August Timeline
August 1
1684 - La Salle set sail with 300 people to establish a colony in the New World.
1839 - The first lots were sold in what became the capital of Texas: Austin, originally called Waterloo.
August 2
1835 - The Battle of Nacogdoches began after the Anahuac disturbances.
1836 - "The Telegraph and Texas Register" printed the Constitution of the Republic of Texas. This was the first time the constitution was printed in Texas. The newspaper was owned by Gail Borden, who is known for developing condensed milk.
August 3
1886 - The first battleship "Texas" was authorized. It was launched June 28, 1892.
1970 - Hurricane Celia hit Corpus Christi resulting in more dollar damage than any other major storm up to this time. Winds were estimated up to 180 miles per hour.
August 4
1876 - The Franco-Texas Land Company was chartered and eventually owned nearly 600,000 acres of land.
1941 - W. Lee 'Pappy' O'Daniel resigned as governor to enter the U.S. Senate. Coke Stevenson took office then.
August 5
1871 - Texans were very unhappy with the administration of Gov. Edmund J. Davis, claiming too much money was being spent. A meeting, known as the Taxpayers' Convention of 1871, was held. Davis was pro-Union, Texas a pro-Southern state.
August 6
1842 - Charles Elliot arrived as British charge d'affaires to the Republic of Texas. The U.S. was afraid of an alliance between the Republic of Texas and Britain so the work to have Texas annexed was stepped up.
August 7
1838 - The Cordova Rebellion began, led by Vicente Cordova.
1839 - The schooner "San Antonio" was commissioned in the Texas Navy.
August 8
1812 - The Guiterrez-Magee Expedition entered Texas to claim the land for the U.S.
1859 - Camp Nowlin was established as a post for the soldiers taking the Indians from the Brazos Indian reservation across the Red River to Indian Territory.
1867 - Elisha Pease became governor replacing James Throckmorton.
August 9
1809 - William Barrett Travis was born in South Carolina.
1863 - The Ellison Springs Indian Fight happened in Eastland County at the present site of Jewell.
1866 - Andrew Jackson Hamilton left as governor. James Throckmorton took office.
August 10
1862 - The Civil War Battle of Nueces occurred near Fort Clark.
August 11
1840 - Texas volunteers and Texas Rangers overtook the Comanches at Plum Creek. The Comanche had destroyed the town of Linnville in retaliation of the Council House fight in San Antonio.
August 12
1821 - Stephen F. Austin arrived in San Antonio to begin colonization.
1917 - Gov. James "Pa" Ferguson left office. He was impeached on charges of improper conduct.
August 13
1832 - The "Constitutional Advocate and Brazoria Advertiser" was published at Brazoria weekly. During its short existence, it reported on the Convention of 1833, cholera epidemics and attitudes of the day. Stephen F. Austin called the paper "anti-Mexican."
August 14
1819 - The "Texas Republican" began publication at Nacogdoches. It was published by James Long to record his expedition in the attempt to establish a Republic of Texas.
August 15
1824 - Rafael Gonzales began serving as governor of Coahuila and Texas.
1844 - President Sam Houston sent the militia to stop the Regulator-Moderator War.
1865 - Kicking Bird signed a treaty with the U.S. Government stating that the Kickapoo Indians accepted the fact that they would be placed on a reservation.
August 16
1798 - Mirabeau B. Lamar, second president of the Republic of Texas, was born.
1842 - Charles Warfield was authorized to take an expedition to Santa Fe to retaliate for the capture of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition. This was then known as the Warfield Expedition.
1862 - The city of Corpus Christi was bombarded by the U.S. Navy. The bombardment continued to Aug 18.
August 17
1786 - David Crockett was born this day in Tennessee.
1822 - Jose F. Trespalacios was appointed governor of Texas.
August 18
1813 - The Battle of Medina River was fought between the Guiterrez-Magee Expedition and a Spanish royalist force under Joaquin de Arrendondo. Eight hundred fifty Americans and Mexicans were killed near San Antonio by Spanish forces under Arrendondo.
August 19
1895 - Gunfighter John Wesley Hardin was shot and killed by John Selman in the Acme Saloon in El Paso.
August 20
1855 - Fort Lancaster was established in present Crockett County near Ozona.
August 21
1756 - Angel de Martos y Navarrette was named governor of Texas.
1879 - The first telephone exchange was opened in Galveston. The first phone had been installed on March 18, 1878 between the Galveston "News" newspaper office and home of the publisher, A.H. Belt. This was one of the first one thousand phones in the world.
August 22
1750 - Nuestra Senora de Delores was founded in Zapata County.
August 23
1917 - A riot occurred in Houston between local police and black soldiers from Camp Logan. Martial law was declared in Houston to restore law and order.
August 24
1824 - John Austin was granted 177 acres of land by the Mexican government which later became the town of Brazoria. It was located fifteen miles from the mouth of the Brazos River.
August 25
1839 - In San Antonio 8000 people stormed the auditorium and broke up a meeting of 100 communists.
1917 - William P. Hobby took office as governor after James Ferguson's removal from impeachment.
August 26
1839 - Fort Burleson was established.
1843 - The cornerstone was laid for the first building of Wesleyan Male and Female College at San Augustine. San Augustine, known as the "Cradle of Texas," is located on what was once the historic El Camino Real.
August 27
1839 - The Webster Massacre happened when 30 homesteaders en route to present Burnet County were attacked by Comanches.
1908 - Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the U.S., was born in Stonewall.
August 28
1859 - Camp Van Camp was abandoned after only four months of being a fort.
1935 - The voters of Texas ratified an amendment to the constitution authorizing old age assistance.
August 29
1916 - The Texas State Council of Defense was created. Its first meeting was in Dallas in May, 1917.
August 30
1820 - Hardin R. Runnels, sixth governor of Texas and the only man to ever beat Sam Houston in an election, was born in Mississippi.
1855 - The first Comanches were placed on the Brazos Indian Reservation. The reservation lasted only four years.
August 31
1824 - The final draft of the Constitution of 1824 of the Republic of Mexico was adopted. Coahuila and Texas were joined as one and the new legislature met at Saltillo.
1857 - The first mail reached California from Texas on the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Route after a 1,476 mile journey. The cost to ride one way was $200.