The 20th Century

1901

Jan. 10 – A gusher drilled by mining engineer Capt. A.F. Lucas at Spindletop near Beaumont catapults Texas into the petroleum age.

1902

The poll tax becomes a requirement for voting.

1906

For the first time, Texans can vote for U.S. senator in the Democratic primary. Although the Texas legislature retains ultimate appointment authority, primary voters can express their preferences. Not until 1916 are Texas voters able to directly elect U.S. senators.

1910

March 2 – Lt. Benjamin D. Foulois makes the first military air flight in a Wright brothers plane at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. The seven-and-a-half-minute flight marks the shaky beginnings of U.S. Air Force.

1911-1920

The Mexican civil war spills across the border, as refugees seek safety, combatants seek each other, and Texas settlements are raided for supplies by all sides in the fighting. Pancho Villa and his followers are active along the border during some of this time.

1917-1918

The United States participates in World War I.

1917

Gov. James Ferguson is impeached and convicted; he leaves office.

1918

March – Texas women win the right to vote in primary elections.

1918

Annie Webb Blanton becomes the first woman elected to a statewide office when she is elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

1919

Responding to anti-German sentiment, Gov. William P. Hobby vetoes appropriations for German Dept. of The University of Texas.

1919

Texans adopt a prohibition amendment to the state constitution.

1920

Large-scale agricultural irrigation begins in the High Plains.

1925

Miriam "Ma" Ferguson becomes Texas' first woman governor, serving as a figurehead for her husband, former Gov. James E. Ferguson.

1925

Sept. 30 – Texas Tech University begins classes in Lubbock as Texas Technological College.

1928

June 26-29 – The Democratic National Convention is held in Houston, the first nominating convention held in a Southern city since 1860.

1929

Feb. 17 – The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is founded in Corpus Christi.

1930

Sept. 5 – The Daisy Bradford #3 well, drilled near Turnertown in Rusk County by wildcatter C.M. (Dad) Joiner, blows in, heralding the discovery of the huge East Texas Oil Field.

1935

Two years after federal prohibition was repealed, Texas voters ratify the repeal of the state's prohibition law.

1936

June 6 – The Texas Centennial Exposition opens at Dallas' Fair Park; it runs until Nov. 29.

1937

March 18 – A massive explosion, blamed on a natural-gas leak beneath the London Consolidated School building in Rusk County, kills an estimated 296 students and teachers. Subsequent deaths of people injured in the explosion bring the death count to 311. As a result, the Texas legislature requires that a malodorant be added to the odorless gas so that leaks can be more easily detected.

1941-1945

The United States participates in World War II.

1943

June – A race riot in Beaumont leads to a declaration of martial law.

1947

April 16 – The French-owned SS Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate, explodes in the Texas City harbor, followed the next morning by the explosion of the SS High Flyer. The disaster kills almost 600 and injures at least 4,000 more. The concussion is felt 75 miles away in Port Arthur, and the force creates a 15-foot tidal wave.

1948

Lyndon B. Johnson beats Coke Stevenson in the U.S. Senate race by 87 votes. The winning margin in the disputed primary is registered in Ballot Box No. 13 in Jim Wells County.

1949

Aug. 24 – The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston admits its first black student.

1950

The U.S. Supreme Court orders racial integration of The University of Texas law school.

1953

Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the first Texas-born President of the United States.

1953

May 11 – A tornado kills 114, injures 597 at Waco; 150 homes and 185 other buildings are destroyed.

1953

May 22 – The Tidelands Bill is signed by Pres. Eisenhower, giving Texas the rights to its offshore oil.

1954

Texas women gain the right to serve on juries.

1958

Sept. 12 – The integrated circuit, developed by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments, Dallas, is successfully tested, ushering in the semiconductor and electronics age.

1961

John Tower wins a special election for U.S. Senate, becoming the first Republican senator from Texas since Reconstruction.

1962

NASA opens the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. The center moves to a new campus-like building complex in 1964. It is renamed Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center on Aug. 17, 1973.

1963

Nov. 22 – President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas; vice president Lyndon B. Johnson succeeds to the office, becoming the 36th U.S. president.

1964

The poll tax is abolished by the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as a requirement for voting for federal offices. It is retained in Texas, however, for state and local offices.

1965

The Texas Legislature is reapportioned on the principle of one person, one vote.

1965

June 3 – San Antonio native Ed White becomes the first American to walk in space.

1966

The poll tax is repealed as a requirement for voting in all elections by amendment of the Texas Constitution.

1966

Barbara Jordan of Houston becomes the first black woman elected to the Texas Senate.

1966

Aug. 1 – Charles Whitman kills 17 people, shooting them from the observation deck of the main-building tower on The University of Texas campus in Austin.

1967

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) is incorporated in Texas; its first national office is in San Antonio.

1969

July 20 – Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong transmits the first words from the surface of the moon: "Houston, the Eagle has landed."

1971

The Securities and Exchange Commission investigates illegal manipulation of stock transactions involving Frank Sharp and his Sharpstown State Bank of Houston. The Sharpstown Scandal results in the conviction of House speaker Gus Mutscher and two associates for conspiracy and bribery in 1972.

1974

Jan. 8 – A Constitutional Convention meets to attempt to write a new state constitution. However, the delegates, comprising the membership of the 63rd Legislature, become mired in divisive politics, and the convention adjourns on July 30, 1974, without a document.

1978

William Clements becomes the first Republican governor of Texas since Reconstruction.

1979

April 10 – Several tornadoes kill 53 in West Texas, including 42 in Wichita Falls, and cause $400 million in damages.

1984

The no-pass-no-play rule is part of an education-reform package enacted by the Texas Legislature.

1984

Aug. 20-23 – The National Republican Convention is held in Dallas.

1985

The Federal Home Loan Bank Board suspends deposit insurance for Texas savings-and-loan companies applying for state charters. Three years later, after uncovering widespread insider abuse at Texas lending institutions, federal regulators announce bail-out plans for many Texas thrifts and begin prosecution of S&L officials.

1988

Houstonian George Bush is elected president of the United States.

1990

Democrat Ann Richards becomes the first woman governor of Texas in her own right.

1993

April 19 – Ending a siege that began on Feb. 28, federal agents storm the compound called Mount Carmel near Waco, where cult leader David Koresh and his followers, called Branch Davidians, had reportedly been storing a large cache of assault weapons. The assault and ensuing fire kill four agents and 86 Branch Davidians.

1993

Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison becomes the first woman to serve as U.S. Senator from Texas.

2000

Former Texas Gov. George W. Bush is elected President of the United States.