Andrew Heath

By andrew_heath
  • Aug 22, 1519

    Alonso Alvarez de Pineda maps the Texas coast

  • Mar 27, 1541

    Explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado crosses the Texas Panhandle.

  • Nov 6, 1554

    A Spanish treasure fleet shipwrecks off of present-day padre island.

  • Jun 13, 1581

    Spaniard Hernan Gallegos writes about the lives of the Jumano Indians in Texas.

  • Juan de Onate crosses the Texas Panhandle on his way to Quivira.

  • Spaniards first record seeing Apache Indians riding horses.

  • A group of colonists led by French explorer Rene-Robert cavalier Sieur de La Salle lands in Matagorda Bay in Texas.

  • The Spanish build a mission called San Francisco de los Tejas.

  • Martin de Alarcon establishes the San Antonio de Valero mission.

  • Settlers from the Canary islands arrive in San Antonio.

  • Rancher Tomas Sanchez establishes the town of Laredo.

  • The Marques de Rubi expedition begins.

  • Antonio Gil Ybarbo founds the town of Nacogdoches in East Texas.

  • Spanish priest Juan Agustin Morfi, author of the History of Texas dies.

  • Phillip Nolan a U.S. citizen receives permission to capture wild horses in Texas.

  • U.S. citizen James Long and a small force invade Texas only to be defeated by Spanish forces.

  • Mexico, which includes Texas, wins its independence from Spain.

  • The Spanish government grants Moses Austin permission to found a colony in Texas.

  • The Spanish government grants Moses Austin permission to found a colony in Texas.

  • Settler Jared Groce plants a cotton crop possibly the first in Stephen F. Austin's colony.

  • About 3,000 Anglo settlers live in Texas without permission of the Mexican government

  • Mexican officials adopt the constitution of 1824. Coahuila and Texas are merged to form one state.

  • An american Indian attack on the Green DeWitt colony forces settlers to flee Gonzales.

  • Empresario Martin de Leon settles families on the lower Guadalupe river.

  • The Fredonian Rebellion begins when Haden Edwards declares independence from Mexico.

  • Stephen F. Austin receives a contract to settle an additional 100 families in Texas.

  • General Manuel de Mier y Teran begins a tour of Texas for the Mexican government.

  • Thomas J. Pilgrim organizes a Sunday school and private boy's school in San Felipe.

  • The Texas Gazette newspaper begins publication begins in Austin's colony.

  • President Guerrero issues a decree ending slavery in Mexico, but an exemption is made for Texas.

  • On April 6 Mexico issues a law that changes rules on immigration and trade in Texas.

  • The town of Gonzales receives a cannon from the Mexican government to protect the town against Indian attack.

  • Mary Austin Holley's letters, describing life in early Texas, are published.

  • Texas farmers export some 7,000 bales of cotton worth about $315,000 to New Orleans.

  • Stephen F. Austin is arrested in Saltillo.

  • An estimated 1,000 U.S immigrants enter Texas each month.

  • Texas settlers hold about 3,500 land grants.

  • Texans become concerned when the Mexican government officially abolishes the constitution of 1824.

  • Texas settlers attack Mexican soldiers at Gonzales, forcing them to leave.

  • Texas troops push Mexican troops out of San Antonio capturing the city.

  • The siege of the Alamo begins.

  • Texans win the Battle of San Jacinto, ending the Texas Revolution.

  • The first official Texas flag is adopted by the Texas Congress.

  • The Texas Declaration of Independence is adopted.

  • The Texas government begins work in Houston, the new Texas capital.

  • Sam Houston becomes the first popularly elected president of the Republic of Texas.

  • The U.S. Congress authorizes a diplomat to go to Texas.

  • Texans elect Mirabeau B. Lamar president.

  • Velasco citizens hold a horse race on the coast near the town.

  • William H. Wharton is elected to the Texas Senate.

  • France becomes the first European nation to recognize Texas as an independent country.

  • Texas passes a law, protecting settlers' homes from being seized to pay debts.

  • Repeated attacks and discrimination force more than 100 Tejano families to leave Nacogdoches.

  • Austin, the new capital, has 850 residents.

  • The first college chartered by the Republic, Rutersville college is founded

  • Galveston University opens its doors to five students.

  • President Mirabeau B. Lamar sends the Texas Navy to the Yucatan coast.

  • Texans again elect Sam Houston as President of the Republic.

  • William Kennedy publishes Texas; The Rise, Progress , and Prospects of the Republic of Texas.

  • Snider de Pellegrini, director of a French colonization company brings 14 settlers to Texas.

  • General Adrian Woll and about 1,400 Mexican soldiers capture San Antonio.

  • The Tehuacana Creek Councils lead to peace between Texans and several Texas Indians groups.

  • President Sam Houston sends troops into East Texas to end the Regulator Moderator War.

  • Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels comes to Texas followed by a group of German immigrants.

  • Texans elect Anson Jones president of the Republic.

  • At least 30,000 enslaved African Americans live in Texas.

  • The United States annexes Texas

  • On December 29 the U.S. Congress officially admits Texas to the union and approves its first state constitution.

  • Thomas J. Rusk and Sam Houston become the first Texans to serve in the U.S. Senate.

  • Fighting breaks out between U.S. forces and Mexican troops at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.

  • Texas signs a peace treaty with the Penateka Comanches.

  • George T. Wood is elected governor of Texas.

  • Samuel H. Walker dies in combat during a conflict in Mexico.

  • A state census reports the states population at more than 142,000.

  • Texans cast their first votes as U.S. citizens in a presidential election.

  • The Texas population reaches 200,000 peoples.

  • In her book (Texas in 1850), Melinda Rankin describes the state and urges people to move to Texas

  • Work on the Port Isabel Lighthouse. When completed, its light could be seen from 16 miles away.

  • U.S. Army troops abandon Fort Worth after settlers move farther west beyond the fort.

  • After many false starts track is finally laid for the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railway.

  • The American, or Know-Nothing party becomes active in Texas.

  • The Governor's mansion is built in Austin.

  • Slaves in Colorado County acquire weapons and plan a rebellion but the plot is discovered before it can begin.

  • The Butterfeild Overland Mail begins taking passengers and mail by stage coach from Missouri, through Texas, and on to California.

  • Sam Houston easily defeats incumbent Hardin Runnels in the election for Texas governor.

  • A series of clashes occurs between Texas Rangers and Mexican Americans near Brownsville.

  • Texas produces a record crop of more than 400,000 bales of cotton.

  • Texans vote, by more than three to one, to secede from the United States.

  • Troops leave San Antonio for new Mexico, planning to capture the Southwest for the Confederacy.

  • The Texas frontier regiment is established.

  • Union forces capture Galveston.

  • President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.

  • A Union attempt to invade Texas is turned back at Sabine Pass.

  • Union troops capture Brownsville.

  • The Texas cattle population increases rapidly during the Civil War.

  • In a battle near Mansfield, Louisiana Confederate forces stop a Union invasion of northeastern Texas.

  • Colonel Christopher '' Kit'' Carson leads an attack against plains Indians in the Texas Panhandle.

  • The last land battle is fought in Texas

  • The Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect in Texas, freeing the states's slaves.

  • African American George T. Ruby is elected as a delegate to the Republican National Convention.

  • Fort Richardson is established near Jacksboro.

  • Republican Edmund J. Davis is elected governor.

  • Texas cowboys move a herd of 15,000 cattle to market. It is the largest single herd of the era

  • Edmund J. Davis is elected governor, the last Republican to hold the office until bill Clements was elected.

  • Texas has 583 miles of railroad lines.

  • A public school system is created in Texas.

  • Ranchers begin to ship thousands of cattle from Denison after the Missouri Kansas-Texas Railroad

  • The Democratic Party regains full control of state government.

  • Plains Indians attack a group of buffalo hunters in the Battle of Adobe Walls.

  • Comanche leader Quanah Parker surrenders, ending the Red River War.

  • Texas adopts a new constitution.

  • The Texas legislature passes a law that allows the state to fund railroads with land grants.

  • About 2,700 animals die during a cattle stampede near the Brazos River.

  • Texas A&M University opens as a all male military institution.

  • Texas adopts the constitution that governs the state today.

  • Apache leader Victorio launches raids along the Texas-Mexico border.

  • The Texas and pacific railway meets the southern Pacific line near El Paso, forming the first transcontinental railroad through Texas.

  • A ranch in the Panhandle purchases enough barbed wire to fence 250,000 acres.

  • The University of Texas formally opens.

  • The knights of labor begin a major strike against Jay Gould's railroad company.

  • There are more than 8,000 miles of railroad track in Texas.

  • The Texas Legislature passes the Antitrust Act of 1889.

  • Texas normal college and Teacher's institute, now called the University of North Texas, opens up in Denton.

  • James Stephen Hogg-the first native-born Texan to become governor- is elected.

  • The Texas railroad Commission is established to regulate railroads in Texas.

  • A leading association of former farmers endorses the Populists Party.

  • Drillers strike oil in Corsicana.

  • The first football game is played between the University of Texas and Texas A&M.

  • Teddy Roosevelt organizes and trains the Rough Riders in San Antonio.

  • Texas has more than 350,000 farms, and almost half of all farmers are tenant farmer

  • A hurricane hits Galveston, killing some 6,000 to 8,000 people.

  • The Spindletop well strikes oil producing more than 17 million barrels of oil the next year.

  • The Spindletop oil strike spurs the growth of the Texas oil industry.

  • The Corsicana Oilers set a baseball record by beating the Texarkana team 51 to 3.

  • A large oil strike is made in the Humble oil field in Harris County.

  • The first Neiman Marcus department store opens in Dallas.

  • oil is discovered at Goose Creek along Galveston Bay.

  • Jovita Idar becomes the first president of the league of Women.

  • The Houston Ship Channel opens, and Houston soon becomes an important oil refining center.

  • The Houston Ship Channel is completed, leading to the growth of industry in the Houston area.

  • The Texas legislature passes the first state law requiring children to attend school.

  • Texas ratifies the Eighteenth Ammendment to the United States constitution, which bans the the sale or manufacture of alcohol.

  • Texas troops are sent to France to fight in World War l.

  • After decades of fighting for the right to vote, women are allowed to vote in Texas primary elections.

  • An application is filed to drill for oil on state-owned land in west Texas. Several years later the Santa Rita No. 1 strikes oil.

  • Governor William Hobby breaks a dockworker's strike in Galveston.

  • Texans elect Miriam A ''Ma'' Ferguson as the state's first female governor.

  • Automobile regulations reach 1 million.

  • For the first time in the state's history, the majority of Texans vote for a Republican presidential candidate - Herbert Hoover.

  • Some 300,000 Texans are unemployed.

  • James V Allerd is elected governor of Texas.

  • Texas celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Texas Revolution.

  • Texans elect W. Lee ''Pappy'' O'Daniel as governor

  • The Southern Aircraft corporation, the first airplane manufacturer in Texas, is formed.

  • Large numbers of Texans volunteer for military service in World War ll.

  • The U.S. Supreme court declares the Texas white primary unconstitutional.

  • A Texas law establishing white primaries is struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Smith v. Allwright.

  • Texan Audie Murphy receives the metal of honor for stoping a german tank attack in France.

  • More than 3 million automobiles are registered in Texas.

  • Allan Shivers successfully runs as governor a third term.

  • Women are allowed to serve on Texas juries for the first time.

  • Texas women call for an equal rights amendment to the state constitution.

  • Texas musician Buddy Holly is killed in a plane crash.

  • The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Texas owns Gulf coastal tidelands up to a 10.35-mile limit.

  • Henry B. Gonzalez is elected to the house of representatives, and John Tower is elected to the U.S. Senate.

  • The Manned Space Center, now the Johnson Space Center, is built in Houston.

  • Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president of the United States after President John F. Kennedy is assassinated.

  • Texas Instruments releases the first handheld calculator.

  • The National Aeronautics and Space Administration sends Apollo mission to the Moon.

  • Members of the chicano movement and the Mexican American Youth Organization form La Raza Unida Party.

  • Barbra Jordan is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

  • Texan Barbra Jordan is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the first black woman from the South to serve in the Congress.

  • Austin City Limits goes on air with Willie Nelson as its first guest musician.

  • A major attempt to adopt a new Texas constitution fails.

  • Texas population reaches 14 million.

  • Texas writer Larry McMurtry receives the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Lonesome dove.

  • Raul Gonzalez is elected to the Texas Supreme Court. He is the first Mexican American elected to statewide office.

  • Texas musician Stevie Ray Vaughan is killed in a helicopter crash.

  • The North American Free Trade Agreement is passed, easing trade among the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

  • George W. Bush takes office as governor.

  • Rick Perry becomes the 47th governor of Texas.

  • The Texas state government employs more than 230,000 people in more than 200 agencies, with a two-year budget totaling more than $ 98 billion.

  • Republicans gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

  • Texas becomes the national leader in wind power generation.

  • texas timber industry earned more than $ 1.9 billion in 2007

  • sales of Texas livestock totaled more than $ 10.8 billion in 2007

  • Rick Perry becomes the longest-serving governor in Texas history. He was elected governor again in 2010.

  • Cowboys Stadium, later renamed AT&T Stadium, opens in Arlington.

  • In 2011 the value of Texas cotton production reached over 1.5 billion.

  • Texas receives its lowest ever rainfall.

  • Texas exports of computers and electronics were worth more than $ 45 billion in 2012

  • Based on the 2010 Census, Texas gains four new seats in Congress.

  • Texas exports more than $134 billion worth of goods.