Dallas History

Dallas began as a trading post near a crossing on the Trinity River in 1841. By the time Texas was annexed by the US in 1845, the town's population had grown to 430, mostly farmers, traders, and shopkeepers. It began to prosper as a supply station for settlers in the great westward expansion and as an agricultural center, particularly for the exportation of cotton.

Following Dallas's official incorporation as a town in 1856, the town grew steadily, later providing food and munitions to the Confederate forces during the Civil War. Like many cities of the South, Dallas suffered severe economic and social problems at the end of the war but quickly rebounded as a trade center once again, serving as a shipping point for the Midwest buffalo market.

In the 1870s, the railway and telegraph lines further enhanced Dallas's position as a hub of commerce. In 1911 the Federal Reserve Bank selected Dallas as the site for a regional bank, thus establishing the city as a financial center.

Dallas's strong affiliation with the aviation industry began with WWI and the founding of Love Field as an air training facility. Today Love still operates as a commercial airport and is joined by the enormous Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport located in the Metroplex community of Grapevine.

One of Dallas's darkest historic periods occurred in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while touring the city in a motorcade. The tragic episode is remembered in Dealey Plaza, where a memorial commemorates the location, and in The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, located in the former Texas School Book Depository building from which the alleged assassin's shots were fired.

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