Today in Texas History: September 16th, 1844: Mexico Releases Texas Captives from Perote Prison On this day in 1844, Mexican officials released 105 Texans from Perote Prison. The freed men were the last of the captives taken in the Dawson Massacre, the Mier expedition, and the Texan Santa Fe expedition–all episodes in the ongoing strife…
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This Day in Texas History: Castaways Begin Amazing Journey November 6, 1528 On this day in 1528, some eighty survivors of the Narváez expedition washed up on an island off the Texas coast. The castaways included Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and three other men: the slave Estevanico, Alonso Castillo Maldonado, and Andrés Dorantes de…
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This Day in Texas History: Plane Crashes Into Religious Shrine October 23, 1970 On this day in 1970, the lower Rio Grande Valley town of San Juan made international headlines when Francis B. Alexander smashed a rented single-engine plane into the Virgen de San Juan del Valle Shrine. The town of San Juan was organized…
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This Day in Texas History: On Texas Soil, Presidents Meet for the First Time October 16, 1909 On this day in 1909, presidents William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz met in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, the first meeting in history between a president of the United States and a president of Mexico. The local…
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This Day in Texas History: Salt War Turns Bloody October 10, 1877 On this day in 1877, Charles H. Howard shot and killed Louis Cardis in a store in El Paso. The killing was merely the latest, though hardly the last, violent episode in a long dispute known as the Salt War of San Elizario.…
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This Day in Texas History: Mexico Frees Slaves September 15, 1829 On this day in 1829, the Guerrero Decree, which abolished slavery throughout the Republic of Mexico except in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, was issued by President Vicente R. Guerrero. The decree reached Texas on October 16, but Ramón Músquiz, the political chief of the…
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This Day in Texas History: Victory Over French Marks Origin of Cinco de Mayo May 05, 1862 On this day in 1862, Mexican general Ignacio Zaragoza defeated French expeditionary forces at Puebla, Mexico. This event is celebrated annually as El Cinco de Mayo. Along with El Diez y Seis de Septiembre (September 16), on which…
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This day in Texas History: Alamo Falls to Mexican Army March 06, 1836 On this day in 1836, the chapel of San Antonio de Valero Mission, under siege for thirteen days by the Mexican army under General Antonio Lòpez de Santa Anna, was subjected to an early morning assault. After a fierce battle, lasting for…
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This day in Texas History: Texas Declares Independence from Mexico March 02, 1836 On this day in 1836, Texas became a republic. On March 1 delegates from the seventeen Mexican municipalities of Texas and the settlement of Pecan Point met at Washington-on-the-Brazos to consider independence from Mexico. George C. Childress presented a resolution calling for…
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This Day in Texas History: Father of Conjunto Born in Reynosa October 29, 1911 On this day in 1911, Narciso Martínez was born in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. His parents immigrated to the United States that year and settled in La Paloma, a town outside Brownsville. Martínez took up the accordion in 1928. Around the same…
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