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Dateline
10,000 B.C.-A.D. 1500 Prehistoric and Native American tribes occupy the territory between the Rio Grande in the south and the Red River in the north.
1519 A Spanish explorer, Alonso Alvarez de Pi?eda, explores and maps the Texas coastline.
1528 Cabeza de Vaca shipwrecks on Galveston Island and spends the next few years exploring Texas.
1682 Spanish missionaries establish the first two missions in present-day Texas, near El Paso.
1685 The Frenchman LaSalle establishes Fort St. Louis on the coast and lays claim to Texas for France.
1716-89 Spain establishes Catholic missions in Texas and the new towns San Antonio, Goliad, and Nacogdoches.
1821 Stephen F. Austin receives a grant from the Mexican government to begin colonization in Texas, and many thousands of Americans settle over the next 2 decades.
1835 Texans turn back Mexican troops at the Battle of Gonzales, instituting the Texas Revolution.
1836 The Texas Declaration of Independence is signed and an interim government for the Republic of Texas is formed. A small Texan army is overwhelmed by the Mexican army during a 2-week siege at San Antonio's Battle of the Alamo. Nearly 400 Texans are executed by the Mexicans at the Goliad Massacre, under order of Santa Anna. Texans decisively defeat Mexican forces at the Battle of San Jacinto and win independence.
1845 U.S. president James Polk annexes Texas and signs legislation making Texas the 28th state.
1846 The Mexican-American War erupts over boundary disputes, establishing Texas's southern boundary at the Rio Grande River.
1861 Texas secedes from the Federal Union and joins the Confederate States of America.
1870 The U.S. Congress readmits Texas into the Union.
1883 The University of Texas is inaugurated in Austin.
1888 The present state capitol in Austin, larger than the U.S. Capitol, is dedicated.
1925 Texas becomes the second state to elect a woman governor, Miriam Ferguson.
1963 President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Texan Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as president.
1964 The Space Center in Houston (now named for Lyndon B. Johnson) becomes permanent home to NASA.
1966 A gunman atop the tower at the University of Texas at Austin opens fire on students and faculty below, killing 17 before being killed by police.
1970s Unprecedented population growth as Sunbelt seekers flood the state; oil industry is catalyst behind booming economy.
1980s Bust hits the oil and gas industry; real estate prices plummet.
1993 A Waco cult, the Branch Davidians, enters into a 2-month standoff with federal officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
1994 Texas becomes the second-most-populous state in the nation.
2000 After a prolonged and disputed election, Texas Governor George W. Bush is ushered into the presidency of the United States by the U.S. Supreme Court.
2001 Houston-based energy giant Enron -- formerly the world's largest energy trading company -- files for bankruptcy.
2002 Enron's demise erupts into a scandal of improper accounting practices and fake "shell companies," prompting Justice Department inquiries, arrests, and the suicide of at least one former executive.
2004 Former Texas governor George W. Bush wins the election for a second term as president of the United States.
2005 People displaced by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast inundate Texas, finding temporary and permanent refuge in Houston, Dallas, and other cities. Texan cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong (born in Plano) wins a record seventh consecutive Tour de France, the world's most difficult cycling competition. Antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan, whose soldier son died in Iraq, holds vigil outside President Bush's Crawford ranch.
2006 Former Texas Governor Anne Richards, as colorful and emblematic a Texan as LBJ, dies of cancer.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before
planning your trip.
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