1836 - On April 17, to the gratification of his men, Houston took the road to Harrisburg instead of the road to Louisiana and on April 18 reached White Oak Bayou at a site within the present city limits of Houston. There he learned that Santa Anna had gone down the west side of the bayou and the San Jacinto River, crossing by a bridge over Vince's Bayou. The Mexicans would have to cross the same bridge to return.
1847 - A naval squadron under Commodore David Conner put Scott's 10,000-man army ashore near Veracruz on March 9, 1847. It was America's first large-scale amphibious assault. After securing the port as a base, Scott led his army inland. At Cerro Gordo on April 17–18 the Americans destroyed Santa Anna's hastily gathered eastern force of nearly 17,000 men. Scott's advance ground to a halt at Puebla in May, when the volunteers who composed over half his force insisted on returning to civilian life. The American army remained at Puebla, cut off from its base at Veracruz, until reinforcements, especially Texas Rangers under Hays, reopened communications in August.
1849 - Leaving the Colorado with their new guide on April 5, 1849, the Neighbor's Expedition moved ever westward and took the Horsehead Crossing over the Pecos River on April 17. The Neighbors expedition was one of several expeditions sent out to explore the area between San Antonio and El Paso with the purpose of opening a practical wagon road to the west. The more significant expeditions were those led by Col. John C. Hays of the Texas Rangers in 1848, by lieutenants William Henry Chase Whiting and William F. Smith of the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1849, and by Maj. Robert S. Neighbors, also in 1849.
1849 - Fort Graham was complete and was occupied. The site was near the eastern bank of the Brazos River at Little Bear Creek fourteen miles west of the site of present Hillsboro. Fort Graham was intended to help anchor the northern frontier defense line between the Towash Indian village and Fort Washita. Maj. Ripley A. Arnold and companies F and I of the Second Dragoons received orders that directed him to provide escorts for supply trains and travelers, to patrol the countryside as far as the forks of the Trinity, to protect the citizens from hostile incursions by Indians, and to attempt to conciliate the local Indians. With the development of Lake Whitney in the 1970s, the site was flooded, and the fort was again rebuilt at what is now Old Fort Park.
1856 - A stone building was dedicated at the newly established New Braunfels Academy. A twenty-year charter granted in 1858 provided that the school be governed by a board of six trustees, the mayor of New Braunfels, and the Comal county judge. The academy was supported by a city tax and tuition. New Braunfels is said to be the first city in Texas in which the citizens voted unanimously for a school tax.
1871 - The state legislature approved a bill providing for the organization of the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Texas A&M University) and appropriating $75,000 for the construction of academic buildings and suitable accommodations. A committee selected a site near Bryan, now known as College Station, following the donation of 2,416 acres by local citizens. The college, the oldest public institution of higher education in the state, opened in October 1876 with 106 students and a faculty of six under President Thomas S. Gathright. By the year 2000, the College Station campus was the fifth-largest university in the nation, with more than 44,000 students, and the Texas A&M University System included nine schools across the state.
1881 - Dallas Stoudenmire(second sergeant in J. R. Waller's Company A of the Texas Rangers) reached El Paso in early April 1881 and was appointed town marshal on the eleventh. Three days later he engaged in the incredible "Four Dead in Five Seconds" gunfight in downtown El Paso. Rancher John Hale had killed Constable Gus Krempkau, so Stoudenmire reacted by killing Hale, plus an innocent bystander, plus former city marshal George Campbell. On April 17 former city marshal Bill Johnson attempted to assassinate Stoudenmire and was himself shot dead on the city streets. Stoudenmire returned to Columbus.
1897 - On this date in 1897, Judge J.S. Proctor's windmill in Aurora, Texas was struck by an unidentified flying object which then crashed into a nearby field. Many of the residents of Aurora watched the craft as it passed over the town square, and was apparently having trouble, slowing to 12 miles per hour when it hit the windmill and went to pieces. The pilot of the craft who died in the crash, was said to be "not of this world", and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Aurora cemetary. The metal debris was thrown into a well on the property of the crash site. The owner at the time contracted severe rhumatism which he blamed on drinking the well water. The well was later sealed over with a cement slab. Today an historical marker exists at the entrance to the cemetary where the alien was buried.
1900 - African-American Baptist minister W. L. Dickson founded the Dickson Colored Orphanage in Gilmer. Black and white Baptists contributed to its development, as did local Baptist churches and Gilmer businesses; Robert C. Buckner, a prominent Dallas Baptist minister, served as chairman of the orphanage's board of trustees. The Dickson Colored Orphanage was the only such institution for black children in Texas from 1900 to 1929. The state took over the home in the latter year and operated it as the State Colored Orphans' Home until 1943, when the resident orphans were moved to the Texas Blind, Deaf, and Orphan School in Austin.
1911 - The keel of the USS Texas was laid. It was the second battleship of the U.S. and would later serve in both WWI and WWII.
1929 - The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is founded in Corpus Christi.
I saw a documentary about this UFO that crashed several years ago. Some sort of investigating history show on the history channel or TLC, or Discovery, or one of the many channels like this. It's on private property and the property owner refused to let the investigative reporter uncap the well & put a camera down it. I often wonder why not solve the mystery, instead of keeping the myth alive. 