Texas History Timeline

Above: The six flags that have flown over Texas.

1519 Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda is the first European to reach Texas.
1528 Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca is shipwrecked near Galveston Island.
1541 Francisco Vazquez de Coronado of Spain explores the plains of West Texas.

1659 Mission Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de El Paso founded in Juarez.
1685 French explorer Robert Cavelier La Salle arrives in Matagorda Bay and establishes Fort St. Louis.
1690 First mission in East Texas founded.
1691 Texas becomes Spanish province.

1716 East Texas settled with six missions.
1718 Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo) founded.
1731 Canary Islanders arrive in San Antonio de Bexar to establish first civilian municipality.
1749 Goliad founded.

1819 Florida Purchase Treaty signed relinquishing U.S. claim to Texas.
1820 Moses Austin receives permission to bring 300 colonists to Texas.
1821 Texas becomes a Mexican state as Mexico becomes free of Spain.
1830 Mexico passes law to slow immigration of English-speaking settlers into Texas.
1832 Texans and Mexicans fight at Velasco; Texans convene to discuss political separation of Texas.
1835 Texas gains independence from Mexico in Texas Revolution.
1836 Declaration of independence signed at Washington-on-the-Brazos; Sam Houston elected first President of Texas Republic.
1837 U.S. recognizes Texas as an independent country.
1839 Austin becomes capital of Republic of Texas.
1845 Texas becomes 28th state.
1853 First State Capitol built in Austin.
1861 Ordinance of Secession passed.
1865 Texas slaves freed.
1866 First Texas cattle drive.
1870 Texas readmitted to the Union.
1898 Theodore Roosevelt trains "Rough Riders" in San Antonio.

1900 Galveston hit by hurricane; 6,000 residents killed.
1901 Oil discovered at Spindletop.
1923 Miriam Ferguson becomes first woman governor.
1930 Oil discovered in East Texas.
1960 Texas Lyndon B. Johnson becomes U.S. vice-president.
1963 President John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas; LBJ becomes president.
1968 San Antonio hosts World's Fair.
1988 Houstonian George Bush elected 41st president of the United States.
2000 George W. Bush elected 43rd president of the United States.