From the Annals of  Crime –   In 1928, Marshall Ratliff was convicted for his role in the infamous “Santa Claus Bank Robbery.”  On December 23, 1927, Ratliff robbed the First National Bank in Cisco, TX, while wearing a Santa Claus outfit.  Ratliff was an ex-con who had lived in Cisco before being tracked down and imprisoned for a bank robbery by Cisco Chief of Police, G.E. “Bit” Bedford. Ratliff had been paroled just before the infamous bank robbery. Ratliff enlisted two men he had met in Huntsville and a fourth man who was supposedly a good safecracker. Ratliff knew that he would be recognized in Cisco and thus, decided to conceal his identity by disguising himself as Santa Claus.  For the fascinating and grisly details of the actual robbery – well, wait until Christmas time.

From the Annals of the Trans-Texas Corridor or Something Like It –  In 1839, the Republic of Texas chartered the Houston and Brazos Rail Road with authorization to build railroads and turnpikes from Houston to the Brazos River.  The effort began more than a year later with an auspicious ground-breaking ceremony.  In July of 1840, the celebration began at the Presbyterian church in Houston.  A procession of volunteer companies, members of the bar, medical faculty, army and naval officers, citizens, county officers, mayor and aldermen, Odd Fellows, Masons, the president and directors of the railroad company, the committee of arrangements, orator, and officiating clergyman formed at the Church and marched to the planned spot for the beginning of the railroad.  Unfortunately, the company never came close to actually constructing the railroad and soon lost its charter privileges.  Rick Perry knows how they felt.

From the Annals of New Spain  – In 1691, the Conde de Gálvez appointed Domingo Terán de los Ríos as the first governor of the Spanish province of Coahuila and Texas.  This was the first recognition of Texas as a governmental entity. Terán was instructed to establish seven missions among the Tejas Indians; to investigate the possible existence of foreign settlements on the coast; and record the geography, natives, flora and fauna of the region.  Terán and his small army crossed into present day Texas in May and explored  as far as the Caddo settlements on the Red River until December. Terán returned to Matagorda Bay by March of 1692.  His further explorations were curtailed by bad weather and he returned to Veracruz in April.  This first serious attempt at colonization was considered to be a complete failure. Terán  did not found any missions and his explorations added little new information about the region.