This Day In Texas History - May 20

[joe817]

1805 - A royal order commanded the viceroy of Mexico to compile all pertinent data concerning the true boundary between Texas and Louisiana. Fray Melchor de Talamantes was appointed the head of the historical commission, beginning work in 1807, but was removed a year later for political reasons and replaced by José Antonio Pichardo. Pichardo worked for four years, "uninterruptedly night and day, without even leaving [his] room," to complete the monumental (3,000 pages) treatise On the Limits of Louisiana and Texas (1812).

1836 - On May 20 the government in Mexico City declared void all of Santa Anna's acts done as a captive and his signing of the Treaty of Velasco. With the treaties violated by both governments and not legally recognized by either, Texas independence was not recognized by Mexico and her boundary not determined until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.

1857 – Camp Wood was established on the east bank of the Nueces River about 50 miles northwest of Fort Inge.

1875 - John Barclay Armstrong, a Texas Ranger known as "McNelly's Bulldog," joined Capt. Leander McNelly's company of Texas Rangers where he had a long and colorful career. When McNelly retired from ranger service, Armstrong was named second lieutenant of the Special Force of Texas Rangers under 1st Lt. Leigh Hall. He was assigned to the Eagle Pass area, where he operated on both sides of the border, assisted in the breakup of several bands of outlaws, and helped arrest John King Fisher in April 1877. While recovering from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound suffered at Goliad, Armstrong asked to be allowed to arrest the notorious gunman John Wesley Hardin. The ranger pursued Hardin first to Alabama, then to Florida, then confronted him and four of his gang on a train in Pensacola. In the affray that followed, Armstrong killed one of Hardin's men, rendered Hardin unconscious with a blow from his handgun, and arrested the remaining gang members. After considerable delay in the execution of extradition papers, Armstrong returned Hardin to Texas, where he was tried and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison in September 1877. In July 1878 Armstrong was involved in the killing of outlaw Sam Bass at Round Rock. Thereafter he was stationed for a time at Cuero. After retiring from ranger service he was appointed a United States marshal. In 1882 he established the 50,000-acre Armstrong Ranch in Willacy County. The old ranger, known in retirement as "Major" Armstrong, died on May 1, 1913.

1885 - Harrold, a railroad town in east central Wilbarger County, was officially platted. The settlement had been known as Cottonwood in the early 1880s, when it had a stage station and a store near China Creek. In 1884 the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway, building from the east, reached the area. The community was renamed to honor promoter Ephraim Harrold, who owned the nearby Bar-X Ranch. As the western terminus for the railroad, Harrold became an overnight boomtown. Prospective settlers were offered train rides from Wichita Falls and were welcomed to the town by a brass band. Within a year some 1,500 people had arrived. The spirited frontier town's numerous businesses included sixteen saloons. The boom days abruptly ended, however, when the railroad reached Vernon.

1893 - The second incarnation of the town of Amarillo was selected as the seat of Potter County. The first Amarillo was established by J. T. Berry in April 1887. He chose a well-watered site along the right-of-way of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad, which had begun building across the Panhandle. On August 30, 1887, Berry's townsite was elected seat of Potter County. The railroad arrived shortly after the county election, and Amarillo boomed as a cattle-marketing center. Although Berry's cowtown seemed to be well established, Henry B. Sanborn, part owner of the Frying Pan Ranch, argued that Berry's site was on low ground that would flood during rainstorms. Sanborn and his partner, Joseph F. Glidden, began buying land to the east to move Amarillo out of its "mudhole." The depot and courthouse initially remained at the old site, since the law decreed that they could not be moved until five years after the 1887 election, but the second county-seat election in 1893 officially transferred the title to Sanborn's town.

1958 - After winning the First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in 1958 at the height of the Cold War, Van Cliburn received a Hero's welcome in New York complete with with a ticker tape parade. Many of the judges for the Competition in Moskow feared retaliation of Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev if they appeared to favor an American. Three of the judges saved as much as 10 points (of a 25 point perfect score) from Van Cliburn and adding a few points to other competitors. When the results were in, the judges approached Kruschev with the results. He responded "Is he the best?" They assured Kruschev that he was. "Then give him the prize!" Van Cliburn has continued to thrill audiences for over 50 years. His foundation sponsors a similar competition in Fort Worth every four years, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.