and Venustiano Carranza (north) and Zapata (south) all take up arms against Huerta.

1914 U.S. troops occupy Veracruz to deprive Huerta of arms shipments.

1916 Villa raids town of Columbus, NM; U.S. army under Pershing invades Mexico in search of Villa.

1917 Pershing and his troops withdraw from Mexico, having failed to find Villa.

1919 Carranza uses treachery to have Zapata murdered.

1920 Obregon overthrows Carranza, who is killed. Villa ends his rebellion.

1923 U.S. and Mexico sign Bucareli agreements, guaranteeing sanctity of U.S. property in Mexico in exchange for U.S. recognition of Obregon’s government.  Villa assassinated.

1924 U.S. gives Obregon arms to suppress a coup.  Mexico recognizes Soviet Union.  Plutarco Calles elected President.

1926 Calles’ anti-clerical policies lead to "Cristero Rebellion," an uprising of priests and peasants.

1928 Calles succeeded by Obregon as President, and then Obregon is assassinated in July.

1929 National Revolutionary Party (PNR) founded; Cristero Rebellion suppressed. Calles chooses Emilio Portes Gil as President.

1934 Lazaro Cardenas assumes Presidency, with support of workers, peasants, and military.

1936 Cardenas sends Calles into exile. Cardenas arms 60,000 peasants to support land reform movement.

1938 Cardenas nationalizes oil industry. U.S. responds with economic sanctions.

1940 Manuel Avila Camacho succeeds Cardenas as President.

1942 U.S. and Mexico initial bilateral "Bracero Program" for contract Mexican labor into U.S.

1943 Mexico declares Texas off-limits to the Bracero Program because of racism.

1946 Miguel Aleman elected President. Ruling party renamed Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

1952 Adolfo Ruiz Cortines succeeds Aleman as President.  U.S. begins to deport illegal Mexican workers as part of "Operation Wetback."

1954 Women in Mexico granted the right to vote.

1958 Adolfo Lopez Mateos elected President.

1963 U.S.. and Mexico settle Chamizal boundary dispute, which arose in 1864 when the Rio Grande changed its course and passed 440 acres of Mexican territory to the U.S. side of the river.

1964 Gustavo Diaz Ordaz assumes Presidency.  Bracero Program officially ended, although some contracts extend to 1968.

1965 Border Industrialization Program created by Mexican government; in-bond plants (maquiladores).

1968 Tlatelolco student massacre by Mexican troops, just prior to Olympics in Mexico City.

1970 Luis Echevarria Alvarez elected President.

1976 Jose Lopez Portillo becomes President. Record oil revenues lead to excessive government spending and foreign debt.

1980 Mexico decides not to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

1981 Oil prices plummet late in year.

1982 Mexico forced to suspend payments on principal of foreign debt. Banking system nationalized.  Miguel de la Madrid elected President. Austerity program and neoliberal restructuring begin.

1985 Mexico City hit by earthquake on September 19^th: prompts upsurge of popular organizing.

1986 Mexico joins GATT, ushering in period of trade liberalization.

1988 Carlos Salinas de Gortari defeats opposition candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas in presidential elections; massive voter fraud and protests.

1989 Cardenas forms the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).  PAN (The Authentic Revolutionary Party) wins first governorship, in Baja California (north).

1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (Tratado de Libre Comercio) – starts January 1^st.  Uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas – on January 1^st.  On March 23rd Luis Donoldo Colosio, the PRI's presidential candidate, is assassinated while campaigning in Tijuana, Baja California.  Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon elected President.  On December 21st the government of President Zedillo devalues the peso, and foreign investment flees the country, triggering one of the worst economic crises in Mexican history.

1997 On July 6th in midterm elections, the PRI loses its majority in the lower house of Congress for the first time since the party's founding. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, is elected mayor of Mexico City by a landslide.

1999 On November 7th the PRI holds its first presidential primary, ending a tradition that allowed the sitting president to pick the party's candidate. Francisco Labastida, widely believed to be Zedillo's choice as a successor, wins the vote easily.

2000 Vicente Fox Quesada (PAN) elected President.