On this date in 1845 the Republic of Texas ceased to exist and the 28th State was admitted to the Union, making today
NATIONAL TEXAS STATEHOOD DAY!
The nation born of insurrection against Mexico and remembering the Alamo became America’s largest state that December 29, 1845.
Texas is larger than France and chock full of Mexicans, cowboys, Comanches, statesmen, blues singers, cotton and cattle. Oh, and oil. Lots and lots of oil.
Texas was the poster state for the American oil boom, dotting the table-flat landscape with oil derricks, gushers, roustabouts and instant millionaires from 1901 until the 1940s. The Lone Star State was bigger, brasher and richer than anywhere else, and the image of Texans as amiable good old boys with ten gallon hats and six shooters was cemented in the American psyche.
The Mexican-Americans in Texas didn’t do as well, image-wise, even though they have lived there centuries longer than Whites, and the Texan Native American tribes fared no better than their brethren on the rest of the continent.
In recent years Texas has become the epicenter of America’s Political Comedy Industry, with bona fine laugh riots like Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz leading a political comedy Renaissance not seen since the Trump Administration. Texas: Land of Surprises.
•Suggested Activities: Lassoing a wild Cadillac.