Results tagged “history”

Photos courtesy of Flickr users slightclutter and hcraighall.

  173 years ago, George C. Childress hurriedly composed a document at Washington-on-the-Brazos while only 150 miles away, the Alamo was under a brutal and ultimately fatal attack by the Mexican army. The document, which was written overnight at a hastily formed convention of Texas leaders, accused the Mexican goverment of ceasing to protect the lives, liberty, and property of the people of Texas.  It became the Texas Declaration of Independence. 

…the people of Texas do now constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations; and, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme arbiter of the destinies of nations.

And with those words, the people of the Republic of Texas declared independence from Mexico on this day, March 2, 1836. The Texas War of Independence had begun half a year earlier, on October 5, 1835, with the defeat of the Mexican army at the Battle of Gonzales by armed Texians who refused to surrender a cannon — the famous “Come and Take It” cannon — to the Mexican government, as it was their only means of protection against Indian attacks on the settlement. General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the recently-elected president of Mexico, had just the year before abolished the Constitution of 1824 — which very loosely governed Mexican territories, including Texas — and enacted a harsh, anti-federalist constitution in its place.  The new constitution took away liberties to which most Texian settlers had become accustomed, required that they convert to Catholicism, tithe 10% of their earnings to the Roman Catholic church and created the state of Coahuila y Tejas out of the former territory, with its new capital hundreds of miles away from the former capital of San Antonio.  Texian settlers were furious.

Ever since LIFE opened its archive of mostly unpublished photographs from 1750 onward, Houstonist has been obsessed with searching through old pictures of Houston (among many other things, of course). Pictures of Judge Roy Hofheinz's apartment in the Astrodome? Check. An eerily barren River Oaks Boulevard? Check. Shudde Brothers before the surrounding neighborhood went downhill and came back up again? Check. Buzz Aldrin glumly sitting in a Tilt-A-Whirl at Astroworld? Check. Houston revelling in its redneck glory at the erstwhile Frontier Festival? Check.

Houstonist Flickr pool contributor J-a-x took this picture during Barack Obama's campaign rally at the Toyota Center in February of this year.

Washington Avenue runs approximately three miles, a relatively small stretch of road in comparison to the hulking concrete freeways and endless ribbons of asphalt that flow through Houston. But those three miles, stretching parallel along I-10 and dead-ending into downtown, are potent ones. Washington Avenue is a microcosm of Houston's history and future, succinctly merging the two in ways that no other area of town does as successfully. But at its current rate of growth, with all the gentrification and redevelopment that now defines the area, it may not remain that way for much longer.

Anybody who is worth their salt about Houston history knows Ima Hogg. You don't even need to be a Bayou City scholar in order to know of Ms. Hogg. Case in point, Wikipedia is shining a spotlight on the notoriously named philanthropist as its featured article of the day.

The sun rose on a beautiful, windy day on Sunday. In the whispers of the wind, you could almost hear the encouragement, and smell the impending victory. Your valiant Houstonist staff would soon convene to take on the Houston Arts & Media Houston History Road Rally (HAMHHRR) for the sake of honor, historical preservation, and cheap beer.

Straight outta TX-22 and in front of the microphone: Rep. Nick Lampson is teaming up with the Veterans Service Office and communications students at UH to help document the stories of American veterans for the Library of Congress. From the department of Did You Know?:

From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits...

From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits...

We're always looking for more ways to learn about our great city, so why not start at home? Not only is it interesting to know about the plat upon which you live, but it can also help to paint part of the picture of Houston's interesting, albeit short history, and there are quite a few on and offline resources to help with research. An easy way to start is to find the specific name of...

Wassail, both a noun and a verb, manages to come up in at least one conversation (or carol) each December holiday season. And yet, what the heck is it? The drink is from medieval northern Europe and used to resemble something like mulled beer. It's now more like mulled cider, wine or dry sherry. The word means "Be thou hale!" and was used as a non-Christian greeting or goodbye. Houstonist wonders if Shalom or Aloha...

Somewhere, in the sea of hype surrounding Reggie Bush and Vince Young, Mario Williams has emerged as the strongest impact-player in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft. Sure, Vince had a Pro Bowl appearance his first year, Reggie has the endorsements, and Joseph Addai and Laurence Moroney are key components of already-strong teams, but Super Mario has delivered on the promise that made Charley Casserly risk his job to pick him first overall....

Houstonist got worn out on early morning White Russians and late night Bloody Marys during the Thanksgiving break. Thus, we were looking for something light and zesty when a fellow sauce fiend suggest we opt for a Slutty Shirley. The Slutty Shirley is a twist on the traditional children's cocktail, the Shirley Temple. You may remember Shirley Temple as a tap dancing little girl from black-and-white movies. The little lady inspired a fizzy red...

Calling themselves "Houston’s most unusual string ensemble performing all original music," Two Star Symphony is aiming for another Houston national first starting November 30: to be the only string quartet performing with a matched set of instruments created by luthier Anton Krutz of K.C. Strings. The Russia-born Krutz, who began making violins when he was 12 years old, actually crafted the instruments from the same batch of wood and put them through the same varnishing...

::Movie Monday - Double Feature:: Two series we love return tonight: Monday Night Movies at Domy Books, and Movies Houstonians Love at the MFA. Liquid Sky, 1983, 112 min Domy Books | 1709 Westheimer 8:30 - 10:30pm FREE Drugs, 80s Art Punks, and Aliens translated through director Slava Tsukerman would be the easy way to describe Liquid Sky. The hard way would include the endless amount of unlikable characters (including the two leads played by...

Texas A & M has scheduled an 11 a.m. press conference today to announce that Houston Texans offensive coordinator Mike Sherman will be the next head coach. Sherman is returning to A & M where he was the offensive line coach from 1989-1993 and 1995-96. Sherman replaces Dennis Franchione who resigned after a 38-30 A & M upset win over rival Texas Longhorns. This is Mike Sherman's first college head coaching job, but he...

::Houston Dynamo MLS Championship Rally at City Hall:: Help welcome our team home today as they return from DC after defeating the New England Revolution for the second year in a row. Yikes, Reis, let another one slip past ya?! By defeating the Revs, the Dynamo become only the second team in the history of Major League Soccer to conquer back-to-back championships. Glenn Davis will serve as the event's Master of Ceremonies. Other speakers include...

::Ken Burns' The War at the Wortham Center:: How did you spend your Veteran's Day? Did you fly a flag? Did you hug a Vet? No? Well, here's your last chance at redemption. If you missed Ken Burns' World War II Series, The War, on PBS a few months back, you can catch it again tonight at the Wortham Center, as Burns is on hand to screen and discuss the series. Burns' works are...

What is it about the term "crafts" that is so off-putting to some of us? Well, for one, it reminds us of suburban housewives with wooden figurines adorning their shelves, reminding us that we're in a "Kountry Kitchen," or that (hee) "Back Door Friends are the Best Friends!" It was many years before we realized just how funny that sign in our wacky Aunt Grace's kitchen was. That, or that wacky Aunt Grace led a...

Well, good news from the Texans, Cougars, and Dynamo camps. All three were winners this weekend. But there was a lot more going on in the Houston sports universe this week. Let's take a look at what people were saying: - Chronicle columnist Jose de Jesus Ortiz got called out for misdiagnosing the Astros offseason needs, and the commenter used complete sentences and no profanity. Intelligent comments on a sports blog (other than this one,...

::HOME: The Aramco Brat's Story:: Tonight, River Oaks Theatre hosts the Houston screening of the feature length documentary, HOME: Aramco Brat's Story, a film depicting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as seen through the eyes of the Western expatriate children who grew up there between 1933 and present day. With all the attention given to the Middle East today, it is important that the Western public receives a complete picture in order that their...

In spite of what may have simultaneously been the best and worst game in Texans franchise history, we do have a lot of good stuff to share with you this week from the sports blogosphere. Pay particular attention to the gem at the bottom of the list. - Stevie Franchise may not really earn that nickname anymore, but he is back in Houston and he is wearing number 3 again. Just like 2002. Maybe we...

Good morning, Houston. Looks like our freewheeling land-use policies have gotten some national attention: The Wall Street Journal has a story focusing on the proposed residential tower at Bissonnet and Ashby. "The condo-tower dustup is just the latest in a string of odd situations allowed by Houston's lenient land-use rules," the article explains. "Rowdy cantinas, rock-crushing operations and commercial dumps sometimes pop up in residential neighborhoods. Condo towers sprout next to schools. A pay-by-the-hour...

Good morning, Houston. Are you registered to vote? Do you need to make changes to your registration? Better take care of it fast: Today is the last day to register or alter your registration if you want to vote in the Nov. 6 elections. Voters in 34 jurisdictions will elect candidates this year, and the state has 16 bond issues on the ballot — and, of course, there are big-ticket items like HISD's $805...

With baseball season firmly packed into the history books, at least as far as the Astros and the rest of the NL Central are concerned (hi Cubs fans!), and basketball season around the corner, there's plenty of blog fodder out there this week. Here's what bloggers are saying about our sports teams: - The Rockets are hemorrhaging point guards. Even though the word on the street is that Rafer Alston is on the trading block,...

::The Orange Show for Visionary Arts Concert Series:: We told you about this event in this week's Thriftster, but decided it was waaaaaay to cool not to be reminded of again. I mean, would you seriously know what to do if we didn't tell you these things? Don't answer that. Unless the answer is "No." This new concert series, co-sponsored by SugarHill Studios, is dedicated to showcasing musicians as original as the Orange Show...