News Around Texas

History is not just about long-ago events. History is being made every day.

On this day in 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff. On board was Texas astronaut Judith Arlene Resnik. Seventeen years later (on Feb. 1, 2003) the space shuttle Columbia disentegrated over Texas as it prepared for landing. The vapor trail following the disaster was visible over much of the state, and many citizens took part in search and recovery efforts.

• Ask several people if they remember where they were when the Challenger and/or Columbia were lost. How did it affect or impact them?
• This would be a great time to plan a field trip to the Johnson Space Center in Houston (http://www.spacecenter.org/).
• Three space shuttles–Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavor–are still flying. The shuttle program was scheduled to retire this year (2010)–the final chapter in a significant era of history. Learn more about the history of the program and efforts by some to extend space shuttle flights.

This is history in the making!

Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in United States history, won his Medal of Honor on January 26, 1945.

Read more about his remarkable Texan:

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/MM/fmu13.html

http://www.audiemurphy.com/welcome.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy

Audie Murphy became a beloved Hollywood hero after his military career ended. He starred in The Red Badge of Courage, which has become a classic. Your local video rental shop or your local library should be able to help you find a copy.

This week in 1839, Austin won approval as the new capital of the Republic of Texas–only it wasn’t renamed “Austin” until after the final vote. At the time it was selected, the settlement on the banks of the Colorado River was called Waterloo. Not a very propitious moniker!

Nor was Austin…or Waterloo…the first or even the last Texas capital. The first capital of the republic was Columbia– then Houston, temporarily–then LaGrange, almost. President Sam Houston vetoed that. His successor, Mirabeau B. Lamar, suggested Waterloo. And during his second term as president, Houston ordered the government back to Houston and made Washington-on-the-Brazos capital by executive order. The capital returned to Austin in 1845, but it took two votes, the last in 1872, to make the decision permanent.

Cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar may have been born in Illinois, but Popeye the Sailor, the hero of his comic strip “Thimble Theater,” was born in Victoria, Texas when the Victoria Advocate became the first newspaper to run the strip on January 17, 1929. Segar acknowledged the Victoria Advocate as Popeye’s “hometown” in a special cartoon he contributed for the Advocate’s 1934 anniversary issue. According to the TSHA Handbook of Texas Online, Segar wrote (as Popeye) to the newspaper’s editor saying, “Please assept me hearties bes’ wishes an’ felitcitations on account of yer paper’s 88th Anniversity….Victoria is me ol’ home town on account of tha’s where I got born’d at.”

On January 10, 1901 drillers struck oil just south of Beaumont, TX. The discovery at Spindletop Oilfield marked the birth of the modern petroleum industry and made Texas one of the most prosperous states in the Union.

Three shallow drilling attempts over the previous six years had been costly failures, but Anthony Lucas and Pattillo Higgins believed there was oil beneath the salt dome. In October 1900, they spudded a new well. On January 10th mud began to bubble up, and startled roughnecks fled as the 4″ drilling pipe, weighing more than 6 tons, came shooting out of the hole! There were a few quiet minutes before the Lucas geyser, 1139 feet below the surface, spewed a fountain of oil over 100 feet into the sky. Spindletop continued to gush 100,ooo barrels a day for nine days until the well was capped.

The population of Beaumont doubled and then doubled again almost overnight. Petroleum companies such as Texaco, Magnolia, and Exxon sprang to prosperity and power. This discovery marked the birth of modern transportation, and even the production of plastic products.  Though this day is little remembered, the discovery of abundant, affordable oil in Texas changed the world.