This Day In Texas History - May 3

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1693 - Gregorio de Salinas Varona, recently appointed governor of Coahuila, left Monclova, Coahuila, on a relief expedition to take supplies to the troubled missions of East Texas. The expedition consisted of some twenty soldiers, including early Texas pioneer Nicolás Flores de Valdés, and ninety-six mules loaded with provisions. Salinas, an experienced soldier and explorer, took the occasion of the trip to define a portion of the Old San Antonio Road. His diary of the expedition is an important source of information on the small Indian bands he encountered, including the Sacuache and the Piedras Blancas.

As a relief mission, though, the expedition was a failure. Salinas reached San Francisco de los Tejas Mission, in what is now Houston County, on June 8 and found illness and death rampant among the mission Indians. The supplies Salinas brought were far short of the need. When he departed six days later, two of the mission's friars went with him, and conditions worsened after his departure. Salinas's term as governor ended on December 26, 1697. He reported that the land was unsuitable for settlement; a year later Spain abandons the Texas frontier.

1835 - The Mexican warship Moctezuma seized the schooner Martha and all cargo aboard at Galveston Bay.

1890 - Just two years after a spring freeze wiped out much of Texas Cattle industry, cattleman Jesse Driskill died of a stroke in his Austin home. In 1886, Driskill founded the famed hotel in Austin which bears him name, but due to the freeze of 1888, Driskill was forced to sell the hotel, unable to continue the payments. Driskill was 65.

1903 - Stuntman and Corpus Christi native Robert B. Vandervoort performed his famed loop-the-loop for King Edward VII at a command performance in London.

1916 - Future Congressman Henry Gonzales of San Antonio was born.

1946 - On this date voters in Henderson Co (Athens) approved the establishment a junior college. Henderson County Junior College opened for classes just one month later in June 1946.

1968 - Surgeon Denton Cooley and his associates at Houston's St. Luke's Hospital performed the first heart transplant in the United States. The patient, Everett Thomas, lived for 204 days with the heart donated from a fifteen-year-old girl. Two Houston surgeons, Cooley and Michael E. DeBakey, have been in the forefront in developing heart surgery and heart transplantation; their rivalry was the subject of a book by journalist Tommy Thompson.

1976 - Paul McCartney made his first American stage appearance in 10 years. The "Wings Over America" tour began in Ft. Worth, TX.

1986 - Texas born Willie Shoemaker, 54, won the Kentucky Derby aboard Ferdinand on this date in 1986. t was one of sport's most memorable achievements. Before retiring in 1990, Shoemaker rode 8,833 winners, 250 with purses of $100,000 or more. He also won 10 national money titles and over $123 million in purses.