This Day In Texas History - April 2

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1689 - Spanish Gen. Alonso de León's expedition finds the remains of Fort St. Louis. Fearing French intentions to lay claim to Spanish territory, the Spanish begin establishing missions and settlements in East Texas.

1839 - John Bird was elected captain of a company of rangers, which he led to Fort Milam on the Texas frontier.

1840 - The slave smuggler Monroe Edwards was convicted of having forged a bill of sale from his partner, Christopher Dart. Although Edwards retained two distinguished lawyers, John C. Watrous and John W. Harris, the forgery was discovered during a civil trial in Brazoria. Edwards was found liable for more than $89,000 plus interest and court costs. He was also indicted and jailed. After making bond on the criminal charge, he fled to Europe, where he posed as a wealthy veteran of San Jacinto and an abolitionist. He left Europe after a threat of exposure by the Texas envoy to England and returned to the United States, where he engaged in several large-scale forgeries. He was finally arrested and incarcerated in the Tombs prison in New York. His trial was a celebrated one, with lengthy reports of each day's testimony printed in the New York Daily Tribune and other newspapers. Edwards again retained celebrated lawyers but was found guilty and sentenced to Sing Sing prison. After an escape attempt in 1847 he was severely beaten by prison authorities and died.

1875 - A party of 35 Mexican raiders attacked Roma in Starr county with the intent to rob the customshouse but were stopped by United States troops in the area. It appears also that several people were killed by the same bandits in Hidalgo County and Laredo. Once back in Mexico, some of the raiders were identified, and Mexican authorities arrested them.

1875 - In 1870 rustlers were attracted to Hildago County with 18,141 cattle and 11,270 sheep and a population of only 2,387. From 1872 to 1875 Sheriff Alex J. Leo repeatedly wired Washington requesting troops to curtail cattle rustling and end the "Cattle Wars," but his efforts were in vain. On April 2, 1875, Capt. Leander H. McNelly and a band of Texas Rangers arrived to help.

1932 - Born in Jenks-Branch (Travis County) in 1870, Bill Pickett invented "Bull-Dogging", (wrestling bulls to the ground by their horns). Picket's showmanship was a thrill for fans around the country, performing with many of the travelling cowboy shows at the time. He befriended many of the early pioneers in Old West shows. In 1932, he was kicked in the head by a horse and died of his injuries a few days later. He was 61. Will Rogers announced his funeral on the radio. He was the first black honoree in the National Rodeo Hall of Fame.

1942 - The first major unit, the 893d Tank Destroyer Battalion, arrived at Fort Hood being transferred from Fort Meade.

1943 - Thirty-sixth Infantry Division set sail from New York for Oran, Algeria.

1949 - A B-50 Superfortress, the Lucky Lady II, landed at Fort Worth's Carswell Air Force Base after 94 hours and several mid-air refueling stops, and 23,452 miles in the air. Captain James Gallagher and his crew were the first in history to fly non-stop around the world.

1957 - A tornado struck Dallas and Oak Cliff. 10 are killed and over 200 injured.

1957 - Ralph Yarborough is elected to the U.S. Senate.

1969 - Heartland, the last horse trained by Texas trainer Maximilian Justice Hirsch, won at Aqueduct. Hirsch died the next day. The Fredericksburg native had run away from home at age twelve to become a jockey. After riding 123 winners in 1,117 races, he trained horses from 1902 until his death, working with such famous racers as Grey Lag, Sarazen, Dawn Play, and High Gun. At the King Ranch stables he trained three Kentucky Derby winners, Bold Venture, Assault, and Middleground. Assault went on to capture the Triple Crown. Hirsch was elected to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1970.

1982 - Paris was hit by a tornado that destroyed more than 1,500 homes and left eight dead and 3,000 homeless.

1995 - Legendary golf instructor Harvey Penick died in Austin at the age of ninety. In the 1930s Penick began recording his observations about the game in a red Scribbletex notebook. Though it was intended strictly as a teaching aid, he decided to confide its contents to writer Bud Shrake. The result was Harvey Penick's Little Red Book (1992), the all-time best-selling sports book that remained on the New York Times best-seller list for fifty-four weeks. There followed two more books with Shrake, instructional tapes, a teaching facility named in Penick's honor, and three lines of golf clubs. He was inducted into both the Texas Golf Hall of Fame (1979) and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame (1984), was the PGA's first National Teacher of the Year (1989), and received a posthumous resolution in the Texas House of Representatives (1995).