This Day In Texas History - May 15

[joe817]

1755 - Tomás Sánchez de la Barrera y Garza founded Laredo with his family and several others. Sánchez was born near Monterrey, Nuevo León, in 1709. As a young man he served in the army and later ran a ranch in Coahuila. When José Vázquez Borrego established a ranch on the north bank of the Rio Grande in 1750, Sánchez started one on the south side within sight of the new settlement. He was residing there in 1754, when he petitioned José de Escandón for permission to found a town on the north bank of the river. Escandón eventually approved the request and appointed Sánchez captain and chief justice of the new settlement, to be named Laredo. Sánchez was almost singly responsible for maintaining the settlement on the north bank of the Rio Grande, and he held the offices of chief justice and alcalde with only brief intermissions until his death in January 1796.

1871 - In 1871 William Tecumseh Sherman, visited Texas to investigate complaints against Indians from the Fort Sill Reservation. The government had attempted to insure Indian containment by encircling the Indian Territory with a ring of defensive forts and allowing the Society of Friends to manage the Indian agencies, but neither approach had worked. Sherman left San Antonio on May 2, 1871, accompanied by Maj. Randolph B. Marcy, inspector-general of the army, two aides, and seventeen mounted black troopers of the Tenth Infantry. He traveled north through forts Concho, Griffin, and Belknap, and by May 17 reached Fort Richardson, the northernmost outpost on the Texas frontier. The party had seen no Indians, and Sherman was convinced that the Texans' reports were unjustified. On May 15 over a hundred Kiowas, Comanches, Kiowa-Apaches, Arapahoes, and Cheyennes from the Fort Sill Reservation crossed the Red River into Texas.

1888 - The Port Isabel lighthouse was temporarily extinguished. Located on State Highway 100 in Port Isabel, southeastern Cameron County, the lighthouse was built by the United States government in 1852-53. The brick lighthouse had a light that consisted of four lamps on an iron platform. It was reported in 1854 that the lighthouse stood fifty-seven feet above the ground and eighty-two feet above sea level. The light was visible for sixteen miles and was produced by twenty-one reflectors and fifteen lamps. In 1887 it was discovered that the United States government did not have title to the land, and the lighthouse was closed the following year. The government, refusing to give up, sought title to the land and acquired it in 1894. The lighthouse was permanently abandoned, as no longer needed, in 1905, and the site was restored as the Port Isabel Lighthouse Historic Structure in the 1950s.

1890 - Katherine Anne Porter (born Callie Russell Porter) was born in Indian Creek, Texas. She grew up in Kyle. In addition to such major novels as Ship of Fools and Pale Horse-Pale Rider, she also published Noon Wine, a collection of short stories set in Central Texas. The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (1965) won the Gold Medal for Fiction from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award. Two Texas historical markers were erected in Porter's honor: one at Indian Creek Cemetery in Brown County (1990) and another in Kyle (1991).

1896 - A series of tornadoes hit all over North Texas. Sherman, Justin, and Gribble Springs are hit the worst. In total, 76 people lose their lives.

1898 - Teddy Roosevelt arrives in San Antonio to train the Rough Riders.

1936 - the Port of Brownsville is opened.

1937 - On this date in 1937, Trinidad Lopez III was born in Dallas. "Trini" attended Crozier Tech High in Dallas, but left before graduating to help support his family. He was discovered by King Records which signed him to a three year contact, but little came of it. Following the death of his friend Buddy Holly, the remainder of the Crickets contacted Trini to come to Hollywood to be their lead singer, but when he arrived, they were not interested in performing. So Lopez went solo. He was introduced to Frank Sinatra who signed him to his Reprise label. Soon Trini had an album, and in 1963, hit No 3 with an live version of "If I had a Hammer". He went on to have another dozen chart singles, and appeared in numerous television shows.


1973 - Texas native, Nolan Ryan, with the California Angels, pitched his first no-hitter, beating Kansas City 3-0. Ryan would go on to pitch 3 more no-hitters for California, one for Houston, and two for the Texas Rangers.

1993 - In San Antonio, TX, the Alamodome opened.

[ELB]

Thanks Joe

[joe817]

Thanks Joe

Thanks for taking time to read these.