Texas Day by Day
Find out what happened today in Texas history.
Texas history library opens in Austin
73 years ago today on April 27th, 1950
On this day in 1950, the Barker Texas History Center opened on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. The Barker Center, today known as the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Collection, was named for UT history professor Eugene C. Barker. It originally occupied the Old Library Building (now called Battle Hall), which was designed by Cass Gilbert and built in 1910. In 1971 the center moved to Sid Richardson Hall, located on the eastern edge of the campus adjacent to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library. In 1991 the Barker Center became a division of the university's newly organized Center for American History (Now the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History). Until 1994 the Center for American History remained a unit of the UT Austin General Libraries; in August 1994 it became an independent operating unit. The Barker Collection houses more than 130,000 books and periodicals; some 3,500 individual collections of personal papers and official records; an extensive newspaper collection; approximately 750,000 photographs; 30,000 recordings; and more than 30,000 printed and manuscript maps.
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Disastrous tornado presages community's demise
116 years ago today on April 27th, 1907
On this day in 1907, a tornado hit Hemming, Texas, killing seven people and wiping out all but one of the town's buildings. Hemming, in southern Cooke County, was established in 1889 and named for the donor of its school land. A store and cotton gin were built there in 1894, and that year a post office opened in the store. At its height just after 1900, Hemming had two general stores, a school, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, three churches, and a population of 125. The town served as the region's cotton-processing center. During the peak years of the cotton boom after 1900 the Hemming cotton gin handled 1,000 to 1,500 bales annually. But the 1907 tornado devastated the community. Though several of its buildings were rebuilt, by the early 1920s Hemming was in decline. By the late 1980s the town was no longer shown on county highway maps.
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Rolling Stone rolls no more
128 years ago today on April 27th, 1895
On this day in 1895, the final issue of the weekly newspaper Rolling Stone was published in Austin. The Rolling Stone was the first publication of William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry, who purchased the press of William Cowper Brann's Iconoclast. The first issue of the Rolling Stone appeared on April 28, 1894. In the paper, Porter lampooned local politicians, social customs, business practices, the performing arts, and other local and state targets. Some of his own short stories were first published in the Rolling Stone. He may have kept the paper alive with money embezzled from the First National Bank, where he worked as a teller. After being accused of the crime, he resigned and, without an income, was unable to continue publishing.
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From Cabeza de Vaca's ship-wreck in 1528 through the Texas Revolution to present day—almost 500 years of recorded history—a myriad of significant events in Texas history have occurred. These events are arranged by day of the year to allow the reader to see into the past on any specific day.
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Recent & Upcoming Anniversaries
The following entries have anniversaries that occurred this month or will occur in the next 2 month(s)
470th Anniversary
- Spanish treasure ships wrecked on Padre Island 3 days from now
335th Anniversary
- Spanish explorer names the Nueces 3 weeks ago
- Coahuila governor discovers and names Guadalupe River 1 week ago
- Spanish explorer finds defunct French fort 4 days ago
325th Anniversary
- San Juan Bautista Mission founded 1 month 4 weeks from now
315th Anniversary
245th Anniversary
- American Revolution reaches Texas 1 month 3 weeks from now
205th Anniversary
- Provisional government declares Texas independence 1 month 3 weeks from now
- Early Texas journalist heralds Long expedition 1 month 1 week from now
200th Anniversary
- Austin Colony settlers clash with Karankawas 1 month 3 weeks from now
195th Anniversary
- Future Alamo defender and survivor elope 4 weeks from now
- Irish trader takes citizenship oath 3 weeks from now
185th Anniversary
- Republic of Texas defeats revolutionary plotters in key action 3 weeks from now
- "Village Blacksmith of Cumby" born in Tennessee 1 month 4 days from now
180th Anniversary
- Pioneer Texas doctor born in Alabama 3 weeks from now
- Historic steamer arrives in Texas 1 week from now
175th Anniversary
- Major Neighbors returns to San Antonio after leading historic western surveying expedition 1 month 6 days from now
- German furniture artist arrives in Texas 3 weeks from now
170th Anniversary
- War Department orders surveys for Indian reservations today
- Texas Germans declare slavery to be evil 2 weeks from now
- Prairie chicken namesake born in England 2 days from now
160th Anniversary
- General Taylor foils Union campaign in Louisiana 2 weeks ago
- Partisan leader promoted 1 month 5 days from now
- Former Texan rallies Union troops, awarded Medal of Honor 1 week from now
- Hood's Texas Brigade rallies around General Lee 1 week from now
- Civil War skirmish at Las Rusias 1 month 4 weeks from now
155th Anniversary
- Alleged participants in mob killing go on trial 4 weeks from now
- High court rules that Texas can sue in federal courts despite secession 1 week ago
150th Anniversary
- Governor Coke appoints commander of Frontier Battalion 6 days from now
- First letter from "Pidge" appears in Austin paper today
- Indian raiders strike again at Adobe Walls 2 months 1 day from now
- Feudists intensify conflict by lynching 1 month 3 weeks from now
145th Anniversary
- Northeast Texas community gets a post office 1 month 2 weeks from now
- First county in Panhandle organized 2 weeks ago
135th Anniversary
- Texas booster fair opens in Fort Worth 1 month 3 days from now
130th Anniversary
- Water-well contractor accidentally discovers first major Texas oilfield 1 month 1 week from now
125th Anniversary
- Water rises disastrously as rain gluts the Brazos rivershed 1 month 3 weeks from now
120th Anniversary
- West Texas Landscape painter born in Milford 1 week ago
105th Anniversary
- Texas Senate ratifies women's right to vote 2 months 2 days from now
- Texas congressman calls Mexican president a "spineless cactus" 1 month 3 weeks from now
100th Anniversary
- Congress establishes United States Border Patrol 1 month 2 days from now
- West Texas Historical Association organized in Abilene 1 week ago
- Texas baritone makes professional debut in New York 6 days ago
90th Anniversary
- Murderers and bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde gunned down in Louisiana 3 weeks from now
85th Anniversary
- UT observatory dedicated in Davis Mountains 1 week from now
- Soil Conservation Board established 1 month 3 days from now
- Refugee conductor gives "demonstration concert" in San Antonio 1 month 2 weeks from now
80th Anniversary
- U.S. Supreme Court dooms white primary 3 weeks ago
- Rudder's Rangers fight with distinction on Normandy beaches 1 month 1 week from now
75th Anniversary
- Residents of homestead community petition for incorporation 2 months 3 days from now
60th Anniversary
- Construction begins at Toledo Bend Reservoir 2 weeks from now
55th Anniversary
- Houston surgeon implants first artificial heart 3 weeks ago
- New park opens to public 1 month 5 days from now
- Famous horse wins at Aqueduct on the eve of his trainer's death 3 weeks ago
- Last passenger train leaves Dallas terminal 1 month 4 days from now
- New airport opens in Houston 1 month 1 week from now
- El Paso County gives rock art site to state 1 month 2 weeks from now
45th Anniversary
- Dallas designates Federal Reserve Bank a historic landmark 2 weeks from now
- Novelist dies after fistfight 1 month 1 week from now
- Orange Show opens to the public 1 week from now
40th Anniversary
- Landmark public education suit filed 3 weeks from now
- Legendary jazz pianist dies 3 days ago
25th Anniversary
- Spurs are champions! 1 month 4 weeks from now