Interesting Facts about Texas

• Texas was inhabited by some 3,000 Native Americans when the first Europeans discovered the area in 1519. The largest tribe, the Caddo, lived in the east. Some of its members had formed the Hasinai Confederacy. The first Europeans came under the Spanish Governor of Jamaica and the leadership of Alonso Alvarez de Pinedo to explore the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico.
• The 17th and 18th centuries saw expanded Spanish settlement in Texas and the building of missions and accompanying forts. Texas had become a strong part of the Spanish colonial territory. In 1821, Mexico dissolved its relations with Spain and became independent. In 1824, Mexico became a republic under a constitutional democracy.
• In 1820, Moses Austin asked the Spanish advisors of Mexico permission to set up a small colony of Americans in Texas. The request was granted, but not until after Moses' death. Austin's son, Stephen, organized his father's dream and led 300 families into Texas in 1821, settling at Washington-on-the-Brazos and Columbus. In the next decade, several Americans established colonies in Texas. The Spanish word for these colonizers was empresarios. In 1830, due to the alarming increase in American population in Texas, Mexico ceased immigration from the United States into Mexico.
• In 1835, a year after General Lopez de Santa Anna had overthrown the government of Mexico, the Texans started a revolution to gain their independence from Mexico. Many Texans were killed at the Battle of the Alamo and at Goliad. In 1836, the Texans captured Santa Anna and gained their own independence.
• After the war, Texas became the Republic of Texas. But the new republic struggled, and in 1845, in heavy danger of collapsing due to colossal debt and danger from Mexicans and Native Americans, Texas was admitted to the United States through a joint resolution of Congress and as the last act of outgoing President John Tyler.
• In 1861, Texas abruptly left the Union to side with the other Confederate States in the Civil War. Despite strong Union feelings and a governor who refused to take oath to the Confederate constitution, Texas supplied the Confederate war effort with people and supplies, and when the Union had defeated them, underwent Reconstruction with the rest of the South.
• The twentieth century has seen a steady increase in Texan industry. Beginning with the oil booms at the beginning of the century, industry has steadily risen, accompanied by an increasing population. Today, Texas is a land of wealth, industry, and diverse people. Texans claim a rich heritage, and are rightly proud of their Lone Star State.
• The Houston Astrodome was the first domed stadium in the United States. It opened in April 1965.
• The world's first rodeo was held in Pecos, Texas on July 4, 1883.
• With over 1,000 deaths along the Gull Coast and the city of New Orleans left in chaos. Hurricane Katrina may be considered the worst U.S. natural disaster in living memory. However, on the evening of Sept. 8, 1900, an unnamed hurricane struck the low-lying Gull Coast island city of Galveston, TX, in what is still considered the most deadly U.S. natural disaster. Although they had some warning that a storm was approaching, residents were not prepared for what happened. Many reportedly had gone to the seaside to watch the rising surf, when a Category 4 hurricane, with a storm surge 15 feet or higher and wind howling at 130 mph or more, barreled into Galveston. The storm destroyed about half the homes in the city and killed 8,000 people or more, about one-fifth of the population, in just a few hours.