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Aug 22, 1519
Alonso Alvarez de Pineda maps the Texas coast
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Mar 27, 1541
Explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado crosses the Texas Panhandle.
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Nov 6, 1554
A Spanish treasure fleet shipwrecks off of present-day padre island.
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Jun 13, 1581
Spaniard Hernan Gallegos writes about the lives of the Jumano Indians in Texas.
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Juan de Onate crosses the Texas Panhandle on his way to Quivira.
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Spaniards first record seeing Apache Indians riding horses.
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A group of colonists led by French explorer Rene-Robert cavalier Sieur de La Salle lands in Matagorda Bay in Texas.
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The Spanish build a mission called San Francisco de los Tejas.
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Martin de Alarcon establishes the San Antonio de Valero mission.
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Settlers from the Canary islands arrive in San Antonio.
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Rancher Tomas Sanchez establishes the town of Laredo.
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The Marques de Rubi expedition begins.
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Antonio Gil Ybarbo founds the town of Nacogdoches in East Texas.
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Spanish priest Juan Agustin Morfi, author of the History of Texas dies.
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Phillip Nolan a U.S. citizen receives permission to capture wild horses in Texas.
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U.S. citizen James Long and a small force invade Texas only to be defeated by Spanish forces.
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Mexico, which includes Texas, wins its independence from Spain.
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The Spanish government grants Moses Austin permission to found a colony in Texas.
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The Spanish government grants Moses Austin permission to found a colony in Texas.
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Settler Jared Groce plants a cotton crop possibly the first in Stephen F. Austin's colony.
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About 3,000 Anglo settlers live in Texas without permission of the Mexican government
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Mexican officials adopt the constitution of 1824. Coahuila and Texas are merged to form one state.
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An american Indian attack on the Green DeWitt colony forces settlers to flee Gonzales.
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Empresario Martin de Leon settles families on the lower Guadalupe river.
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The Fredonian Rebellion begins when Haden Edwards declares independence from Mexico.
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Stephen F. Austin receives a contract to settle an additional 100 families in Texas.
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General Manuel de Mier y Teran begins a tour of Texas for the Mexican government.
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Thomas J. Pilgrim organizes a Sunday school and private boy's school in San Felipe.
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The Texas Gazette newspaper begins publication begins in Austin's colony.
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President Guerrero issues a decree ending slavery in Mexico, but an exemption is made for Texas.
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On April 6 Mexico issues a law that changes rules on immigration and trade in Texas.
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The town of Gonzales receives a cannon from the Mexican government to protect the town against Indian attack.
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Mary Austin Holley's letters, describing life in early Texas, are published.
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Texas farmers export some 7,000 bales of cotton worth about $315,000 to New Orleans.
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Stephen F. Austin is arrested in Saltillo.
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An estimated 1,000 U.S immigrants enter Texas each month.
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Texas settlers hold about 3,500 land grants.
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Texans become concerned when the Mexican government officially abolishes the constitution of 1824.
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Texas settlers attack Mexican soldiers at Gonzales, forcing them to leave.
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Texas troops push Mexican troops out of San Antonio capturing the city.
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The siege of the Alamo begins.
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Texans win the Battle of San Jacinto, ending the Texas Revolution.
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The first official Texas flag is adopted by the Texas Congress.
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The Texas Declaration of Independence is adopted.
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The Texas government begins work in Houston, the new Texas capital.
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Sam Houston becomes the first popularly elected president of the Republic of Texas.
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The U.S. Congress authorizes a diplomat to go to Texas.
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Texans elect Mirabeau B. Lamar president.
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Velasco citizens hold a horse race on the coast near the town.
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William H. Wharton is elected to the Texas Senate.
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France becomes the first European nation to recognize Texas as an independent country.
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Texas passes a law, protecting settlers' homes from being seized to pay debts.
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Repeated attacks and discrimination force more than 100 Tejano families to leave Nacogdoches.
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Austin, the new capital, has 850 residents.
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The first college chartered by the Republic, Rutersville college is founded
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Galveston University opens its doors to five students.
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President Mirabeau B. Lamar sends the Texas Navy to the Yucatan coast.
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Texans again elect Sam Houston as President of the Republic.
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William Kennedy publishes Texas; The Rise, Progress , and Prospects of the Republic of Texas.
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Snider de Pellegrini, director of a French colonization company brings 14 settlers to Texas.
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General Adrian Woll and about 1,400 Mexican soldiers capture San Antonio.
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The Tehuacana Creek Councils lead to peace between Texans and several Texas Indians groups.
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President Sam Houston sends troops into East Texas to end the Regulator Moderator War.
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Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels comes to Texas followed by a group of German immigrants.
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Texans elect Anson Jones president of the Republic.
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At least 30,000 enslaved African Americans live in Texas.
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The United States annexes Texas
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On December 29 the U.S. Congress officially admits Texas to the union and approves its first state constitution.
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Thomas J. Rusk and Sam Houston become the first Texans to serve in the U.S. Senate.
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Fighting breaks out between U.S. forces and Mexican troops at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.
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Texas signs a peace treaty with the Penateka Comanches.
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George T. Wood is elected governor of Texas.
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Samuel H. Walker dies in combat during a conflict in Mexico.
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A state census reports the states population at more than 142,000.
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Texans cast their first votes as U.S. citizens in a presidential election.
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The Texas population reaches 200,000 peoples.
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In her book (Texas in 1850), Melinda Rankin describes the state and urges people to move to Texas
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Work on the Port Isabel Lighthouse. When completed, its light could be seen from 16 miles away.
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U.S. Army troops abandon Fort Worth after settlers move farther west beyond the fort.
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After many false starts track is finally laid for the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railway.
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The American, or Know-Nothing party becomes active in Texas.
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The Governor's mansion is built in Austin.
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Slaves in Colorado County acquire weapons and plan a rebellion but the plot is discovered before it can begin.
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The Butterfeild Overland Mail begins taking passengers and mail by stage coach from Missouri, through Texas, and on to California.
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Sam Houston easily defeats incumbent Hardin Runnels in the election for Texas governor.
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A series of clashes occurs between Texas Rangers and Mexican Americans near Brownsville.
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Texas produces a record crop of more than 400,000 bales of cotton.
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Texans vote, by more than three to one, to secede from the United States.
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Troops leave San Antonio for new Mexico, planning to capture the Southwest for the Confederacy.
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The Texas frontier regiment is established.
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Union forces capture Galveston.
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President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
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A Union attempt to invade Texas is turned back at Sabine Pass.
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Union troops capture Brownsville.
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The Texas cattle population increases rapidly during the Civil War.
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In a battle near Mansfield, Louisiana Confederate forces stop a Union invasion of northeastern Texas.
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Colonel Christopher '' Kit'' Carson leads an attack against plains Indians in the Texas Panhandle.
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The last land battle is fought in Texas
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The Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect in Texas, freeing the states's slaves.
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African American George T. Ruby is elected as a delegate to the Republican National Convention.
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Fort Richardson is established near Jacksboro.
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Republican Edmund J. Davis is elected governor.
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Texas cowboys move a herd of 15,000 cattle to market. It is the largest single herd of the era
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Edmund J. Davis is elected governor, the last Republican to hold the office until bill Clements was elected.
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Texas has 583 miles of railroad lines.
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A public school system is created in Texas.
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Ranchers begin to ship thousands of cattle from Denison after the Missouri Kansas-Texas Railroad
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The Democratic Party regains full control of state government.
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Plains Indians attack a group of buffalo hunters in the Battle of Adobe Walls.
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Comanche leader Quanah Parker surrenders, ending the Red River War.
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Texas adopts a new constitution.
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The Texas legislature passes a law that allows the state to fund railroads with land grants.
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About 2,700 animals die during a cattle stampede near the Brazos River.
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Texas A&M University opens as a all male military institution.
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Texas adopts the constitution that governs the state today.
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Apache leader Victorio launches raids along the Texas-Mexico border.
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The Texas and pacific railway meets the southern Pacific line near El Paso, forming the first transcontinental railroad through Texas.
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A ranch in the Panhandle purchases enough barbed wire to fence 250,000 acres.
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The University of Texas formally opens.
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The knights of labor begin a major strike against Jay Gould's railroad company.
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There are more than 8,000 miles of railroad track in Texas.
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The Texas Legislature passes the Antitrust Act of 1889.
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Texas normal college and Teacher's institute, now called the University of North Texas, opens up in Denton.
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James Stephen Hogg-the first native-born Texan to become governor- is elected.
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The Texas railroad Commission is established to regulate railroads in Texas.
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A leading association of former farmers endorses the Populists Party.
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Drillers strike oil in Corsicana.
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The first football game is played between the University of Texas and Texas A&M.
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Teddy Roosevelt organizes and trains the Rough Riders in San Antonio.
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Texas has more than 350,000 farms, and almost half of all farmers are tenant farmer
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A hurricane hits Galveston, killing some 6,000 to 8,000 people.
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The Spindletop well strikes oil producing more than 17 million barrels of oil the next year.
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The Spindletop oil strike spurs the growth of the Texas oil industry.
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The Corsicana Oilers set a baseball record by beating the Texarkana team 51 to 3.
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A large oil strike is made in the Humble oil field in Harris County.
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The first Neiman Marcus department store opens in Dallas.
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oil is discovered at Goose Creek along Galveston Bay.
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Jovita Idar becomes the first president of the league of Women.
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The Houston Ship Channel opens, and Houston soon becomes an important oil refining center.
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The Houston Ship Channel is completed, leading to the growth of industry in the Houston area.
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The Texas legislature passes the first state law requiring children to attend school.
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Texas ratifies the Eighteenth Ammendment to the United States constitution, which bans the the sale or manufacture of alcohol.
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Texas troops are sent to France to fight in World War l.
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After decades of fighting for the right to vote, women are allowed to vote in Texas primary elections.
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An application is filed to drill for oil on state-owned land in west Texas. Several years later the Santa Rita No. 1 strikes oil.
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Governor William Hobby breaks a dockworker's strike in Galveston.
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Texans elect Miriam A ''Ma'' Ferguson as the state's first female governor.
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Automobile regulations reach 1 million.
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For the first time in the state's history, the majority of Texans vote for a Republican presidential candidate - Herbert Hoover.
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Some 300,000 Texans are unemployed.
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James V Allerd is elected governor of Texas.
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Texas celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Texas Revolution.
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Texans elect W. Lee ''Pappy'' O'Daniel as governor
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The Southern Aircraft corporation, the first airplane manufacturer in Texas, is formed.
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Large numbers of Texans volunteer for military service in World War ll.
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The U.S. Supreme court declares the Texas white primary unconstitutional.
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A Texas law establishing white primaries is struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Smith v. Allwright.
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Texan Audie Murphy receives the metal of honor for stoping a german tank attack in France.
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More than 3 million automobiles are registered in Texas.
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Allan Shivers successfully runs as governor a third term.
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Women are allowed to serve on Texas juries for the first time.
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Texas women call for an equal rights amendment to the state constitution.
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Texas musician Buddy Holly is killed in a plane crash.
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The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Texas owns Gulf coastal tidelands up to a 10.35-mile limit.
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Henry B. Gonzalez is elected to the house of representatives, and John Tower is elected to the U.S. Senate.
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The Manned Space Center, now the Johnson Space Center, is built in Houston.
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Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president of the United States after President John F. Kennedy is assassinated.
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Texas Instruments releases the first handheld calculator.
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration sends Apollo mission to the Moon.
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Members of the chicano movement and the Mexican American Youth Organization form La Raza Unida Party.
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Barbra Jordan is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Texan Barbra Jordan is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the first black woman from the South to serve in the Congress.
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Austin City Limits goes on air with Willie Nelson as its first guest musician.
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A major attempt to adopt a new Texas constitution fails.
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Texas population reaches 14 million.
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Texas writer Larry McMurtry receives the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Lonesome dove.
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Raul Gonzalez is elected to the Texas Supreme Court. He is the first Mexican American elected to statewide office.
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Texas musician Stevie Ray Vaughan is killed in a helicopter crash.
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The North American Free Trade Agreement is passed, easing trade among the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
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George W. Bush takes office as governor.
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Rick Perry becomes the 47th governor of Texas.
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The Texas state government employs more than 230,000 people in more than 200 agencies, with a two-year budget totaling more than $ 98 billion.
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Republicans gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Texas becomes the national leader in wind power generation.
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texas timber industry earned more than $ 1.9 billion in 2007
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sales of Texas livestock totaled more than $ 10.8 billion in 2007
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Rick Perry becomes the longest-serving governor in Texas history. He was elected governor again in 2010.
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Cowboys Stadium, later renamed AT&T Stadium, opens in Arlington.
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In 2011 the value of Texas cotton production reached over 1.5 billion.
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Texas receives its lowest ever rainfall.
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Texas exports of computers and electronics were worth more than $ 45 billion in 2012
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Based on the 2010 Census, Texas gains four new seats in Congress.
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Texas exports more than $134 billion worth of goods.