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On the brink of the 20th century, the "Great Hurricane," the greatest natural disaster in human terms ever to strike North America, destroys much of Galveston and kills 6,000 people there. -
Jan. 10 – A gusher drilled by mining engineer Capt. A.F. Lucas at Spindletop near Beaumont catapults Texas into the petroleum age. -
The United States participated in World War I from 1917 to 1918. -
March – Texas women win the right to vote in primary elections. -
Large-scale agricultural irrigation begins in the High Plains. -
Miriam "Ma" Ferguson becomes Texas' first woman governor, serving as a figurehead for her husband, former Gov. James E. Ferguson. -
March 18 – A massive explosion, blamed on a natural gas leak beneath the London Consolidated School building in Rusk County, kills an estimated 296 students and teachers. Subsequent deaths of people injured in the explosion bring the death count to 311. As a result, the Legislature requires that a malodorant be added to the odorless gas so that leaks can be more easily detected. -
The United States participated in World War II from 1941 to 1945. -
April 3 – U.S. Supreme Court rules blacks could not be barred from voting in the Texas Democratic primary. -
Jan. 20 – Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the first Texas-born President of the United States. -
Nov. 6 – Henry B. Gonzalez of San Antonio became the first Hispanic elected to the state Senate since 1848 when Jóse Antonio Navarro, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, served. -
Nov. 22 – President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas; vice president Lyndon B. Johnson succeeds to the office, becoming the 36th U.S. president. -
November — Federal Judge William Wayne Justice of Tyler orders the Texas Education Agency to assume responsibility for desegregating public schools and to prohibit districts from assigning students to schools based on race. -
Nov. 8 – Houstonian George H.W. Bush is elected president of the United States. -
June 14 – Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison becomes the first woman to serve as U.S. Senator from Texas. -
Nov. 7 – Texas Gov. George W. Bush is elected president of the United States.