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Texas History Timeline

Important Dates, Events, and Milestones in Texas History

Offers a chronological timeline of important dates, events, and milestones in Texas history.

Corn farmers settle near the Presidio in the area where the Rio Grande and Rio Conchos join around 1500 BCE. It is now believed to be the oldest continuously cultivated farmland in Texas. From 800-1500 BCE, the farmers and hunters build and occupy stone dwellings located southeast of Perryton on the northern edge of the Panhandle. Today this area is called the Buried City. By 1400 CE Texas composed of numerous small tribes, the Caddo Confederacy establishes a agriculture-based civilization in east Texas. Today the Caddo Nation is a federally recognized tribe with its capital in Binger, Oklahoma.

Spanish missionaries were the first European settlers in Texas, founding San Antonio in 1718. Hostile natives and isolation from other Spanish colonies kept Texas sparsely populated until following the Revolutionary War and the War of Mexican Independence, when the newly established Mexican government began to allow settlers from the U.S. to claim land there. Texas negotiated with the U.S. to join the union in 1845.

16th Century Texas History Timeline

Early European Exploration and Settlement

1519 - Mid - Spanish explorer Alonso Alvarez de Pineda maps Texas coastline.
1528- Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca shipwrecked near Galveston begin exploration.
1541 - Francisco Vázquez de Coronado crosses the Texas Panhandle in search of in search of the seven cities of Cibola.

1554 - Coronado dies. He is one of the first white men to explore Texas, and leader of one of 20 Spanish explorations of the area.
1598 - April 30 - Thanksgiving is held near present-day El Paso by Juan de Onate, the members of his expedition and natives of the region.

17th Century Texas History Timeline

1629 - Jumano Indians requested Spanish missionaries from New Mexico to travel to the vicinity of present-day San Angelo and instruct the Jumanos about Christianity.

1682 - First Spanish mission, Corpus Christi de la Isleta, is established a few miles from present-day El Paso.

1685 - February 16 - French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, looking for the mouth of the Mississippi River, lands in Texas by mistake. He establishes a colony, Fort St. Louis, on Garcitas Creek in present-day Victoria County.

March 19, 1687 - La Salle is killed by several of his own men at an unknown East Texas location.

January 1688 - Colonists at Fort St. Louis not felled by Indians, disease, poisonous snakes and malnutrition are finished off by Karankawa Indians.

1689 - April 2 - Spanish Gen. Alonso de Leon's expedition finds the remains of Fort St. Louis. Fearing French intentions to lay claim to Spanish territory, the Spanish begin establishing missions and settlements in East Texas.
1690 - May - First East Texas mission under construction, San Francisco de los Tejas, near present-day Weches, Houston Co. The mission is closed in 1693.

18th Century Texas History Timeline

1716-1789 - Throughout the 18th Century, Spain established Catholic missions in Texas, and the towns of San Antonio, Goliad and Nacogdoches.

1716 - Spanish build a presidio, Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de los Tejas, to protect the East Texas missions.
1718 -May 1 - San Antonio de Valero mission, known as the Alamo was the chapel, is founded in San Antonio.
1720 -February - San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo mission founded near San Antonio de Valero.
1731 -

• 3 East Texas missions moved to San Antonio because of economic troubles, and named Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion de Acuna, San Francisco de la Espada and San Juan Capistrano.
• March 7 - 55 Canary Islanders arrive in San Antonio to establish a civilian settlement, San Fernando de Bexar.
• Aug. 1 - First election held in Texas, voters choose officials of the municipal government of San Fernando.

1745 - Missions at San Antonio are producing thousands of pounds of cotton annually.

1758 - March 16 - Santa Cruz de San Sabá mission near present-day Menard destroyed and eight residents killed by Comanches and their allies.

1759 - August - Spanish troops on a retaliatory raid are defeated by Indian residents of a large encampment at Spanish Fort in present-day Montague County.

1766 - Sept. 4 - Texas' first recorded hurricane strikes near Galveston.

1779 - Group of settlers led by Antonio Gil Ybarbo (sometimes spelled Ibarvo or Y'barvo) establishes a civilian community near an abandoned mission site; the new town is called Nacogdoches.

19th Century Texas History Timeline

1810 - Sept. 16 - Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costillo and several hundred of his parishioners seize the prison at Dolores, Mexico, beginning Mexico's struggle for independence from Spain.

1812 -August 8 - About 130-men strong, the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition crossed the Sabine from Louisiana in a rebel movement against Spanish rule in Texas.

1813

• Texas' first newspaper, Gaceta de Texas, founded by Jose Alvarez de Toledo in Nacogdoches.
• Dec. 26 - Spanish government grants Moses Austin permission to establish a colony of Anglo-Americans in the Texas area. When he dies the following June, his son, Stephen F. Austin, receives authority to continue the colonizing effort.

1814 - June- Moses Austin dies, his son, Stephen F. Austin, receives authority to continue the colonizing effort.

1817-1820 - Jean Laffite occupied Galveston Island and used it as a base for his smuggling and privateering.

1818 - September 12 - A hurricane wrecks the fleet of pirate Jean Lafitte in Galveston.

1821 -

• Aug. 24 - Mexico gains independence from Spain.
• October 13 Jane Long gives birth to the first Anglo child born in Texas, a girl named Mary James.

1823 - Jan. 3 - Stephen F. Austin received a grant from the Mexican government and began colonization in the region of the Brazos River. Mexican officials approve Austin's plan to bring three hundred families into his colony. This group becomes known as the "Old Three Hundred."

Mid-1824 - Constitution of 1824 gave Mexico a republican form of government. It failed to define the rights of the states within the republic, including Texas

1826 - Dec. 21 - The Declaration of Independence of the republic of Fredonia is signed at Nacogdoches.

1827- January 31 - This so-called Fredonian Rebellion is an attempt by empresario Haden Edwards to separate his colony from Mexico. The rebels flee when approached by Mexican troops.

1829 - October - First of several large groups of Irish immigrants arrive to settle in South Texas.

1830 - April 6 - Mexican government stops legal immigration into Texas from the United States except in special cases. Relations between Anglo settlers and the Mexican government deteriorate.

1831 - Johann Friedrich Ernst, his wife and five children are the first German family to arrive in Texas, settling in present-day Austin County.

Revolution and the Republic of Texas

1832 - June 26 - First bloodshed of the Texas Revolution takes place at Velasco when Texans, transporting a cannon from Brazoria to Anahuac, are challenged by Mexican forces at Velasco. The Mexicans surrender on June 29.
1835

• Oct. 2 - Mexican troops attempt to retrieve a cannon that had been given to Gonzales colonists for protection from Indian attack. The skirmish that ensues as Gonzales residents dare the Mexicans to "come and take it" is considered the opening battle of the Texas Revolution.
• Oct. 10 - Gail Borden begins publishing the newspaper "Telegraph and Texas Register" at San Felipe de Austin.
• Nov. 1 - A "consultation" convenes at San Felipe; on Nov. 7 the delegates agree to establish a provisional government.
• Nov. 24 - The Texas Rangers organization is officially established by Texas' provisional government. Although Stephen F. Austin had hired 10 frontiersmen as "rangers" to help protect his colonists against Indian raids in 1823, not until 1835 was the law-enforcement group formally organized.

1836

• March 2 - Texas Declaration of Independence is adopted at Washington-on-the-Brazos.
• March 6 - 3-day siege of the Alamo by Mexican troops led by Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ends on this day with a battle in which all remaining defenders are killed.
• March 10 - Sam Houston abandons Gonzales and retreats eastward to avoid the advancing Mexican army. Panicky settlers in the area flee as well in an exodus called the Runaway Scrape.
• March 27 - About 350 Texan prisoners, including their commander James Fannin, are executed at Goliad by order of Santa Anna. An estimated 30 Texans escape.
• April 21 - In a battle lasting 18 minutes, Texan troops led by Sam Houston defeat the Mexican army commanded by Santa Anna at San Jacinto near present-day Houston. Houston reports that 630 Mexican troops were killed and 730 were taken prisoner. Of the Texas troops, nine of a force of 910 were killed or mortally wounded, and 30 were less seriously wounded.
• May 14 - Santa Anna and Texas' provisional president David Burnet sign two Treaties of Velasco - one public, the other secret - ending the Texas Revolution. The treaties were, however, violated by both sides. Texas' independence was not recognized by Mexico and Texas' boundary was not determined until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican War, was signed in 1848.
• Sept. 5 - Voters of the new republic choose their first elected officials: Sam Houston becomes president and Lorenzo de Zavala, vice president. The voters also overwhelmingly approve a referendum requesting annexation by the United States. US President Martin Van Buren refuses to consider it, however, citing fear of war with Mexico and constitutional scruples.
• Oct. - The first Congress of the Republic of Texas convenes at Columbia.

1837 - Republic of Texas is officially recognized by the United States, and later by France, England, the Netherlands and Belgium.

1839 - Aug. 1 - First sale of town lots in the new capital of the Republic, which is named for Stephen F. Austin, is held.

1840 -

• March 19 - Comanches, led by a dozen chiefs, meet with officials of Texas government to negotiate a peace treaty. Believing the Comanches to have reneged on a promise to release all white prisoners, the Texans take the chiefs prisoner. During the Council House fight that follows, 35 Comanches are killed, as are seven Texans.
• Aug. 5 - Near Hallettsville, Comanches, in retaliation for the Council House Fight, begin killing and looting their way across Central Texas. Texas Rangers and a volunteer army defeat the Comanches on Aug. 11 at Plum Creek near Lockhart.

1841 - June 20 - The Santa Fe Expedition, launched without Texas Congressional authorization by Pres. Mirabeau B. Lamar, leaves Central Texas on its way west to establish trade with and solidify Texas' claims to territory around Santa Fe. Members of group are taken prisoner by Mexican troops, marched to Mexico City and imprisoned. They are finally released in 1842.

1842 - The first seeds of large-scale German immigration to Texas are sown when a German society, the Adelsverein, purchases land for settlements in Central Texas.

Annexation and Statehood

1845

• February 1 - Baylor University is founded.
• March 1 - US Congress passes a "Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States."
• mid-March - The first of many large groups of Germans arrive in Central Texas, settling at New Braunfels.
• July 4 - The Texas Constitutional Convention votes to accept the United States annexation proposal; it drafts an Annexation Ordinance and State Constitution to submit to the voters of Texas.
• Oct. 13 - Texas voters overwhelmingly approve annexation, the new state constitution and the annexation ordinance.
• Dec. 29 - The US Congress approves, and President James K. Polk signs, the "Joint Resolution for the Admission of the State of Texas into the Union." Texas becomes the 28th state.

1846

• Feb. 19 - Formal transfer of government take place until this date.
• May 8 - Battle of Palo Alto near Brownsville is first major battle of the two-year Mexican War.

1848 - Feb. 2 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, ending the War with Mexico and specifying the location of the international boundary.

1850

• Feb. 11 - The first railroad to actually begin operation in Texas is chartered by the state government. The Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado begins operation in 1853.
• Nov. 25 - Texas' governor signs the Compromise of 1850, in which Texas gives up its claim to land that includes more than half of what is now New Mexico, about a third of Colorado, a corner of Oklahoma and a small portion of Wyoming in exchange for the United States' assumption of $10 million in debt; Texas keeps its public lands.

1854 - Two reservations are established for Indians in West-Central Texas: one for Comanches on the Clear Fork of the Brazos in Throckmorton County, the other for more sedentary Indian groups, such as Tawakonis, Wacos and Tonkawas, near Fort Belknap in Young County.

1856 -

• March 27 - Col. Robert E. Lee arrives in San Antonio. He serves at Camp Cooper on the Comanche reservation beginning April 9. He returns to Washington for a short time, coming back to San Antonio and Fort Mason in February 1860.
• April 29 - Fifty-three camels arrive at port of Indianola for a US Army experiment using them for pack animals in the arid areas of the Southwest.

1858 - Sept. 15 - Southern route of the Butterfield Overland Mail crosses Texas on its way between St. Louis, Mo., and the West Coast. Service discontinued in March 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War.

1859

• July 13 - Violent clashes between Juan "Cheno" Cortina and Anglo lawmen begin in the Brownsville area in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Texas Rangers and federal troops eventually halt the so-called "Cortina War" in 1875.
• July - Indians on the West-Central Texas reservations are moved by the federal government to reservations in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

Secession and Civil War

1861 -

• Feb. 1 - The Secession Convention approves an ordinance withdrawing Texas from Union; the action is ratified by the voters on Feb. 23 in a referendum vote. Secession is official on March 2.
• Feb. 13 - Robert E. Lee is ordered to return to Washington from regimental headquarters at Fort Mason to assume command of the Union Army. Instead, Lee resigns his commission; he assumes command of the Confederate Army by June 1862.
• March 1 - Texas accepted as a state by the provisional government of the Confederate States of America, even before its secession from the Union is official.
• March 5 - The Secession Convention approves an ordinance accepting Confederate statehood.
• March 16 - Sam Houston resigns as governor in protest against secession

1862

• Aug. 10 - About 68 Union loyalists, mostly German immigrants from the area of Comfort, in Central Texas, start for Mexico in an attempt to reach US troops; 19 are killed by Confederates on the Nueces River. Eight others are killed on Oct. 18 at the Rio Grande. Others drown attempting to swim the river. Their deaths are commemorated in Comfort by the Treue der Union (True to the Union) monument.
• October - Forty-two men thought to be Union sympathizers are hanged at various times during October in Gainesville.

1865 - May 13 - The Battle of Palmito Ranch is fought near Brownsville, after the official end of the Civil War, because word of the war's end at Appomattox on April 9 has not yet reached troops in Texas.

Reconstruction to the 20th Century

1865 -

• June 19 - Gen. Gordon Granger arrives at Galveston to announce that slavery has been abolished, an event commemorated today by the festival known as Juneteenth.
• Sept. - The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands (the Freedmen's Bureau) begins operating in Texas, charged with helping former slaves make the transition to freedom.

1866

• March 15 - The Constitutional Convention approves an ordinance to nullify the actions of the Secession Convention.
• Aug. 20 - President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation of peace between the United States and Texas.
• Cattle drives, which had been occasional in the 1830s, sporadic during the 1840s and 1850s, and almost nonexistent during the Civil War, begin in earnest, mostly to markets and railheads in Midwest. They are at their peak for only about 20 years, until the proliferation of railroads makes them unnecessary.

1867-1870 - Congressional (or Military) Reconstruction replaces Presidential Reconstruction.

1868 - Large-scale irrigation begins in Texas when canals are built in the vicinity of Del Rio.

1869 - Nov. 30 - Texas voters approve a new state constitution.
1870

• March 30 - President Grant signs the act readmitting Texas to Congressional representation.
• Edmund J. Davis becomes the first Republican governor of Texas.

1871 - May - Seven men in a wagon train are massacred at Salt Creek, about 20 miles west of Jacksboro, by Kiowas and Comanches led by chiefs Satanta, Big Tree, Satank and Eagle Heart.
1872 - Oct. - Construction begins on the Texas & Pacific Railway; the 125-mile stretch between Longview and Dallas opens for service on July 1, 1873.
1873

• Black "Buffalo Soldiers" are first posted to Texas, eventually serving at virtually every frontier fort in West Texas from the Rio Grande to the Panhandle, as well as in other states.
• Houston and Texas Central Railway reaches the Red River, connecting there with the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad and creating the first all-rail route from Texas to St. Louis and the East.

1874

• Jan. 17 - Inauguration of Democrat Richard Coke as governor marks the end of Reconstruction in Texas.
• Sept. 28 - Col. Ranald Mackenzie leads the 4th US Cavalry in the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon, south of present-day Amarillo, an encounter that ends with the confinement of southern Plains Indians in reservations in Indian Territory. This makes possible the wholesale settlement of the western part of the state.

1876

• Feb. 15 - Present state constitution is adopted.
• Oct. 4 - The Agricultural and Mechanical College, later Texas A&M University, opens at College Station, becoming the first public institution of higher learning in the state.
• Charles Goodnight establishes the JA Ranch in Palo Duro Canyon, the first cattle ranch located in the Panhandle.

1877 - Sept. - The El Paso Salt War is the culmination of a long dispute caused by Anglos' attempts to take over salt-mining rights at the foot of Guadalupe Peak, a traditionally Mexican-American salt source.

1881 - Dec. 16 - The Texas & Pacific Railway reaches Sierra Blanca in West Texas, about 90 miles east of El Paso.

1883 - Sept. 15 - The University of Texas classes begin.

1884 - Fence-cutting wars prompt the Texas Legislature to pass a law making fence-cutting a felony.

1886 - Aug. 19-21 - Hurricane destroys or damages every house in the port of Indianola, finishing the job started by another storm 11 years earlier. Indianola is never rebuilt.

1888 - May 16 - Present state capitol is dedicated.

1891 - The Railroad Commission, proposed by Gov. James Hogg, is established by the Texas legislature to regulate freight rates and to establish rules for railroad operations.

1894 - June 9 - Oil is discovered at Corsicana; a commercial field opens in 1896, becoming the first small step in Texas' rise as a major oil producer.

1898 - May 16 - Teddy Roosevelt arrives in San Antonio to recruit and train "Rough Riders" for the First Volunteer Cavalry to fight in the Spanish-American War in Cuba.

1898-1899 - Texas experiences its coldest winter on record.

20th Century Texas History Timeline

1900 - Sept. 8 - The "Great Hurricane," destroys much of Galveston and kills 6,000 people there.

1901 - Jan. 10 - Oil found by mining engineer Capt. A.F. Lucas at Spindletop near Beaumont catapults Texas into the petroleum age.

1902 - Poll tax becomes a requirement for voting.

1906 - Texans votes for US senator in the Democratic primary, although the Texas legislature retains ultimate appointment authority, primary voters can express their preferences.

1910 - March 2 - Lt. Benjamin D. Foulois makes first military air flight in a Wright brothers plane at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

1911-1920 - Mexican civil war spills across the border, as refugees seek safety, combatants seek each other, and Texas settlements are raided for supplies by all sides in the fighting. Pancho Villa and his followers are active along the border during some of this time.

1916 - Texas voters able to directly elect US senators.

1917-1918 - World War I.

1917 - Gov. James Ferguson is impeached and convicted; he leaves office.

1918

• - March - Texas women win the right to vote in primary elections.
• Annie Webb Blanton becomes the first woman elected to a statewide office when she is elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

1919 -

• Responding to anti-German sentiment, Gov. William P. Hobby vetoes appropriations for German Dept. of The University of Texas.
• Texans adopt a prohibition amendment to the state constitution.

1920 - Large-scale agricultural irrigation begins in the High Plains.

1925 -

• Miriam "Ma" Ferguson becomes Texas' first woman governor, serving as a figurehead for her husband, former Gov. James E. Ferguson.
• Sept. 30 - Texas Tech University begins classes in Lubbock as Texas Technological College.

1928 - June 26-29 - The Democratic National Convention is held in Houston, the first nominating convention held in a Southern city since 1860.

1929 - Feb. 17 - The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is founded in Corpus Christi.

1930 - Sept. 5 - The Daisy Bradford #3 well, drilled near Turnertown in Rusk County by wildcatter C.M. (Dad) Joiner, blows in, heralding the discovery of the huge East Texas Oil Field.

1935 - Two years after federal prohibition was repealed, Texas voters ratify the repeal of the state's prohibition law.

1936 - June 6 - Texas Centennial Exposition opens at Dallas' Fair Park; it runs until Nov. 29.

1937 - March 18 - A massive explosion, blamed on a natural-gas leak beneath the London Consolidated School building in Rusk County, kills an estimated 296 students and teachers. Subsequent deaths of people injured in the explosion bring the death count to 311. As a result, the Texas legislature requires that a malodorant be added to the odorless gas so that leaks can be more easily detected.

1941-1945 - World War II.

1943 - June - A race riot in Beaumont leads to a declaration of martial law.

1947 - April 16 - The French-owned SS Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate, explodes in the Texas City harbor, followed the next morning by the explosion of the SS High Flyer. The disaster kills almost 600 and injures at least 4,000 more. The concussion is felt 75 miles away in Port Arthur, and the force creates a 15-foot tidal wave.

1948 - Lyndon B. Johnson beats Coke Stevenson in the US Senate race by 87 votes. The winning margin in the disputed primary is registered in Ballot Box No. 13 in Jim Wells County.

1949 - Aug. 24 - The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston admits its first black student.

1950 - The US Supreme Court orders racial integration of The University of Texas law school.

1953 -

• Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the first Texas-born President of the United States.
• May 11 - A tornado kills 114, injures 597 at Waco; 150 homes and 185 other buildings are destroyed.
• 1953'
• May 22 - The Tidelands Bill is signed by Pres. Eisenhower, giving Texas the rights to its offshore oil.

1954 - Texas women gain the right to serve on juries.

1958 -Sept. 12 - Integrated circuit, developed by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments, Dallas, is successfully tested, ushering in the semiconductor and electronics age.

1961 -John Tower wins special election for US Senate, becoming the first Republican senator from Texas since Reconstruction.

1962 - NASA opens the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. The center moves to a new campus-like building complex in 1964. It is renamed Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center on Aug. 17, 1973.

1963 - Nov. 22 - President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas; vice president Lyndon B. Johnson succeeds to the office, becoming the 36th US president.

1964 - Poll tax is abolished by the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution as a requirement for voting for federal offices. It is retained in Texas, however, for state and local offices.

1965

• The Texas Legislature is reapportioned on the principle of one person, one vote.
• June 3 - San Antonio native Ed White becomes the first American to walk in space.

1966

• The poll tax is repealed as a requirement for voting in all elections by amendment of the Texas Constitution.
• Barbara Jordan of Houston becomes the first black woman elected to the Texas Senate.
• Aug. 1 - Charles Whitman kills 17 people, shooting them from the observation deck of the main-building tower on The University of Texas campus in Austin.

1967 - Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) is incorporated in Texas; its first national office is in San Antonio.

1969 - July 20 - Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong transmits the first words from the surface of the moon: "Houston, the Eagle has landed."

1971 - Securities and Exchange Commission investigates illegal manipulation of stock transactions involving Frank Sharp and his Sharpstown State Bank of Houston.

1972 - The Sharpstown Scandal results in the conviction of House speaker Gus Mutscher and two associates for conspiracy and bribery

1974 - Jan. 8 - Constitutional Convention meets to attempt to write a new state constitution. However, the delegates, comprising the membership of the 63rd Legislature, become mired in divisive politics, and the convention adjourns on July 30, 1974, without a document.

1978 - William Clements becomes the first Republican governor of Texas since Reconstruction.

1979 -April 10 - Several tornadoes kill 53 in West Texas, including 42 in Wichita Falls, and cause $400 million in damages.

1984 - The no-pass-no-play rule is part of an education-reform package enacted by the Texas Legislature.

1984 - Aug. 20-23 - The National Republican Convention is held in Dallas.

1985 - The Federal Home Loan Bank Board suspends deposit insurance for Texas savings-and-loan companies applying for state charters. Three years later, after uncovering widespread insider abuse at Texas lending institutions, federal regulators announce bail-out plans for many Texas thrifts and begin prosecution of S&L officials.

1988 - Houstonian George Bush is elected president of the United States.

1990 - Democrat Ann Richards becomes the first woman governor of Texas in her own right.

1993 -

• April 19 - Siege that began on Feb. 28 ended, federal agents storm the compound called Mount Carmel near Waco, where cult leader David Koresh and his followers, called Branch Davidians, had reportedly been storing a large cache of assault weapons. The assault and ensuing fire kill four agents and 86 Branch Davidians.
• Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison becomes the first woman to serve as US Senator from Texas.

21st Century Texas History Timeline

2000 - Former Texas Gov. George W. Bush elected President of the United States.

2001 - Enron filed for bankruptcy protection

2003 - Space shuttle Columbia broke apart across southeastern Texas as it descended toward its planned landing, all crew members were lost

2004 -

• Lance Armstrong won sixth Tour de France
• George W. Bush re-elected U. S. President

2005 -

• Republican majority leader in US House of Representatives, Tom DeLay, indicted with criminal conspiracy by grand jury in Texas
• Hurricane Rita forced over 1 million to evacuate

2006 - Two Enron executives convicted of conspiracy, fraud

2007 - Gunman at Johnson Space Center in Houston killed male hostage, self

2008 - Hurricane Ike struck Texas Gulf Coast, caused major flooding, billions of dollars in damages

2009 - Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood military base, killed 13, injured 30

2011 -

• Texas wildfires destroyed over 1 million acres, burned over 1,000 homes
• Governor Rick Perry announced candidacy for Republican nominee in 2012 presidential race

2013 - On Thursday, April 18, 2013, a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant on the edge of the small Texas town of West killed at least 35 people, wounded more than 170, leveled dozens and dozens of homes and prompted authorities to evacuate half their community of 2,800. West is a community of about 2,800 people, about 75 miles south of Dallas and 120 miles north of Austin.

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