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KUHT-TV in Houston commenced broadcasting on May 25, 1953, from the Ezekiel W. Cullen Building on the University of Houston campus, as the first public television station in the nation. Its dedication ceremonies were broadcast on June 8 of that year. The station’s initial cost was an investment of $350,000 and had an annual operating budget of about $110,000. Originally licensed to both University of Houston ("UH") and the Houston Independent School District, UH became its sole licensee in 1959. … [Read more...] about Texas History – Do You Know What Texas Television Station Was the First to Offer Educational Programming?

In 1909 the Sanger Brothers store became the first store in the state to install escalators. Philip, Isaac, Lehman, Jacob, David, Sam, and Alexander Sanger established their wholesale and retail dry goods firm in 1857. Isaac opened the first store in McKinney and was joined by Lehman in 1859 and by Philip in 1860. Each of the brothers ran a store and as more brothers joined the business more stores were added. In 1868, the firm became the first Texas business to open a buying office in New York, … [Read more...] about Texas History – Do You Know What Texas Store Was the First in the State to Install Escalators?

The City of Dallas can take pride in claiming to have the first radio station in Texas and the first radio station west of the Mississippi River. WRR-1310 AM began broadcasting in August 1920. This radio station is still in operation with the call letters WRR FM and can be found at 101.1 FM. … [Read more...] about Texas History – Do You Know Where the First Radio Station in Texas Was?

The Comal River, only two-and-a-half miles long, rises from a number of large springs in the northwestern part of New Braunfels in Comal County and flows southeast into the Guadalupe River. The name Comal comes from a Spanish word for a flat earthenware pan used to cook maize cakes. The numerous small, flat islands in the river reminded early Spaniards of the pans. … [Read more...] about Texas History – Do You Know What is the Shortest River in Texas?

According to archaeologists, the site of one of the oldest areas of human habitation in North America is near Lubbock, Texas. Discovered in 1936, the site dates back to the Clovis period some 12,000 years ago. The site is located at Yellow House Draw in northeastern Lubbock County. The draw supposedly was named for Indian cave dwellings in the yellowish bluffs at Yellow House Lake. … [Read more...] about Texas History – Do You Know Where One of the Oldest Areas of Human Habitation in North America is in Texas?

There are three Indian reservations in existence in Texas. They are the Alabama-Coushatta, located at Livingston, Polk County; the Tigua, in El Paso County; and the Kickapoo, south of Eagle Pass. … [Read more...] about Texas History – Do You Know How Many Indian Reservations There Are in Texas?

The first suspension bridge in Texas was built in 1870 across the Brazos River in Waco. This was thirteen years before the Brooklyn Bridge in New York was built. At the time it was the only span across the Brazos. … [Read more...] about Texas History – Do You Know Where and When the First Suspension Bridge Was Built in Texas?

Created eons ago, the geological formations called salt domes, found particularly along the Gulf Coast plains, were the basis for Texas’ petroleum industry. The domes trapped and housed the oil and natural gas that gave Texas some of its most productive fields and were responsible for driving speculators and drillers into oil exploration throughout Texas. One such salt dome produced the fabulous Lucas gusher known as Spindletop, which came in near Beaumont on January 10, 1901. The Spindletop … [Read more...] about Texas History – What Kind of Dome Was Instrumental in Changing the Economy of Texas?

James Stephen Hogg was the first native-born governor of Texas. He was elected governor in 1890 and retired in 1895 after serving two terms. … [Read more...] about Texas History – Who Was the First Native-born Governor of Texas?

John Warne "Bet-A-Million" Gates was a barbed wire tycoon from Texas who risked his fortune in the 1870s betting that barbed wire would change the course of the frontier. Gates gave a demonstration in front of the Hord Hotel in San Antonio to show the effectiveness of barbed wire. He made a corral with the wire and filled it with longhorn cattle. The barbed wire successfully contained the livestock and resulted in more orders for the wire than the factory could fill. The wire did, indeed, prove … [Read more...] about Texas History – What Texan “Bet-A-Million” on Barbed Wire Changing the Course of the Frontier?