1714 – Louis Juchereau de St. Denis arrived at San Juan Bautista Presidio. He participated in founding six missions and a presidio (a fortified base established by the Spanish in areas under their control or influence) in East Texas.
1843 – On January 16, 1843, the Texas Congress ordered the sale of the Texas fleet. On June 1, 1843, Moore and the fleet had received Houston’s proclamation accusing them of disobedience and piracy and suspending Moore from the Texas Navy. On July 19, 1843, Texas President Sam Houston relieved Commodore Edwin Moore of command of the Texas Navy and he was subsequently dishonorably discharged when he returned to Galveston. In August of 1844 Moore was found not guilty after appealing to the Congress of the Republic of Texas.
1876 – The Texas and Pacific Railway completed a rail line that linked Fort Worth, TX, to San Diego, CA. Construction of the line had stalled just sixteen miles to the east, at Eagle Ford. Eager to reach Fort Worth before the Texas legislature could revoke its charter and withhold its land subsidy, the T&P hired Welshman Morgan Jones to complete the line before the legislature adjourned. Work continued day and night, while a little more than a mile a day of track was laid. A holiday spirit filled the town when Jones’s line finally reached Fort Worth on time. The success made the Welshman a local hero and marked the beginning of a new era of growth for Fort Worth.
1878 – Texas Rangers mortally wounded Texas outlaw Sam Bass when he and his gang attempted to rob the bank in Round Rock. Bass died two days later from his wounds. The next day Bass was found lying in a field outside of town. He was brought back to Round Rock, where he died two days later. Bass, an Indiana native, had worked in a sawmill, as a cowboy, and as a freighter. He also owned a fast racehorse. After squandering money earned on a trail drive, he recruited a gang and began robbing stagecoaches and railroads. He died at the age of twenty-seven.
Image caption: “Jim Murphy, Sam Bass, sitting, and Sebe Barnes, (reading from left to right.) Photo supposed to have been made about 1874, while Bass was running horse races in San Antonio, Texas. Mr. S.D. Houston, who lives in San Antonio, verifies his picture as they were cowboy companions in the seventies. Photo by Hillyer, Austin Texas.”
Hamilton Briscoe Hillyer, or H. B. Hillyer as listed in the 1887-1888 Austin City Directory as photographer Hillyer and Son, 916 Congress: res same. Hillyer is credited with making some of the earliest photographs on paper in Texas.
1981 – “Roy Orbison Day” was celebrated in Odessa, TX.
References:
https://texasdaybyday.com/
https://www.on-this-day.com/cgi-bin/otd/statesotd/otdTX.pl
Texas Back Roads Facebook Photo
http://cabinetcardphotographers.blogspot.com/2019/02/hamilton-briscoe-hillyer.html
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fhi30