This Date In Texas History - December 28

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1838 - The Lone Star Flag was adopted by the Texas Congress in a bill introduced by Senator William H. Wharton, describing it as "[T]he national flag of Texas shall consist of a blue perpendicular stripe of the width of one third of the whole length of the flag, with a white star of five points in the centre thereof, and two horizontal stripes of equal breadth, the upper stripe white, the lower red, of the length of two thirds of the whole length of the flag." The bill was passed by the Congress on January 21, 1839 and approved by President Mirabeau B. Lamar on January 25, 1839.

1844 - William Milton Tryon and Robert E. B. Baylor drafted a petition for a charter for a Baptist college for Texas., which they presented to the Texas Congress. The charter was approved by the government of the Republic of Texas on February 1, 1845 which became known as Baylor University.

1859 - Congregation Beth Israel, the oldest Jewish house of worship in Texas, was chartered as the Hebrew Congregation of the City of Houston. The congregation, which consisted of twenty-two members, many of western European origin, had been organized as an orthodox synagogue five years earlier. The institution started a religious school in 1864 and incorporated as the Hebrew Congregation Beth Israel in 1873.

1871 - Ollie Louise Bryan was born. In 1909, Doctor Bryan became the first first African American woman to work as a dentist in the South when she opened her practice in Dallas.

1873 - TEXAS AND PACIFIC RAILWAY. The Texas and Pacific Railway Company was the only railroad in Texas, and one of the few in the United States, to operate under a federal charter. It began service with seventy-four miles from Marshall to Texarkana.

1926 - The first producing oil well in Ector County was brought in on the W. E. Connell ranch, southwest of the county seat of Odessa. Its limited production of twenty barrels a day did not bring about an immediate boom, but with the opening of Penn Field in 1929 and Cowden Field in 1930, Odessa became an established oil center and grew rapidly.

1931 - A temporary Texas Centennial Commission was appointed to prepare for the 1936 centennial celebration of Texas’ independence from Mexico. Fair Park in Dallas was the result of their efforts.

1976 - Freddie King, celebrated African-American blues musician, died in Dallas. The Gilmer, Texas, native moved to Chicago when he was sixteen and developed his guitar style under the influence of Lightnin' Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, B. B. King (not a relative), and others. From 1950 to 1958 he played in neighborhood clubs and in the latter year made his professional debut. In 1963 he returned to Texas and settled in Dallas. In 1971 he recorded the first major live album ever made in Austin, at Armadillo World Headquarters, known as "the House That Freddie King Built."


1980 - the Houston Oilers, with Bum Phillips as Coach, and Earl Campbell as the NFL's leading rusher, were eliminated from the NFL playoffs, losing to the Oakland Raiders, 34-7 at Oakland. When the team arrived home to the Astrodome, 55,000 fans inside the dome and another 20,000 outside revelled for their hometown team. Despite being eliminated, Bum Phillips, Earl Campbell, Ken Stabler, Mike Barber, Mike Renfro, Rob Carpenter and the rest of the team were greeted as hometown heros.
......Three days later, Bum Phillips was fired.