A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
President Grover Cleveland on Saturday, Jan. 4, 1896, issued the proclamation admitting Utah to the Union as the 45th state.
Salt Lake City officials, wanting to be properly prepared for the occasion, postponed the official celebration until Monday, Jan. 6.
Historians say that early in the day, a battery of the Utah National Guard marched to Capitol Hill and fired a 21-gun salute to alert the city. Businesses closed their doors and crowds swarmed the streets, ringing bells, shooting off firecrackers and blowing whistles.
According to previous reporting in the Deseret News, Utah’s population around the time of its newfound statehood was a little less than 276,749.
Mormon Pioneer settlers had come to the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847. Soon, the Utah Territory was formed, and included all of present-day Utah, most of Nevada, and part of western Colorado and southwestern Wyoming. The territory was reduced in 1861 with the organization of Colorado and Nevada territories, and additional area was lost to Nevada in 1862 and 1866.