• The Constitution of 1845, which was the resolution that allowed Texas into the Union, stated that Texas had the right to divide into 4 states in addition to the original Texas. That legal right still remains true.

• There have been 6 flags to fly over Texas: the Spanish, French, Mexican, Confederacy, United States, and Republic of Texas. The Spanish controlled Texas from 1519-1685 and 1690-1821. The French from 1685-1690. The Mexican from 1821-1836. The Republic of Texas from 1836-1845. The United States from 1845-1861 and 1865-present. The Confederacy from 1861-1865.

• In the Texas state song, the word 'boldest' replace the word 'largest' after Alaska became a state.

• In 1519, the Spanish explorer Pineda made a map of the Texas coast. This event marked the beginning of Spain's rule in Texas.

• In 1528, Cabeza de Vaca was shipwrecked near Galveston. His small band met many Indian tribes while wandering through the Texas area, but he finally came to a Spanish settlement. He made his way to Mexico City with tales of the fabled 'Seven Cities of Gold."

• In the early 1540's, the explorer Coronado, in an attempt to find the seven cities, trekked through present New Mexico, West Texas and as far north as Kansas. Though he found no cities of gold, he strengthened Spain's claim on Texas. Today, an archeological site linked to Coronado is being studied by a team of archeologists in the Texas Panhandle.

• Corpus Christi de la Isleta, established near El Paso in 1682, was the first Spanish mission and pueblo in Texas.

• The French claim on Texas rests on La Salle's visit in 1685. He established Fort St. Louis in the Matagorda Bay area. Two years later, he was killed by his own men. By 1690, Indians and disease had destroyed the small French force. In 1995, a team of Texas Historical Commission archeologists discovered the Belle, one of La Salle's frigates, in the murky waters of  Matagorda Bay. In 1996, the exact location of Fort St. Louis was pinpointed near Victoria. These discoveries represent two of the most important archeological finds in recent history, and promise to provide many answers to questions about this period in history.

• Alarmed by the French presence in Texas and the French settlements in the Louisiana area, the Spaniards established in 1690 Mission San Francisco de los Tejas, the first East Texas mission.

• In 1718, with the establishment of Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo), the city of San Antonio was founded.

• In 1821, the year Mexico gained independence from Spain, Stephen F. Austin received permission from the Mexican government to settle a colony of 300 families, now known as the 'Old Three Hundred' in southeast Texas. Although Anglo Americans were already living in Texas at the time, Austin's settlement was the official beginning of Anglo American colonization in Texas. By 1836, 35,000 to 500,000 people had settled in Texas.

• Early in 1835, Stephen F. Austin announced that he was convinced that war with Mexico was necessary to secure freedom. Growing tension in Texas was the result of cultural, political and religious differences between the Anglo Americans and the Mexican government. In response to the unrest, Antonio de Santa Anna, the president of Mexico, reinforced Mexican troops in Texas. A battle fought at Gonzales on October 2, 1835 in which the Mexican forces were thwarted in their efforts to retrieve a cannon, gave rise to the famous flag bearing the words 'Come and Take It.' Though there were earlier minor skirmishes, the Battle of Gonzales is generally considered to be the first battle for Texas' independence.

• The Battle of the Alamo, lasting nearly two weeks, ended on March 6, 1836, with the deaths of all its defenders (numbering about 190). The Mexican army of Santa Anna numbered 4,000 to 5,000 during its final charge. Among those killed were David Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William B. Travis. A subsequent massacre of Texans who had surrendered at Goliad on March 27, 1836 led to the battle cry of Texas' independence, 'Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!'

• The Texas Declaration of Independence was enacted at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836.

• the Battle of San Jacinto was fought on April 21, 1836, near the present city of Houston now called Deer Park. Santa Anna's entire force of 1,600 men was killed or captured by General Sam Houston's army of 800 Texans; only nine Texans died. This decisive battle resulted in Texas' independence from Mexico.

• Sam Houston, a native of Virginia, was president of the Republic of Texas for two separate terms, 1836-1838 and 1841-1844. He also was governor of the state of Texas from 1859-1861.

• Jose Antonio Navarro, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and one of the framers of the Constitution of the Republic, was a Texas native, born in San Antonio in 1795. He also served in the Republic of Texas Congress and the Constitutional Convention in 1845. Navarro County was named in his honor.

• The first Congress of the Republic of Texas convened October 1836 at Columbia (now West Columbia).

• Stephen F. Austin, known as the 'Father of Texas' died December 27, 1836 after serving two months as secretary of state for the new Republic.

• In 1836, five sites served as temporary capitals of Texas (Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco and Columbia) before Sam Houston moved the capital to Houston in 1837. In 1839, the capital was  moved to the new town of Austin.

• Texas was annexed to the United States as the 28th state on December 29, 1845.

• Texas seceded from the United States and joined the Confederate States of America on January 28, 1861.

• Texas officially was readmitted to the Union on March 30, 1870 following the period of Reconstruction.

• The present Texas Constitution was ratified on February 15, 1876.

• In 1936, Texas celebrated its centennial. Historical markers, placed by the Centennial Commission, later were the basis for the historical marker program of the Texas Historical Commission.

• On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated during a motorcade through downtown Dallas. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas was sworn in as president aboard the presidential airplane at Dallas' Love Field airport that same day.

• Nacogdoches and Ysleta are considered to be the two oldest towns in Texas. Ysleta, originally on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, became part of Texas following a change in the river's course.

• Texas A&M University opened its doors October 4, 1876 and was the state's first land-grant college.

• The University of Texas held its first class in 1883.

• Although a small group of Texas Rangers had been formed in 1823 by Stephen F. Austin, they were not formally organized until October 17, 1835.

• Spindletop, near Beaumont in East Texas, was Texas' first oil gusher in 1901. It signaled the beginning of the state's oil boom.

• In 1978, 71 million barrels of oil were produced in Yoakum County. That is an average of 195,000 barrels per day.

• On September 8-9, 1900, and estimated 8,000 people were killed in the disastrous Galveston hurricane and flood.

• The tidewater coastline of Texas stretches 624 miles along the Gulf of Mexico and contains more than 600 historic shipwrecks.

• There are more than 70,000 miles of highways in Texas.

• Texas has a total of 6,399 square mile in inland lakes and streams, second only to Alaska.

• The tallest point in Texas is Guadalupe Peak at 8,751 feet.

• Mirabeau B. Lamar, second president of the Republic of Texas (1838-1841), is called the 'Father of Education in Texas.'

• The last president of the Republic of Texas was Anson Jones (1844-1846), and the first governor of the state was James Pinckney Henderson (1846-1847).

• Miriam A. "Ma" Ferguson was the second woman to serve as governor in the United States, but because of the date of elections in Texas, she was technically the first woman elected to that office. She served from 1925 to 1927 and again from 1933 to 1935.

• The Texas Legislature meets for its regular session in the spring of odd numbered years. The governor may convene a special session for the legislators to address particular issues.

• The  governor of Texas is elected to a four-year term in November of even numbered, non-presidential election years.

• The Capitol In Austin, built of Texas pink granite, opened May 16, 1888. The dome of the Capital stands seven feet higher than that of the nation's Capitol in Washington, D.C.

• Jane Long (1798-1880), known as the 'Mother of Texas' was a pioneer Anglo American woman settler in Texas.

• The Governor's Mansion, built in 1856, is the oldest remaining public building in downtown Austin.

• 'Blind' Lemon Jefferson (1897-1929), born in Freestone County, rose from street beggar to one of the great blues musicians of the 1920a. Scott Joplin (1869-1917), from Bowie County, is known as the 'King of Ragtime Music.'

• Texas has 254 counties. Rockwall County (147 square miles) is the smallest, and Brewster County (6,204 square miles) is the largest. Only one, Angelina County, is named for a woman.

• The 1850 census recorded 213,000 people in Texas. In 1900, there were three million people and by 1990, the population was more than 16million.

• Many famous Texans, including some former governors, are buried in the State Cemetery in Austin.

• There are three existing Indian reservations in the state: the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation, located between Livingston and Woodville in East Texas; Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (Tigua Indian Reservation) near El Paso; and the Kickapoo Reservation in Maverick County. Most Native Americans in Texas live outside reservations. Texas' Indian population ranks sixth among the states, with approximately 65,000.

• The largest body of water completely within the boundaries of Texas is Sam Rayburn Reservoir in East Texas, which covers 113,400 acres.

• Texas has four national forests (Angelina, Davy Crockett, Sabine and Sam Houston), two national parks (Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains), one national seashore (Padre Island), one national preserve (the Big Thicket), and two national recreation areas (Amistad and Lake Meredith) and one national monument (Alibates Flint Quarries).

• With more than 267,000 square miles, Texas occupies about seven percent of the total water and land area of the United States. It is 801 miles from the northwest corner of the Panhandle to the southern tip of the state, and 773 miles from the western tip near El Paso to the Sabine River, the eastern boundary of the state.

• Texas is a large as all New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois combined.

• There are approximately 11,500 historical markers in the state. Marker subjects include historic courthouses, frontier forts, Spanish mission and presidios, cemeteries, churches, individuals, historic homes and buildings, Texas Revolution battle sites and more. There are more than 700 local history museums, 40,000 recorded archeological sites and more than 2,000 sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

• Dr. Annie Webb Blanton (1870-1945) became the first woman elected to statewide office in Texas when she won the race for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1918. Eight years later Margie Neal (1875-1971) of Carthage was elected Texas' first woman senator.

• Eighty-five percent of the public libraries in Texas were founded by women's clubs.

• There were more than 70 World War II prisoner-of-war camps in Texas, more than in any other state. Primarily housing German soldiers from the famed Afrika Korps, the Texas camps also held Italian and Japanese prisoners.

Texas Tidbits - Believe It Or Not!

• The Dallas/Fort Worth airport is larger than New York City's Manhattan Island.

• The smallest Catholic church in the world still in operation claims to be in Warrenton, Texas. Measuring 12 feet by 15 feet, the church seats 15 and is only open once a year.

• The written test for University of Texas at Austin campus police in the 1960s asked applicants the shape of their excrement to test their ability to be observant.

• To combat the deadly killer bee, the Harris County Fire Department has 11 trucks equipped with soapy water sprayers that do nothing but respond to killer bee calls. Currently, the Austin Fire Department will only deal with emergency situations involving killer bee attacks in progress.

• To be elected in the State of Texas, one must believe in a supreme being.

• According to one inside source, the majority of men who attend meetings at the Austin Men's Center have beards.

• In Texas, if a burglary occurred in conjunction with a rape, some prosecutors charge rapists with the burglary because it carries the same sentence as aggravated sexual assault (5 to 99 years) and is an easier crime to prove. By the way, regular sexual assault only carries a sentence of 2 to 20 years.

• There is a petrified buffalo hairball at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame in Waco.

• There's a ghost on the 5th floor of Austin's Driskill Hotel.

• Fort Creek, Texas was hotter than hell in 1855. So was San Antonio in 1996!

• Texas has 64 national champion trees, meaning they are the largest specimens of their species in the country. They include cedar elm, persimmon, eastern red cedar, and yaupon holly. They are all extinct now.

• One of the lenses at the University of Texas' McDonald Observatory has a nick in it because a worker got mad at something and shot at it.

• The world's largest oatmeal cake was baked in Bertram, Texas during Labor Day weekend in 1991. The 33-layer cake stood more than 3 feet tall, weighed 333 pounds, and served 3,333 people.

• In Texas, you could have been jailed for giving out or discussing information on birth control 50 years ago.

• In Waco, Texas, out of the five magazines with the top market share, Modern Maturity (the publication of the American Association of Retired Persons) is number one. The remaining four are men's magazines.

• For $150 you can become a licensed dead animal hauler in Texas.

• According to one geographer, digging straight down from Austin will not get you to China, but to Iraq.

• In Texas, it's illegal to put graffiti in someone else's cow.

• People who moved to Lockhart, Texas in the 1950s are still considered by natives of the town to be newcomers.

• Early Spanish missionaries in Texas hoped to encourage the spread of European values by offering flannel underwear to Native Americans.

• In the mid 1980s, the employee cafeteria at Motorola in Austin had to stop serving food that contained poppy seeds because people showed false positives for opium when they were drug tested. Since then, the company reintroduced poppy seeds and added Valium and several anti-depressants to a list of things not to bother testing for.

• In 1964, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson gave out poinsettias as Christmas presents. In 1967, Lyndon gave Lady Bird a yellow wool dress and matching jacket for Christmas.

• The cave of Sonora, Texas are the third best in the United States.

• According to the Texas Department of Transportation, one person is killed annually painting stripes on the state's highways and roads.

• The only place in the world where they make Dr. Pepper according to the original formula is in Dublin, Texas.

• The divorce rate per 1,000 population for the entire United States was 4.6 in 1994, down from 4.8. Texas is higher with a rate of 5.4.

• The movie "Paris, Texas" was banned in the city of Paris, Texas shortly after its box office release.

• The first Eagle Scout west of the Mississippi is buried in San Marcos, Texas in his coon skin underwear.

• No NLF team which plays it's home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl. Texas Stadium, home of the Cowboys, is not a dome since there is a large hole in the roof!