1836--On Apr. 21, General Sam Houston's Texas army wins independence from
Mex ico in the Battle of San Jacinto.
1836--Houston founded on Aug. 30 by brothers Augustus C. and John K. Allen,
who pay just over $1.40 per acre for 6,642 acres of land near the headwaters
of Buffalo Bayou.
1836--Allen Brothers call on Gail Borden (publisher, surveyor, and originator
of condensed milk) and Thomas H. Borden to survey and map the site. Gail
Borden laid out the town's streets 80' wide, with the principal east-west
thoroughfare (Texas Avenue) 100' wide.
1837--General Sam Houston, first president of the Republic of Texas, signs
an act authorizing Houston to incorporate. Houston was capital of the Republic
from 1837 to 1840.
1837--The Laura is the first steamship to visit Houston.
1840--On Apr. 4, seven Houston businessmen form the Houston Chamber of
Commerce.
1842--Texas' oldest newspaper, The Galveston Daily News, starts
publication.
1846--Texas becomes 28th state.
1850--First census after Texas joins the Union counts 2,397 Houstonians.
Galveston is the state's largest city.
1853--Houston's first railroad--the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado
Railroad--begins operations.
1853--Texas Legislature appropriates $4,000 for Buffalo Bayou improvements.
1858--City pays $2,500 for land and "good buildings" for a municipal hospital.
1861--Houston and Harris County vote to secede from the Union. During the
war, the closest fighting was at Galveston.
1866--First National Bank founded.
1868--First trolley cars (mule-drawn) appear; first gaslights installed.
1870--Texas readmitted to the Union. 1870 census shows Houston's population
up to 9,332. Harris County's has reached 17,375, ranking it second in the
state.
1870--Congress designates Houston a port; first survey of Houston's proposed
ship channel conducted.
1872--Congress makes its first appropriation--$10,000--for ship channel
improvements.
1874--Houston Board of Trade and Cotton Exchange organized.
1875--First grain elevator built on Houston Ship Channel.
1877--Houston's first free public schools established.
1880--First telephone exchange created.
1880--Houston gets its first arc light.
1882--Houston Electric Light Co. organized. Houston and New York were the
first cities to build electric power plants.
1897--Automobile first appears in Houston as an advertising gimmick.
1899--First city park opens. (This site--now Sam Houston Park--contains
several of Houston's earliest buildings.)
1900--A devastating hurricane and tidal wave strikes Galveston, costing
some 8,000 lives and untold property damage.
1901--Houston Left Hand Fishing Club purchases the city's first automobile.
1901--Oil discovered at Spindletop. Spindletop, and later discoveries of
oil at Humble in 1905 and Goose Creek in 1906, put Houston in the center
of new oil and oilfield equipment development.
1902--Congress appropriates $1 million for work on the Houston Ship Channel.
1905--Houston has 80 automobiles.
1910--A group of Houston businessmen headed by the Houston Chamber of Com
merce proposes to Congress--and Congress accepts--a novel plan to split
ship channel development costs between Houston and the federal government.
1912--Rice Institute (now Rice University, one of the nation's premier
universities) begins classes.
1913--Houston Symphony established.
1914--25' deep Houston Ship Channel completed and formally dedicated.
1915--First deep water vessel, the S.S. Satilla, calls at Houston.
1920s-1930s--Oil refineries proliferate along Ship Channel, taking advantage
of inexpensive waterborne shipping.
1921--Houston adopts ordinance dedicating tax monies to its library system.
1923--Second National Bank becomes Houston's first air-conditioned building.
1924--The Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, the first in Texas, opens.
1926--Natural gas first piped into Houston.
1927--Houston Junior College (now the University of Houston) established.
1928--National Democratic Convention held in Houston.
1929--City Planning Commission recommends that Houston adopt a zoning ordinance,
but finds scant support.
1930--Census ranks Harris County as state's most populous at 292,352.
1932--First Houston Fat Stock Show & Rodeo (now Houston Livestock Show
& Rodeo) held.
1934--Intracoastal Canal links Houston to Mississippi River navigation
system.
1935--Braniff International inaugurates air service to Houston.
1940s--Petrochemical complex develops, taking feedstocks from nearby refineries.
1941--New master plan for Houston thoroughfares emphasizes a loop system.
1943--Texas Medical Center founded.
1947--Legislature establishes Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas
Southern University).
1947--Alley Theatre established.
1947--Engineering begins on Gulf Freeway, Texas' first freeway.
1969--"Houston" is the first word spoken from the lunar surface.
1971--Shell Oil Co. relocates corporate headquarters to Houston. More than
200 major firms moved headquarters, subsidiaries, and divisions here in
the 1970s.
