1. In 1862, the Battle of Valverde took place near Valverde, New Mexico Territory. It was one of the largest Civil War battles fought in the west and resulted in a Confederate victory.

2. On December 5, 1918, New Mexico officially ratified the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which established Prohibition. This made the sale and consumption of alcohol illegal in the state.

3. In 1945, the United States government announced that the world's first nuclear explosion had occurred on July 16 of that year near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The top-secret project, led by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, was known as the Manhattan Project.

4. The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science opened its doors on December 5, 1986, in Albuquerque. The museum features exhibits on geology, paleontology, and astronomy, among other topics.

5. In 2017, New Mexico Senator Tom Udall introduced legislation in the US Senate to establish the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument near Las Cruces. The monument preserves over 500,000 acres of scenic and culturally significant land in southern New Mexico.