Tag Archives: Texas History

Today in Texas History – August 16

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From the Annals of the Temblors –  In 1931, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Texas shook up the good folks of Valentine in Jeff Davis County. The quake measured 6.5 on the Richter Scale which is relatively minor in the California falling into the ocean scheme of things..  No casualties were reported, but the quake caused damage to almost every wooden structure in Valentine.   The local school building was damaged beyond repair.  There were also reports of landslides as far away as the Guadalupe Mountains.

Figure showing  felt area and Modified Mercalli Intensities experienced by Texans from the Valentine earthquake from www-udc.ig.utexas.edu.

Today in Texas History – July 20

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From the Annals of Space –  In 1969,  Astronaut Neil Armstrong spoke the first words ever known to be uttered from a celestial body other than Earth.  At 3:18 CDT, Armstrong confirmed, “Houston, Tranquility Base here – the Eagle has landed.” He also became the first man to walk on the moon on later that same day. 

Old General Sam would be mighty amused to know that his name was the first word ever spoken from the Moon.

Today in Texas History – July 19

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It Ain’t Really Him! . . . Or is it? - True West Magazine

From the Annals of the Outlaws –  In 1878, Texas Rangers mortally wounded Texas outlaw Sam Bass in Round Rock. Bass had been on a crime spree for about a year after joining a gang that robbed a Union Pacific train in Nebraska.  With his share of the loot, Bass formed his own gang which held up stage coaches and trains around Dallas.  A concerted effort to find the outlaw was unsuccessful until the Texas Rangers turned to some rather unethical tactics.  The Rangers took into custody for questioning the father of Bass gang member Jim Murphy.  Murphy’s father was very ill.  The Rangers withheld medical treatment sending a message to Murphy that if he did not meet with them, they would continue to hold his father without treatment.   Murphy agreed to the meeting and turned informant to save his father – revealing that Bass planned to rob the Williamson County Bank.  Once Bass’ movements were known, the trap was set.  Bass and gang were scouting the area before the robbery.  After buying tobacco at a store, they were noticed by Deputy Sheriff A. W. Grimes. When Grimes approached the men and demanded they surrender their firearms.  A gang member shot and killed Grimes.   Bass fled but was shot by Texas Rangers George Herold and Sergeant Richard Ware.  He was found in a field outside of town and died two days later.

Today in Texas History – June 15

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From the Annals of the Aviators –  In 1892, Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was born in Atlanta. In 1921, she became the world’s first licensed African-American pilot.  Bessie was the 10th of 13 children George and Susan Coleman.  George was Cherokee, Choctaw and African-American. Susan was African-American.  Coleman grew up in Waxahacie and attended the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University.  Unable to study in the U.S. she went to France to obtain her license.  Upon her return to the U.S., she was a sensation as a barn-storming daredevil pilot.  Unfortunately, she died in a plane crash at the age of 34.

Today in Texas History – June 1

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From the Annals of Folk Music – In 1972, the first Kerrville Folk Festival got under way.  The KFF was founded by Rod Kennedy and began with performances in the Kerrville Municipal Auditorium.   This year’s festival is already under way and runs from May 24 to June 10.

The KFF bills itself as “the longest continuously running music festival in North America” and “a Mecca in the songwriting community.”  The Festival is now held over 18 days at the Quiet Valley Ranch about 9 miles south of Kerrville.  The Festival attracts as many as 30,000 guests come from all over the world, but each evening’s performance is limited to about 3,000 guests.

The KFF has presented many famous and not-so-famous singer-songwriters over the years, including such notables as Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Robert Earl Keen, Lucinda Williams,  Peter Paul & Mary, Judy Collins, David Crosby, Janis Ian and Arlo Guthrie to name a few.  You are very likely to see one or more future stars of folk music at the Festival.

Poster from the 2010 Kerrville Folk Festival.

Today in Texas History – May 31

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The Veramendi Palace doors are in the Alamo, along the east wall. Express-News file photo

From the Annals of Spanish Texas – In 1783, Fernando Veramendi was killed by Mescalero Apaches near the presidio of San Juan Bautista in Coahuila while on a business trip to Mexico City.  Veramendi was born in Pamplona, Spain and moved to Texas in 1770 first settling in La Bahia.  While conducting business in San Antonio de Bexar he found a bride, Doña María Josefa Granados, and thus, married into one of the influential Canary Islands families who were the primary Spanish settlers of San Antonio.   Now well-connected, Vermandi opened a general store, lent money to other settlers, and acquired large tracts of ranch and farm land.  He built a large home on  Soledad Street that later came to be known as the Veramendi Palace. He was a civic leader and was elected as an aalderman in the ayuntamiento of 1779, and later as a senior alderman in 1783. He was killed while on a business trip to Mexico City. He had five children the most prominent of who was his son Juan Martín de Veramendi who served as governor of Coahuila and Texas in 1832-33.

Photo of the doors from the Veramendi Palace displayed at the Alamo.  The building was demolished in 1910.

Today in Texas History – May 30

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From the Annals of the NEOs – In 1961, a chondrite meteorite landed in the backyard of a man in Harleton  in Harrison County.   The 8.36 kilogram meteorite was recovered within thirty minutes from a reported depth of about two feet in soft sandy soil.  It was distributed among scientists for a careful study of a freshly fallen meteorite, especially with respect to cosmic-ray-induced effects.  Known as the Harleton Meteorite the specimen is housed in the collection of the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Today in Texas History – May 25

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Investor Juan: March 2012

From the Annals of White Collar Crime – In 2006, Chairman Kenneth Lay and CEO Jeffrey Skilling, the top honchos at Enron Corporation, were convicted of conspiracy, insider trading, securities fraud and making false statements to securities regulators – actions that resulted in the collapse of the one-time energy giant.  The Enron scandal affected as many as 20,000 employees – costing many of them their life savings; it also caused massive losses to outside investors.  Lay, who seemed somewhat repentant and humbled by the extent of the accounting scandal that affected thousands of lives, would die in his luxurious Aspen home before ever seeing the inside of a prison cell.  Skilling, who remains adamant as to his lack of wrong-doing despite numerous books and articles that exposed him as the rotten center of the massive Enron fraud, also remains in federal prison and is scheduled to be released in February of 2019.  Red gives props to the Bush Department of Justice for going after these crooks.  One of the major failings of the Obama administration was the failure to even attempt to prosecute those guilty of possibly even worse crimes that resulted in the 2008 financial meltdown.

Today in Texas History – May 22

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Vintage 1971 Postcard LBJ Library University of Texas ...

From the Annals of the Libraries – In 1971, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library was dedicated on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin.  LBJ was in attendance along with President Richard M. Nixon and many notable Texas politicians.

The LBJ Library is one of 13 Presidential Libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration.  The LBJL contains over 45 million pages of documents – including LBJ’s papers as well as those of his staff and many of his close associates.  The Library building has been described as a ten-story unadorned travertine monolith.  The architectural design was not critically acclaimed and described by some as a structure that would have pleased Mussolini.  Red for one has always more or less liked the massive structure which is accompanied by an impressive fountain and a genteel garden as a tribute to Lady Bird.  The Library archives are open to researchers and there are numerous exhibits for the general public.

Today in Texas History – May 14

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From the Annals of the Freedom Loving Germans –  In 1854, delegates from various local German political clubs met at the annual Staats-Saengerfest (State Singers’ Festival) in San Antonio.  The meeting might otherwise have escaped notice, except that the delegates adopted a declaration against slavery declaring it to be evil. The declaration went on to state that abolition was to be the work of the various states who should seek help from the federal government (in the form of payment for freed slaves) to help end the moral abomination of chattel slavery.  The Texas Germans were falling in line with other organizations such as the Freier Mann Verein (Freeman’s Association) from Northern States who had enacted similar declarations.  As one might imagine, the declaration was not well received in the strongly pro-slavery (and virulently racist) Texas of the time.  In conjunction with ongoing antislavery newspaper articles in the German language press, many Anglo-Texans grew more and more hostile to their German-Texan neighbors.  This was clearly evidenced at the outset of the Southern Rebellion by the murder of many German Texans who were attempting to go north to fight for the Union.