Texas Day by Day
Find out what happened today in Texas history.
Magnolia Petroleum Company founded
113 years ago today on April 24th, 1911
On this day in 1911, the Magnolia Petroleum Company was founded as an unincorporated joint-stock association. It was a consolidation of several earlier companies, the first of which, the J. S. Cullinan Company, began operating a refinery at Corsicana in 1898. In 1909 both the Navarro Refining Company, successor to the Cullinan Company, and the Security Oil Company were purchased by the John Sealy Company, which in 1911 became the Magnolia Petroleum Company, with Sealy as president. In 1931, Magnolia became an affiliate of Socony-Vacuum Oil Company. The Magnolia Petroleum Company merged with Socony Mobil Oil Company in 1959. Its operations became part of Mobil Oil Company, an operating division of Socony Mobil.
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Black Texas leader assassinated
93 years ago today on April 24th, 1931
On this day in 1931, O. P. DeWalt, president of the Houston NAACP, was assassinated. The 1910 graduate of Prairie View College worked as a real estate agent and school principal before opening the Lincoln Theater, the first exclusively black theater in Houston. He was heralded for standing up to the Ku Klux Klan, which was growing again. He fought against the exclusionary white primaries of the Democratic party and pushed for the establishment of a branch of the National Urban League in Houston. Funeral services were held first in Houston and then in Livingston, where he was born and is buried.
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Tigua leader dies
36 years ago today on April 24th, 1988
On this day in 1988, Miguel Pedraza, Sr., died at his home in Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, near El Paso. Pedraza, born in 1904, was part Tigua and part Piro. For years ethnologists had thought the Tiguas were extinct. The Compromise of 1850 had separated them from fellow Tiguas in New Mexico, thus cutting them off from government support. When other Pueblo Indians were granted reservations in 1864 the Tiguas were excluded because Texas was part of the Confederacy. Thanks in large part to Pedraza's efforts, the state finally recognized the Tiguas in 1967. The next year Pedraza delivered a dramatic appeal to the United States Congress. His successful fight was the first time in half a century that any leader had won national recognition for an Indian group. His efforts were reinforced nearly twenty years later, in 1987, when President Ronald Reagan signed the Ysleta del Sur Restoration Act, making the Tiguas eligible for various federal benefits.
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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 5 days from now
335th Anniversary
- Spanish explorer names the Nueces 2 weeks ago
- Coahuila governor discovers and names Guadalupe River 1 week ago
- Spanish explorer finds defunct French fort 2 days ago
325th Anniversary
- San Juan Bautista Mission founded 2 months 23 hours 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 4 weeks from now
- Early Texas journalist heralds Long expedition 1 month 2 weeks from now
200th Anniversary
- Austin Colony settlers clash with Karankawas 1 month 4 weeks from now
195th Anniversary
- Future Alamo defender and survivor elope 1 month 23 hours 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 6 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 1 week from now
- German furniture artist arrives in Texas 3 weeks from now
170th Anniversary
- War Department orders surveys for Indian reservations 2 days from now
- Texas Germans declare slavery to be evil 2 weeks from now
- Prairie chicken namesake born in England 4 days from now
160th Anniversary
- General Taylor foils Union campaign in Louisiana 2 weeks ago
- Partisan leader promoted 1 month 1 week 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 2 months 1 day from now
155th Anniversary
- Alleged participants in mob killing go on trial 1 month 23 hours 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 1 week from now
- First letter from "Pidge" appears in Austin paper 2 days from now
- Indian raiders strike again at Adobe Walls 2 months 3 days from now
- Feudists intensify conflict by lynching 1 month 3 weeks from now
145th Anniversary
- Northeast Texas community gets a post office 1 month 3 weeks from now
- First county in Panhandle organized 1 week ago
135th Anniversary
- Texas booster fair opens in Fort Worth 1 month 5 days from now
130th Anniversary
- Water-well contractor accidentally discovers first major Texas oilfield 1 month 2 weeks 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 6 days ago
105th Anniversary
- Texas Senate ratifies women's right to vote 2 months 4 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 4 days from now
- West Texas Historical Association organized in Abilene 5 days ago
- Texas baritone makes professional debut in New York 4 days ago
90th Anniversary
- Murderers and bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde gunned down in Louisiana 4 weeks from now
85th Anniversary
- UT observatory dedicated in Davis Mountains 1 week from now
- Soil Conservation Board established 1 month 5 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 5 days from now
60th Anniversary
- Construction begins at Toledo Bend Reservoir 2 weeks from now
55th Anniversary
- Houston surgeon implants first artificial heart 2 weeks ago
- New park opens to public 1 month 1 week 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 6 days from now
- New airport opens in Houston 1 month 2 weeks 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 2 weeks from now
40th Anniversary
- Landmark public education suit filed 4 weeks from now
- Legendary jazz pianist dies 1 day ago
25th Anniversary
- Spurs are champions! 2 months 1 day from now