This Date In Texas History - January 6

[joe817]

1540 - Spanish viceroy Antonio de Mendoza appointed Francisco Vázquez de Coronado to lead an expedition in search of the fabulous Seven Cities of Cíbola. Coronado and 1,000 men set out from Culiacán in late April. Although he found no gold or the 7 cities, his trek took him across Texas into the Great Plains, which he named Llano Estaco(Staked Plains).

1808 - Albert Martin was born in Providence Rhode Island. Martin served Texas as one of the "Old Eighteen" defenders of the "Come take it cannon" in Gonzales.

1843 - Sam Houston reappointed Daniel J.Toler notary public for Washington County. In 1844 he was appointed postmaster general of the Republic of Texas, and after annexation he was named special agent of the United States Post Office Department to devise new postal routes for Texas. Toler accompanied Grant on the Matamoros expedition of 1835-36 but avoided both the massacre of Col. Francis W. Johnson's command at San Patricio on February 27 and the similar fate of Grant's men at Agua Dulce on March 2, 1836.

1861 - John Hemphill was one of fourteen senators who recommended the immediate withdrawal of the southern states from the United States. On February 4, 1861, the Secession Convention elected him one of seven Texas delegates to the convention of Southern states in Montgomery, Alabama, which became the Provisional Confederate Congress. He was subsequently expelled from the United States Senate by resolution on July 11, 1861. In early 1840 the Congress of the Republic of Texas elected him judge of the Fourth Judicial District, an election that automatically made him an associate justice of the republic Supreme Court. He was confirmed in the office on January 20, 1840. On March 19, 1840, he participated in the Council House Fight in San Antonio. In 1840-41 Hemphill joined several campaigns against the Comanches, and in 1842-43, during a period when the Supreme Court did not meet, he served as adjutant general of the Somervell expedition.

1870 - Waco's suspension bridge spanning the Brazos River opened to traffic to coincide with Waco's twentieth birthday.

1882 - Future speaker of the US House, Sam Rayburn, was born in Chatanooga, TN. He served in the house for over 45 years and was Speaker for 17. He was Speaker during World War II, and when Lyndon Johnson first was elected to office.

1915 - The Plan Of San Diego was signed. A revolutionary manifesto supposedly written and signed at the South Texas town of San Diego, which provided for the formation of a "Liberating Army of Races and Peoples," to be made up of Mexican Americans, African Americans, and Japanese, to "free" the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Colorado from United States control. The liberated states would be organized into an independent republic, which might later seek annexation to Mexico. There would be a no-quarter race war, with summary execution of all white males over the age of sixteen. The United States responded by sending a large military force under Gen. John J. Pershing into northern Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa and other instigators. When the United States rejected Venustiano Carranza's(revolutionary general)demands to withdraw Pershing's troops, fear of a military conflict between the United States and Mexico grew.

1929 - Boxing promoter George Lewis (Tex) Rickard died of complications following an appendectomy. He grew up in Sherman, Texas, and as a youth worked the family cattle ranch. He was elected city marshall of Henrietta at age twenty-three, and during this time he also secured his reputation as an excellent poker player. His penchant for gambling drove Rickard’s business dealings for the rest of his life. His penchant for gambling led him to promoting boxing matches and he became successful at it. Rickard set up the Madison Square Garden Corporation and opened the new Madison Square Garden in 1925, acting as director of the sporting facility until his death.

1955 - Elvis Presley sang at Lubbock's Cotton Club. In the audience was a high school senior named Buddy Holly who had a little country band that performed at dances and promotions in the Lubbock area. That night, Buddy and his band gave up singing country standards and took up rock and roll. By the end of the year, Buddy, and some other musicians recorded 11 rock and roll standards and one instrumental at Venture Recording Studio on 19th street in Lubbock.

1998 - Barry Switzer resigned as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. (I can remember when he tried to board an airplane at DFW Airport carrying a handgun and was arrested)