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On September 08, 1900, a category four hurricane with winds of 100 mph devastated 1/3 of Galveston island city. Approximately 6,000 to 8,000 people died, and about 3,500 buildings were destroyed. It was known as the deadliest natural disaster in the U.S. and the biggest flood recorded, having 6-9 feet higher than the previous one. Citizens implemented a reformed government featuring a five-man city commission to help rebuild the city. -
On January 10, 1901, under a salt dome formation at Spindletop Hill south of Beaumont in eastern Jefferson County, at a depth of 1,139 feet, an huge geyser of oil exploded from drilling
over 100 feet. The geyser reached a height of more than 150 feet and produced approximately 100,000 barrels a day. After that, a booming oil industry such as Gulf Oil, Texaco, and Exxon grew up around there. It transformed southeastern Texas with thousands of people moving there and enriched the state economy. -
On June 28, 1919, the legislature of Texas approved a resolution ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment. It became the ninth and the first southern state to accept white women the right to vote. A great victory for the Woman Suffrage Movement - WSM in Texas that fought for their rights since 1848, the formal beginning of the suffrage movement, and in 1893, they created the first statewide woman suffrage organization, formed in Dallas, the Texas Equal Rights Association. -
At the age of 49, Miriam Amanda Wallace Ferguson, known as Ma Ferguson, was the first woman to be elected on two non-consecutive terms. The first was from 1925 to 1927 and reelected six years later, from 1933 to 1935. She promised extensive cuts in state appropriations, condemned the Ku Klux Klan, and opposed passing new liquor legislation. Her campaign sought justification for the Ferguson name. Her husband, a former governor of Texas, had been impeached on charges of corruption. -
In October 1929, the stock market crashed and marked the start of the harshest times called the Great Depression. From 1929 to 1939, industrial production declined because of the low demand. Consequently, many companies and banks failed and left 15 million Americans unemployed, and rose the number of homeless people in the towns. Farmers couldn't afford to harvest their crops, and people were starving. Things started to change with Roosevelt's election and his programs.
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In June 1950, Heman Marion Sweatt received authorization from the U.S. Supreme Court in Sweatt v. Painter case to enter the University of Texas School of Law. In 1946, the university denied his admission because he was black. He brought legal action against the university with the help of the NAACP. The court concluded that Mr. Sweatt had the right to equal educational opportunity to that available at the University of Texas Law School, one of the nation’s ranking law schools. -
August 28, 1963, the African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of the most iconic speeches in American history. On the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., more than 250,000 civil rights supporters listened to the speech where he claimed for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the U.S. It marked the moment of the civil rights movement and influenced the Federal gov. to take direct actions to more fully realize racial equality.
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John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the U.S. on November 22, 1963, was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Oswald was caught but never stood trial for murder because he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby. From inside the Texas School Book Depository, he fired the gunshots that killed the president. The first shot pierced the base of the president's neck, and the second hit the back of the head. He couldn't resist and was officially declared dead at 1:00 PM. -
On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. It became the most comprehensive civil rights legislation of the century. Its passage altered the political loyalty in the south where the opposition to the law was strong. Many southern people who supported the Democratic Party became a Republican. -
Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and Buzz Aldrin flew on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Apollo 11 blasted off on July 16, 1969, and on July 20, 1969, Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon, followed by Aldrin. They walked around for three hours and joined Collins, who stayed in orbit around doing experiments and recording the mission. Armstrong and Aldrin also did experiments and picked up bits of moon dirt and rocks. On July 24, 1969, all three returned to Earth.
