On the sixth day of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Six geese-a-laying
Five golden rings, four calling birds
Three French hens, two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.

The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest on Jan. 30, 1853 in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.

The Gadsden Purchase was a 29,670-square-mile region of modern southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the United States in a treaty signed by James Gadsden, the American ambassador to Mexico at the time, on December 30, 1853. It was then ratified, with changes, by the U.S. Senate on April 25, 1854 and signed by President Franklin Pierce, with final approval action taken by Mexico on June 8, 1854. The purchase was the last major territorial acquisition in the contiguous United States, adding a large area to the United States.