This Day In Texas History - January 15

[joe817]

1835 - The small river steamer Cayuga, the first commercially successful steamboat in Texas, ran aground downstream from San Felipe, the capital of Stephen F. Austin's colony. The Cayuga, the first commercially successful steamboat in Texas, played an important role during the Texas Revolution. She carried supplies for the revolutionary army, transported government officials and refugees, and was the floating capitol of Texas in April 1836.

1836 - General Sam Houston in an address to the troops at La Bahía presidio attempted to dissuade them from a campaign which became known as the Matamoros Expedition, asserting that the expedition was unauthorized because the council had not had a quorum. 2 days later in response to an urgent message from Neill at the Alamo calling for reinforcements, Houston sent Bowie, who apparently was with Houston or had arrived earlier, and about twenty others to Bexar with orders (bearing ultimately on Neill's discretion) to destroy the Alamo and retreat with the artillery to Gonzales.

1839 - President Mirabeau B. Lamar named Mathew Caldwell, captain of a company of rangers to be raised for the defense of Goliad.

1839 - The town of Waterloo is incorporated along the banks of the Colorado not far from the ancient Barton Springs. Later, the town would be named in honor of the Father of Texas, Stephen F Austin, and be declared the State Capitol.

1841 - The Houston and Austin Turnpike Company was chartered by the Congress of the Republic of Texas to lay out a road from Austin to Houston. The road was to start at Houston, cross the Brazos River within five miles of San Felipe de Austin, and continue from the river on the most practical route to Austin. This initial turnpike company was followed by the chartering of some fifty such companies between 1841 and 1905.

1867 - The Bayland Orphans' Home for Boys, a county home for dependent and delinquent boys, was organized in Houston by Texas Confederate veterans. The institution was first located at Bayland on the west side of Galveston Bay near Morgan's Point. The nonsectarian home, planned to care for and educate up to 250 orphans of deceased Confederate soldiers, opened in August 1867. The institution moved a number of times around the Harris County area over the years, with its final location near Webster. The orphanage ceased to function strictly as the Bayland Orphans' Home after World War II.

1873 - John Porter (Dobe or Adobe) Hatch, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Fifth Cavalry. During Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie's Indian cleanup campaign in 1872, Major Hatch was in charge at Fort Concho(San Angelo), where more than 100 Indian women and children were held captive in a corral over the winter.

1874 - Democrat Richard Coke was inaugurated as governor of Texas. Nevertheless, Republican governor Edmund J. Davis refused to vacate the office. Coke had overwhelmingly won the gubernatorial election in 1873. But the election was tainted by irregularities on both sides, and the state Supreme Court had voided the contest in Ex parte Rodriguez. Davis cited these facts and refused to budge. He even called in the Travis Rifles, but these troops supported Coke when they got into the Capitol. Davis then appealed for federal troops to President Grant, who telegraphed a refusal. Coke took over when Davis resigned on January 19.

1897 - John Duval, the last survivor of Fannin's army, dies in Fort Worth

1915 - Alexander Graham Bell was making the first transcontinental phone call to his assistant Dr. Thomas Watson from New York to San Francisco, at the exact same time a West Texas phone repairman inadvertently cut into the phone line. Bell demanded the location of the intruder, and then he retorted, 'Where the heck is Odessa, Texas?' [edited for language content]

1915 - American folklorist and musicologist Alan Lomax is born in Austin on this date. He was the first to record such artists as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie. It was Lomax who gave Bob Dylan his legendary thumbs down when Dylan introduced an electric guitar in his performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.

1917 - The army gave final approval of Call Field. Call Field, one of thirty-two United States Army Air Corps training camps established in 1918, was five miles southwest of Wichita Falls in Wichita County. During its operation 3,000 officers, cadets, and enlisted men were stationed at Call Field, and 500 officers received their wings there. Two squadrons left the training facility for overseas duty. Thirty-four men lost their lives during training exercises, the smallest number of fatalities of any training center. After the war the training center closed. The last military personnel left on October 1, 1919.

1939 - The Texas Memorial Museum opened on the University of Texas campus in Austin. The museum was established as part of the Texas Centennial Celebration Bill of 1935. Ownership of the Texas Memorial Museum was transferred in 1959 from the state to the University of Texas at Austin. The museum, which reopened in January 2004 following a major renovation, attracts about 65,000 visitors a year.

1944 - Ira Clarence Eaker, aviation pioneer and United States Air Force general, was born on April 13, 1896, at Field Creek, Texas. He took over as commander of the joint Mediterranean Allied Air Forces on January 15, 1944. With 321,429 officers and men and 12,598 aircraft, MAAF was the world's largest air force. On March 22, 1945, Eaker was transferred back to Washington to become deputy chief of the army air force under Gen. H. H.(Hap) Arnold. In that position, representing the air force, he transmitted the command from President Harry Truman to General Spaatz, who was then commanding the Pacific Air Forces, to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.

1964 - Jack Teagarden of Vernon, Texas, passed away. The best jazz trombonist of his time, he performed alongside Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong.

1978 - The Super Bowl was played indoors for the first time. The game was played at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. The Dallas Cowboys defeated the Denver Broncos 27-10.

2009 - US Airways Flight 1549 bound for Charlotte NC from New York, lost all engine power and was forced to land in the Hudson River alongside Manhattan. The pilot of Flight 1549, Chesley B Sullenberger from Denison, Texas, sucessfully guided the plane to a wings level, nose up, no landing gear touch down within blocks of New York's Circle Route dock. Captain Sullenberger made two walk-throughs of the plane, in waste deep and ice cold water, to insure that all passengers had safely left the plane, before abandoning the plane himself. Captain Sullenberger, a 28 year veteran of US Airways graduated from Denison High School before attending the Air Force Academy

[budroux2w]

[ELB]

I think what actually happened was...

1915 - Alexander Graham Bell was making the first transcontinental phone call to his assistant Dr. Thomas Watson from New York to San Francisco, at the exact same time a West Texas phone repairman inadvertently cut into the phone line. Bell demanded the location of the intruder, and was immediately transferred to a call center in India and put on hold. When he hung up and tried to call back, he got lost in a menu tree and broke the handset while slamming it down in frustration...

[joe817]

Ain't that the truth! Good one ELB!