Texas History
Texas is a state in the southern United States. The capital is Austin. Other important cities include Houston and Dallas. According to ebizdir, the state borders New Mexico and Mexico to the west, Oklahoma to the north, and Louisiana and Arkansas to the east.
Native Americans who have inhabited Texas include Apache, Atakapan, Bidai, Caddo, Comanche, Cherokee, Kiowa, Tonkawa, Wichita, and Karankawa. Today, there are three federally recognized Native American tribes belonging to Texas: the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, and the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo of Texas.
Since Texas is far from a plate tectonic edge, there are no volcanoes and only a few earthquakes, and these occur mainly in the sparsely populated area of Big Bend on the western border with Mexico.
In the early 1900s, oil gained prominence, and at that time Houston and Dallas were considered two of the most prosperous cities in the world.
TIMELINE:
1519 – Spanish cartographer Alonso Alvarez de Pineda maps the Texas coastline.
1528 – Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his crew run aground on Galveston Island, dubbed “Isla de Malhado” (“Isle of Doom”), and begin exploring the area.
1543 – Spanish conqueror Luis de Moscoso discovers oil in the state. When the first Spanish explorers arrived, the area was only sparsely populated by various Native American tribes.
1682 – The first Spanish mission church, Corpus Christi de la Isleta, is established near the present-day city of El Paso.
1685 – A French explorer, La Salle, lands in Texas by mistake in his search for the Mississippi estuary. He established the colony of Fort St. louis, located in Victoria County. During the last search for the estuary, on March 19, 1687, La Salle was killed during a mutiny by Pierre Duhaut near Navasota.
1803 – The United States claims the area in connection with the Louisiana Purchase, but the area remains Spanish.
1821-36 – The state belonged to Mexico during this period, when American farmers also settled here. In 1833, the Texans revolted and declared independence. In March 1836, Mexican forces led by Antonio López de Santa Anna stormed the Fort Alamo, killing nearly 200 Americans. Among those killed were Colonel Jim Bowie and Congressman Davy Crockett.
1859 – The city of El Paso, located on the Rio Grande River, which forms the border between Mexico and the United States, is founded. Across the river lies the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, whose name was originally El Paso del Norte (the northern pass).
1942 – The Fort Hood military base is officially opened on September 18 in Killeen, and the purpose was to test and train with tank destroyers to be used against the Germans. At the end of the year, there were about 45,000 troops living and training at Camp Hood. Possibly the most famous soldier who trained here was Elvis Presley who arrived on March 28, 1958, after which he was sent to Germany on September 19.
1945 – Texas becomes an independent republic on December 29, and also the 28th state of the United States.
1963 – On November 22, famed President John F. Kennedy’s procession shot down Elm Street for a speech at the Dallas Trade Market. Kennedy was hit in the head and it was all captured on video by some spectators, most famous of them was the Zapruder movie. The alleged perpetrator, Lee Harvey Oswald, was detained but before he could be officially questioned in court 2 days later, he was murdered by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. The circumstances surrounding the attacks have since been the subject of countless speculations and conspiracy theories.
1974 – Dallas / Fort Worth Regional Airport opens to commercial traffic on January 13. The airport changed its name to Dallas / Fort Worth International in 1985. Texans can boast of having the world’s best freight airport in the world. Texas currently has 730 airports, which is the second highest number in the United States.
1977 – Texas, the state with the highest number of death sentences, was the first to introduce the ” death syringe “. Former President George W. Bush ordered a total of 152 executions in the five years he was governor (1994 → 2000). Texas has accounted for over 36% of all executions in the United States since the death penalty was reintroduced in 1976.
1983 – MOVIE: The movie ” Lone Wolf McQuade ” ( McQuade – the invincible ) premiered on April 15, which inspired Chuck Norris for his later hit TV series ” Walker Texas Ranger ” (1993-2001), but the main character and the names had to be changed when Orion Pictures owned the rights. The film was shot in El Paso.
1991 – FILM / TV: The TV pilot for a new round of Knight Rider ( Knight Rider 2000 ) with David Hasselhoff did not materialize despite high ratings. The film was shot in two cities in the state: San Antonio and Corpus Christi.
1993 – The Koresh sect’s strained relations with the authorities led to the police besieging and storming the group’s building outside the city of Waco from 28 February to 19 April; About 80 people died. Allegations of collective suicide have never been unequivocally documented. Some researchers have since accused the authorities of being responsible for the disaster.
1994-2000 – George W. Bush was governor of the state before being installed a month later in 2000 as the 43rd President of the United States.
2001 – FILM: The film Pearl Harbor premiered on May 21, and was partially shot in Corpus Christi, Houston and LaPorte.