9th March, 1916 : Several hundred Mexican guerrillas under the command of Francisco "Pancho" Villa cross the U.S.-Mexican border and attack the small border town of Columbus, New Mexico Additionally, the center of the town was burned. Villa was also influential in various attacks made during the Mexican Revolution.
9th March, 2009 : Mexican drug war spilling into US
Homes are being invaded by gunmen, people raped and tortured, and bodies dumped in the Arizona desert as violence from the Mexican drug wars spills into the American Southwest.
Illegal immigration and drug smuggling have always been issues in this border state, but warring Mexican cartels are carrying violence to levels that have shocked law enforcement and government officials.
"It's definitely being ramped up beyond anything we've ever seen before," Arizona state Senator Jonathan Paton told AFP.
"The violence in terms of kidnapping, home invasions, and assassinations here has increased. We see the violence flowing from Mexico into the US and we're seeing we have to take different steps."
