Texas Day by Day
Find out what happened today in Texas history.
Texas baritone makes professional debut in New York
99 years ago today on April 20th, 1924
On this day in 1924, Julius Lorenzo Cobb Bledsoe made his professional singing debut at Aeolian Hall in New York City. The African-American baritone was born in Waco in 1897. He attended Central Texas Academy in Waco and Bishop College in Marshall. His best-known achievement was his portrayal of Joe in Florenz Ziegfeld's 1927 production of Jerome Kern's Showboat. His interpretation of "Ol' Man River" made the song an American classic. A highlight of his career was his performance in the title role for the European premiere, in Amsterdam, of Louis Gruenberg's opera The Emperor Jones (1934). Bledsoe also wrote an opera, Bondage (1939), based on Uncle Tom's Cabin. He died in 1943, in Hollywood, of a cerebral hemorrhage.
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German nobles unite for Texas colonization
181 years ago today on April 20th, 1842
On this day in 1842, the Adelsverein (the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas) was provisionally organized by twenty-one German noblemen at Biebrich on the Rhine, near Mainz. The society was formed to establish a new Germany on Texas soil by means of an organized mass emigration. In May 1842 the association sent two of its members, counts Joseph of Boos-Waldeck and Victor August of Leiningen, to Texas to purchase land. In January 1843 Boos-Waldeck bought a square league (4,428 acres) in what is now Fayette County, near Industry, as the base for future colonization. The first immigrants disembarked in Texas in December 1844, near Carlshafen (later Indianola). The society brought more than 7,000 Germans to Texas. It also established Texas as a major goal of subsequent emigration from Germany.
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Last Confederate general dies
95 years ago today on April 20th, 1928
On this day in 1928, Felix Huston Robertson died in Waco. Robertson, the only Texas-born general officer to serve the Confederacy, was born in 1839 at Washington-on-the-Brazos. His father, Jerome Bonaparte Robertson, also fought in the Civil War, and was for a time commander of Hood's Texas Brigade. Felix Robertson was appointed brigadier general in 1864. He was a harsh disciplinarian whose savage punishments and Indian-like features earned him the sobriquet "Comanche Robertson." The most controversial incident of his military tenure occurred in Saltville, Virginia. There, on October 3, 1864, troops under Robertson's command killed well over 100 wounded, mostly black survivors of a Union attack. Though Robertson was never charged with any crime, one of his subordinate officers was hanged for murder. After the war Robertson returned to Texas, where he became an enthusiastic member of the United Confederate Veterans and served as the commander of the Texas Division in 1911. At the time of his death he was the last surviving general of the Confederacy.
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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 1 week from now
335th Anniversary
- Spanish explorer names the Nueces 2 weeks ago
- Coahuila governor discovers and names Guadalupe River 5 days ago
- Spanish explorer finds defunct French fort 3 days from now
325th Anniversary
- San Juan Bautista Mission founded 2 months 5 days from now
315th Anniversary
245th Anniversary
- American Revolution reaches Texas 2 months 2 days from now
205th Anniversary
- Provisional government declares Texas independence 2 months 4 days from now
- Early Texas journalist heralds Long expedition 1 month 2 weeks from now
200th Anniversary
- Austin Colony settlers clash with Karankawas 2 months 3 days from now
195th Anniversary
- Future Alamo defender and survivor elope 1 month 5 days from now
- Irish trader takes citizenship oath 1 month 23 hours from now
185th Anniversary
- Republic of Texas defeats revolutionary plotters in key action 4 weeks from now
- "Village Blacksmith of Cumby" born in Tennessee 1 month 1 week from now
180th Anniversary
- Pioneer Texas doctor born in Alabama 1 month 2 days from now
- Historic steamer arrives in Texas 2 weeks 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 1 month 2 days from now
170th Anniversary
- War Department orders surveys for Indian reservations 1 week from now
- Texas Germans declare slavery to be evil 3 weeks from now
- Prairie chicken namesake born in England 1 week from now
160th Anniversary
- General Taylor foils Union campaign in Louisiana 1 week ago
- Partisan leader promoted 1 month 1 week from now
- Former Texan rallies Union troops, awarded Medal of Honor 2 weeks from now
- Hood's Texas Brigade rallies around General Lee 2 weeks from now
- Civil War skirmish at Las Rusias 2 months 6 days from now
155th Anniversary
- Alleged participants in mob killing go on trial 1 month 5 days from now
- High court rules that Texas can sue in federal courts despite secession 4 days ago
150th Anniversary
- Governor Coke appoints commander of Frontier Battalion 1 week from now
- First letter from "Pidge" appears in Austin paper 1 week from now
- Indian raiders strike again at Adobe Walls 2 months 1 week from now
- Feudists intensify conflict by lynching 2 months 1 day 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 1 week 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 4 weeks from now
120th Anniversary
105th Anniversary
- Texas Senate ratifies women's right to vote 2 months 1 week from now
- Texas congressman calls Mexican president a "spineless cactus" 2 months 23 hours from now
100th Anniversary
- Congress establishes United States Border Patrol 1 month 1 week from now
- West Texas Historical Association organized in Abilene today
- Texas baritone makes professional debut in New York 1 day from now
90th Anniversary
- Murderers and bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde gunned down in Louisiana 1 month 4 days from now
85th Anniversary
- UT observatory dedicated in Davis Mountains 2 weeks from now
- Soil Conservation Board established 1 month 1 week from now
- Refugee conductor gives "demonstration concert" in San Antonio 1 month 3 weeks from now
80th Anniversary
- U.S. Supreme Court dooms white primary 2 weeks ago
- Rudder's Rangers fight with distinction on Normandy beaches 1 month 2 weeks from now
75th Anniversary
- Residents of homestead community petition for incorporation 2 months 1 week from now
60th Anniversary
- Construction begins at Toledo Bend Reservoir 3 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 2 weeks ago
- Last passenger train leaves Dallas terminal 1 month 1 week from now
- New airport opens in Houston 1 month 2 weeks from now
- El Paso County gives rock art site to state 1 month 3 weeks from now
45th Anniversary
- Dallas designates Federal Reserve Bank a historic landmark 3 weeks from now
- Novelist dies after fistfight 1 month 2 weeks from now
- Orange Show opens to the public 2 weeks from now
40th Anniversary
- Landmark public education suit filed 1 month 4 days from now
- Legendary jazz pianist dies 4 days from now
25th Anniversary
- Spurs are champions! 2 months 6 days from now