Texas History Timeline

Events 1 - 100 of 265

• 1528-11-06 Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca becomes first known European to set foot in Texas
• 1685-02-18 Fort St. Louis is established by a Frenchman at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.

• 1823-01-03 Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
• 1826-12-16 Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican controlled Nacogdoches, Texas and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
• 1829-08-25 President Jackson makes an offer to buy Texas, but Mexican government refuses
• 1835-10-02 Battle of Gonzales fought between Texan settlers and Mexican forces. First engagement of the Texas revolution

• 1836-03-16 Constitution of the Republic of Texas approved, legalises slavery
• 1836-04-21 Battle of San Jacinto, Texas wins independence from Mexico

• 1836-10-22 Sam Houston inaugurated as 1st elected President of the Republic of Texas

• 1842-03-05 Over 500 Mexican troops led by Rafael Vasquez invade Texas, briefly occupy San Antonio and then head back to the Rio Grande.

• 1845-07-04 Texas Congress votes for annexation to US
• 1845-10-13 Texas ratifies a state constitution
• 1845-12-29 Texas admitted as 28th state of the Union
• 1846-02-19 Texas state government formally installed in Austin
• 1846-04-25 Thornton Affair: Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War
• 1846-05-03 Mexican Army begins the Siege of Fort Texas near Brownsville, Texas, during the Mexican–American War
• 1846-05-08 First major battle of the Mexican–American War fought at Palo Alto, Texas
• 1848-02-02 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican–American War. Mexico loses 55 percent of its territory to the US, including California, Nevada and Utah in exchange for $15 million.
• 1855-02-14 Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
• 1858-01-09 Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide
• 1861-02-01 Texas secedes from the Union (which precipitates the American Civil War)
• 1861-03-16 Edward Clark becomes Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who is evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy (US Civil War)
• 1861-04-05 Federals abandon Ft Quitman, Texas
• 1861-04-25 Battle of Lavaca, fought in Texas, Union victory (US Civil War)
• 1861-05-16 Major General Twiggs surrenders to Confederate Army in San Antonio, Texas (US Civil War)
• 1861-08-03 Federal fleet bombards Galveston, Texas
• 1861-08-12 Skirmish at Texas - rebels are attacked by Apache Indians
• 1862-10-05 Federal fleet occupies Galveston, Texas
• 1863-01-01 Battle of Galveston, Texas-Confederates recapture the city
• 1863-09-08 Battle of Sabine Pass Texas: 47 Texas volunteers repel Federal forces
• 1863-11-27 -29] Battle at Fort Esperanza, Texas
• 1863-11-30 Confederate troops vacate Fort Esperanza, Texas
• 1864-08-04 Land & naval action new Brazos Santiago, Texas
• 1865-05-12 Last land action of Civil war at Palmito Ranch, Texas
• 1865-05-13 Battle of Palmito Ranch, near Brownsville, Texas: final engagement of the American Civil War, Private John Jefferson Williams of B Company, 34th Regiment Indiana Infantry is last man killed
• 1865-05-26 US Civil War Battle of Galveston, (Texas) - Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith negotiates a surrender

• 1868-06-01 Texas constitutional convention meets in Austin
• 1870-03-30 Texas becomes last confederate state readmitted to Union
• 1874-01-17 Armed Democrats seize Texas government ending Radical Reconstruction
• 1881-04-14 The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight in El Paso, Texas.
• 1886-10-12 Hurricane & sea surge kills 250 at Indianola Texas
• 1891-05-19 Rice Institute, which became Rice University in Houston, Texas, is chartered
• 1891-09-03 Cotton pickers organize union & stage strike in Texas
• 1895-08-19 American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin is shot and killed by John Selman Sr. in a saloon in El Paso, Texas
• 1896-05-15 Tornado kills 78 in Texas
• 1899-06-29 Brazo River in Texas floods 12 miles wide causing $10 million damage
• 1900-09-08 6,000 killed when a hurricane & tidal wave strikes Galveston, Texas
• 1901-01-10 Oil discovered at Spindletop, Beaumont, marking the start of the Texas oil boom (gusher age)

• 1902-04-07 Texas Oil Company (Texaco) forms
• 1904-10-29 First intercity trucking service (Colorado City & Snyder, Texas)
• 1905-04-29 2" rain falls in 10 mins in Taylor, Texas

• 1915-08-17 Hurricane makes landfall near Galveston, Texas killing 275, and causing $50M damage
• 1915-09-22 Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, holds its 1st class
• 1917-01-16 "Zimmermann Telegram" is sent from Germany to Mexico, offering promise of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico being given to Mexico in return for joining World War I if the US enters on the Allied side; British intelligence intercepts the communication and partially deciphers it by the next day. It's release in March shifts US public opinion in favor of war against Germany.
• 1917-08-23 Race riot in Houston Texas (2 blacks & 11 whites killed)
• 1917-10-19 US Army opens Love Field, a military airplane pilot training center, in Dallas, Texas
• 1919-07-13 Race riots in Longview, Gregg County, Texas
• 1922-03-02 WBAP-AM, Fort Worth Texas, begins broadcasting
• 1922-05-02 WBAP-AM begins broadcasting from Fort Worth, Texas
• 1922-11-20 Zoe Akins' play "Texas Nightingale" premieres in NYC
• 1923-01-04 1st broadcast of "Barn Dance Show" (WBAP - Fort Worth Texas)
• 1924-11-04 Miriam (Ma) Ferguson one of the first two women elected US governor (of Texas) [See also Nellie Tayloe Ross, of Wyoming]
• 1925-01-08 1st all-female US state supreme court appointed, Texas
• 1925-01-10 Miriam (Ma) Ferguson sworn in as Governor of Texasr, 2nd US woman governor, 1st ever elected
• 1925-10-16 Texas School Board prohibits teaching of evolution
• 1925-12-15 1st road with a depressed trough (Texas) opens to traffic
• 1929-05-11 Dr Annie Webb Blanton forms Delta Kappa Gamma Society in Austin, Texas
• 1932-01-26 KUT-AM in Austin Texas changes call letters to KNOW
• 1933-02-08 -23°F (-31°C), Seminole, Texas (state record)
• 1934-03-05 Mother-in-law's day 1st celebrated (Amarillo, Texas)

• 1934-04-18 C.A. Tannahill opens 1st US "Washateria" (laundromat) in Fort Worth, Texas; four electric washing machines available for hourly rental - no dryers were available
• 1936-08-12 120°F (49°C), Seymour, Texas (state record)
• 1937-03-18 Gas explosion in school in New London, Texas: 294 die
• 1937-03-26 Spinach growers of Crystal City, Texas, erect statue of Popeye
• 1938-11-28 4th Heisman Trophy Award: Davey O'Brien, Texas Christian (QB)
• 1940-03-14 27 killed, 15 injured when truck full of migrant workers collides with a train outside McAllen, Texas
• 1940-09-16 Samuel Rayburn of Texas elected speaker of US House of Representatives
• 1941-01-21 1st commercial extraction of magnesium from seawater, Freeport, Texas
• 1941-06-20 German U-203 fails on torpedo attack on US battleship Texas
• 1943-02-24 Texas League announces it will quit for the duration of WW II
• 1943-06-15 Race riot in Beaumont, Texas erupts killing 2
• 1943-09-07 Fire in decrepit old Gulf Hotel kills 45 (Houston, Texas)
• 1946-06-21 10 die in fire at Baker Hotel, Dallas, Texas
• 1947-04-09 Tornadoes striking West Texas & Oklahoma kill 169, injuring 1,300
• 1947-04-16 Fire aboard French-flagged cargo ship SS Grandchamp, docked at Port of Texas City, Texas and loaded with 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate causes massive explosion and spreads to nearby ships and oil facilities; deadliest industrial accident in US history kills 581, including all but one member of the city's fire departments
• 1948-09-28 WBAP-TV, (NBC affiliate) Fort Worth Texas, begins broadcasting
• 1949-03-02 Lucky Lady II (USAF B-50 Superfortress), completes 1st nonstop round- the-world flight at Fort Worth, Texas, covering 23,452-mis in 94 hrs
• 1949-03-08 WBAP-FM, Fort Worth Texas, begins broadcasting

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Birthdays 1 - 100 of 994

• 1788-04-14 David G. Burnet, interim president of the Republic of Texas, born in Newark, New Jersey (d. 1870)

• 1796-04-10 James Bowie, American pioneer and soldier (Texas Revolution), born in Logan, Kentucky (d. 1836)
• 1798-01-20 Anson Jones, 5th and last President of Texas, born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts (d. 1858)

• 1815-10-16 Francis Lubbock, Governor of Texas (d. 1905)
• 1816-04-21 Louis Wigfall, American politician (Confederate States Senator from Texas 1862-85), born in Edgefield, South Carolina (d. 1874)
• 1829-09-24 Charles S. West, American jurist and politician, born in Camden, South Carolina (d. 1885)
• 1839-03-09 Felix Huston Robertson, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas (d. 1928)
• 1846-07-26 Texas Jack Omohundro, American frontier scout, actor, and cowboy, born in Palmyra, Virginia (d. 1880)
• 1858-10-15 Frank Valentine der Stucken, American-Belgian composer, born in Fredericksburg, Texas (d. 1929)
• 1868-11-22 John Nance Garner, American Democratic politician and lawyer (32nd Vice President of the U.S.), born in Red River County, Texas (d. 1967)

• 1871-08-31 James E. Ferguson, American Democratic politician and Texan Governor (1915-17), born in Salado, Texas (d. 1944)
• 1871-12-05 Bill Pickett, American rodeo performer (invented bulldogging), born in Jenks-Branch, Texas (d. 1932)
• 1875-06-13 Miriam (Ma) Ferguson, US politician, 1st US elected woman governor, Governor of Texas (1925-27, 1933-35), born in Bell County, Texas (d. 1961)

• 1880-08-10 Robert L. Thornton, American businessman, philanthropist, and Mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1964)
• 1882-03-06 Guy Kibbee, American actor (Big Shot), born in El Paso, Texas (d. 1956)
• 1882-07-10 Ima Hogg, American society leader, Texas arts patron. and founder of Houston Symphony, born in Mineola, Texas (d. 1975) [1]
• 1884-01-12 (Mary Louise) "Texas" Guinan, American vaudeville singer, silent film actress, and speakeasy (saloon) proprietor, born in Waco, Texas (d. 1933)
• 1884-04-17 Leo Frank, American convict (murder of a 13-year-old employee), born in Cuero, Texas (d. 1915)

• 1886-04-03 (Arthur) "Dooley" Wilson, American piano player, singer, and actor (Casablanca; Stormy Weather; Beulah), born in Tyler, Texas (d. 1953)
• 1888-03-17 Frank Buck, American actor (Africa Screams, Tiger Queen, Tiger Fangs), born in Gainesville, Texas (d. 1950)
• 1888-04-15 Florence Bates, American actress (Moon & Sixpence, Love Crazy, San Antonio), born in San Antonio, Texas (d. 1954)
• 1888-09-26 J. Frank Dobie, American folklorist and newspaper columnist, born in Live Oak County, Texas (d. 1964)
• 1889-02-17 H[aroldson] L Hunt, Texas oil tycoon (East Texas Oil Field), born near Ramsey, Illinois (d. 1974)

• 1891-10-28 Ormer Locklear, American movie stunt pilot (The Great Air Robbery), born in Greenville, Texas (d. 1920)
• 1892-11-07 Edward Sedgwick, American film director (The Flaming Frontier, Let 'er Buck), born in Galveston, Texas (d. 1953)
• 1892-12-15 David Guion, American composer (Home on the Range), born in Ballinger, Texas (d. 1981)
• 1893-09-06 Claire Chennault, American aviator and military leader (Flying Tigers), born in Commerce, Texas (d. 1958)
• 1893-09-24 "Blind" Lemon Jefferson, American blues singer and guitarist, born in Coutchman, Texas (d. 1929)
• 1894-02-08 King Vidor, American film director (War & Peace, Stella Dallas), born in Galveston, Texas (d. 1982)
• 1894-11-21 Corinne Griffith, American actress dubbed "The Orchid Lady of the Screen" (3 Hours, Lilies of Field), born in Texarkana, Texas (d. 1979)
• 1895-04-09 Beau De Glen "Mance" Lipscomb, American blues singer and guitarist ("Shine On, Harvest Moon"), born in Navasota, Texas (d. 1976)
• 1895-07-21 Ken Maynard, American stuntman and actor (Phantom Rancher, $50,000 Reward), born in Vevay, Indiana (d. 1973)
• 1895-07-23 Florence Vidor, American actress (Jack Knife Man), born in Houston, Texas (d. 1977)
• 1895-08-16 Lucien Littlefield, American actor (Blondie), born in San Antonio, Texas (d. 1960)
• 1895-10-28 John Boles, American singer and actor (Babes in Baghdad), born in Greenville, Texas (d. 1969)
• 1895-11-29 Yakima Canutt [Enos Edward], American rodeo cowboy, actor and director (Texas Terror), born in Colfax, Washington (d. 1986)
• 1896-09-13 Morris Kirksey, American 4 X 100m (Olympic gold 1920), born in Waxahachie, Texas (d. 1981)
• 1896-10-01 Ted Healy [Ernest Nash], American vaudeville, stage, and screen actor, comedian (Mad Love, San Francisco, Soup to Nuts), and creator of the Three Stooges, born in Kaufman, Texas (d. 1937)
• 1897-11-17 Sara Haden, American actress (A Family Affair), born in Galveston, Texas (d. 1981)
• 1898-01-15 Dutch Meyer, American College Football Hall of Fame coach (National C'ship 1935, 38; TCU), born in Ellinger, Texas (d. 1982)
• 1898-03-13 Josie Sedgwick, American actress (The Best Man, Queen of the Round-Up), born in Galveston, Texas (d. 1973)
• 1898-09-10 Bessie Love, American actress (Broadway Melody; Children of Damned), born in Midland, Texas (d. 1986)

• 1899-04-26 Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, American actor (Hoedown, Country Fair, Blackmail), born in Decatur, Texas (d. 1962)
• 1899-06-22 Dorothy Devore, American actress (Narrow Street, Senior Daredevil), born in Fort Worth, Texas (d. 1976)
• 1899-06-30 Madge Bellamy [Margaret Derden Philpott], American actress (White Zombie, The Iron Horse), born in Hillsboro, Texas (d. 1990)
• 1899-12-21 Guy Wilkerson, American actor (Dead or Alive, West of Texas, Shootin' Iron), born in Whitewright, Texas (d. 1971)
• 1900-08-11 Charles William Paddock, Texas, American athlete and 100m record breaker (Olympic-2 gold-1920) (d. 1943)
• 1900-10-22 James Hall, American actor (Hell's Angels, Four Sons), born in Dallas, Texas (d. 1940)
• 1900-11-05 Martin Dies, Jr., American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas), born in Colorado City, Texas (d. 1972)
• 1901-01-14 Bebe Daniels, American actress (42nd Street, Lonesome Luke), born in Dallas, Texas (d. 1971)
• 1901-03-21 Carmelita Geraghty, American actress (My Best Girl, Texas Ranger), born in Rushville, Indiana (d. 1966)
• 1901-04-09 Sharon Lynn [D'Auvergne Sharon Lindsay], American silent and sound screen actress (Way Out West; The Big Broadcast), born in Weatherford, Texas (d. 1963)
• 1902-01-16 Evelyn Danzig [Levine], American songwriter ("Scarlet Ribbons"), born in Waco, Texas (d. 1996)
• 1902-07-18 (Theodore Childress) "Chill" Wills, American pop baritone singer (Avalon Boys), and actor (The Alamo; Rounders), born in Seagoville, Texas (d. 1978)
• 1902-08-07 Ann Harding, American actress (East is West, Janie), born in San Antonio, Texas (d. 1981)
• 1902-10-17 Irene Ryan [Noblitt], American actress (Beverly Hillbillies - "Granny"; Pippin), born in El Paso, Texas (d. 1973)
• 1903-06-08 Ralph Webster Yarborough, American politician, U.S. Senator from Texas (1957-71), born in Chandler, Texas (d. 1996)

• 1903-10-05 M. King Hubbert, American geologist and geophysicist, born in San Saba, Texas (d. 1989)
• 1903-11-01 Don Robey, American record label executive (Peacock; Duke) and record producer, born in Houston, Texas (d. 1975)
• 1904-07-04 Seger Ellis, American jazz pianist, pop vocalist, songwriter, and bandleader, born in Houston, Texas (d. 1995) [1]
• 1904-12-08 Wilmer Allison, American tennis player (US Nat C'ship 1935), born in San Antonio, Texas (d. 1977)
• 1905-01-25 Julia Smith, American composer (Prairie Kaleidoscope; Cynthia Parker), pianist (Orchestrette Classique), teacher, and musicologist (Aaron Copland: His Work and Contribution to American Music), born in Denton, Texas (d. 1989)
• 1905-03-06 Bob Wills, American western-swing singer, and bandleader, known as the 'King of Western Swing' (Texas Playboys -"Steel Guitar Rag"), born in Limestone County, Texas (d. 1975)

• 1905-08-20 (Weldon Leo) "Jack" Teagarden, American jazz trombonist (Paul Whiteman, 1933-38; Louis Armstrong's All-Stars, 1946-51), singer ("Basin Street Blues"), and bandleader, born in Vernon, Texas (d. 1964)
• 1905-09-19 Leon Jaworski, American Watergate scandal special prosecutor, born in Waco, Texas (d. 1982)
• 1905-12-05 Bruce Drake, American Basketball Hall of Fame coach (University of Oklahoma 1938-55, 200-181), born in The Gentry, Texas (d. 1983)

• 1906-01-03 Doc Hayes, American basketball coach (Southern Methodist University 1947-67), born in Krum, Texas (d. 1973)
• 1906-01-12 (Woodward) "Tex" Ritter, American country singer (5 Star Jubilee, "Wayward Wind"), born in Murvaul, Texas (d. 1974)
• 1906-01-22 Robert E. Howard, American pulp fiction author (Conan the Barbarian), born in Peaster, Texas (d. 1936)

• 1906-10-27 Earle Cabell, American politician, 48th Mayor of Dallas (1961-64), born in Dallas County, Texas (d. 1975)
• 1907-01-22 Douglas Corrigan, American pilot, born in Galveston, Texas (d. 1995)
• 1907-03-27 Claude Stroud, American actor (Breakfast at Tiffany's; Ted Knight Show; Duke), born in Kaufman, Texas (d. 1985)
• 1907-04-12 Hardie Gramatky, American author and animator (Little Toot), born in Dallas, Texas (d. 1979)
• 1907-07-04 Elliott Sullivan, American actor (The Persuaders!, Fury Below, Sergeant), born in San Antonio, Texas (d. 1974)
• 1907-08-03 Adrienne Ames, American actress (Death Kiss, Panama Patrol), born in Fort Worth, Texas (d. 1947)
• 1907-09-17 Helen Vinson, American actress (Transatlantic Tunnel, In Name Only), born in Beaumont, Texas (d. 1999)
• 1907-09-29 Gene Autry, American cowboy singer, songwriter, actor, musician, ("Back In The Saddle Again"; "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer") and business tycoon (owner MLB Angels team, 1961-97), born near Tioga, Texas (d. 1998)
• 1908-03-17 Radie Britain, American composer, born near Silverton, Texas (d. 1994)
• 1908-08-20 Kingsley Davis, American sociologist and demographer (coined the term "population explosion"), born in Tuxedo, Texas (d. 1997)

• 1908-10-05 Joshua Logan, Broadway producer (South Pacific), born in Texarcana, Texas (d. 1988)
• 1908-10-20 Stuart Hamblen, American singer and composer (This Ole House), born in Kellyville, Texas (d. 1989)
• 1908-12-20 Francis Turner, American civil engineer (oversaw the Interstate Highway System), born in Dallas, Texas (d. 1999)

• 1909-03-29 Aubrey "Moon" Mullican, American hillbilly pianist, songwriter, and singer ("Seven Nights To Rock"), born in Polk County, Texas (d. 1967)
• 1909-07-16 (John Edward) "Teddy" Buckner, American dixieland jazz trumpeter, born in Sherman, Texas (d. 1994)
• 1909-12-28 Billy Williams, American singer (Your Show of Shows), born in Waco, Texas (d. 1984)

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