This Day in Texas History
May
Day in Texas History
May 1, 1985 – Frank Glieber passed away. One of the most famous voices in Texas sports, he was the original radio color commentator for the Dallas Cowboys.
May 2, 1981 – The Texas Safari opened near Clifton. Billed as the world’s largest exotic animal drive-through park, it included 800 acres and 3,000 animals of 70 species.
May 3, 1890 – Jesse Driskill, a Texas cattle baron and the founder of the historic Driskill Hotel in Austin, passed away.
May 4, 1958 – The city of San Antonio celebrated Eleanor Onderdonk Day. Onderdonk also retired on this day after serving over 30 years as curator of the Witte Museum.
May 5, 1862 – In the battle of Puebla, Mexican forces defeated the French. This event is celebrated annually in Mexico and Texas “El Cinco de Mayo.”
May 6, 1849 – The Neighbors Expedition began the return trip from near El Paso to San Antonio. The expedition explored the area between the two towns to develop a wagon road.
May 7, 1955 – Texas’ two-millionth telephone was installed in the governor’s office in Austin.
May 8, 1846 – The battle of Palo Alto was fought north of Brownsville between American forces and Mexican troops in the first major engagement of the Mexican War.
May 9, 1844 – Birthday of Isabelle Boyd, who was a Confederate spy and later an actress, appearing on stages in Houston, Galveston and Austin before settling in Dallas.
May 10, 1956 – Texas Technological College was admitted to the Southwest Conference.
May 11, 1894 – Birthday of George Dahl, a Texas-based architect who, in 1938, designed the nation’s first drive-through bank, the Hillcrest State Bank in Dallas.
May 12, 1846 – Norris Cuney was born near Hempstead, Texas. An African-American politician, he became Texas national committeeman of the Republican party in 1886.
May 13, 1965 – The boyhood home of former president Lyndon Baines Johnson in Johnson City, Texas, was dedicated as a museum.
May 14, 1942 – The U.S. Army Air Forces began leasing the airport in Sweetwater, Texas, for $1 a year as a World War II training base, renaming it Avenger Field.
May 15, 1890 – Writer Katherine Anne Porter was born in Indian Creek, Texas. Her Collected Stories (1965) won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
May 16, 1946 – Herman Sweatt filed suit against the University of Texas law school in a case that led to the integration of colleges and universities in Texas.
May 17, 1893 – Birthday of Caroline Crowell, who moved to Austin in 1926 to work at the U.T. Student Health Center. She was the only female physician in Austin at the time.
May 18, 1871 – In what became known as the Warren Wagontrain Raid, over 100 Kiowa, Comanche and others attacked a wagon train, which led to the Red River War.
May 19, 1969 – Apollo 10 was launched. Guided by the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center near Houston, the mission was a dress rehearsal for the moon landing.
May 20, 1718 – The Council of the Indies endorsed the recommendations of Spanish explorer Andrés de Pez, that missions be maintained in Texas to prevent French incursions.
May 21, 1906 – The U.S. and Mexico signed a treaty providing for equal distribution of the waters of the Rio Grande, which led to the construction of the American Dam in El Paso.
May 22, 1942 – Marguerite Ross Barnett was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. She became the first black president of the University of Houston.
May 23, 1974 – The Kerrville Folk Festival was held for the first time at its new outdoor location, the 60-acre plot known as “Quiet Valley Ranch” in Kerrville, Texas.
May 24, 1910 – Professional golfer Jimmie Demaret was born in Houston. He was inducted in both the PGA Hall of Fame and the World Golf Hall of Fame.
May 25, 1863 – Amzi Bradshaw recruited his own company, which became Showalter's Texas Cavalry, that campaigned to rid Texas’ Rio Grande Valley of Union troops during the Civil War.
May 26, 1933 – Jimmie Rodgers, known as the father of modern country music, passed away. He spent the last years of his life living in Kerrville and San Antonio.
May 27, 1965 – The State Legislature established the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio, with exhibits on 27 cultures and ethnic groups within Texas.
May 28, 1924 – Congress established the United States Border Patrol. It began in El Paso with 450 officers and $1 million in funding.
May 29, 1889 – The Texas Spring Palace, a building decorated with Texas agriculture products, opened in Fort Worth to attract settlers. It burned down a year and a day later.
May 30, 1961 – An 18-pound meteorite fell into a man’s backyard near Marshall, Texas shortly before 10:30 p.m., creating a crater two feet deep.
May 31, 1914 – The first issue of the Austin American-Statesman was published.
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For more information about Texas history, explore the Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas Online.
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