The judicial system of Texas is one of the most complex in the United States, with many layers and overlapping jurisdictions.
Texas's controversial alternative affirmative action plan guarantees Texas students who graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school class automatic admission to state-funded universities.
Texas has over 1,000 school districts—all districts except the Stafford Municipal School District are independent from municipal government and many cross city boundaries.
The founders of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) used the Texas agency as one of their models for petroleum price control.
Due to the perceived French encroachment, Spain established its first presence in Texas in 1691, constructing missions in East Texas.
The missions failed quickly, and Spain did not resettle Texas until two decades had passed.
Texas is located at the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico.
The signing of the Adams-Onнs Treaty, recognizing the Sabine River as Texas's eastern boundary, resolved the dispute in 1819.
After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules of basketball and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot elevated track.
Texas transferred eastern New Mexico to the federal government, settling a lengthy boundary dispute.
Texas's large population, abundance of natural resources, and diverse population and geography have resulted in a large and highly diverse economy.
Texas has the headquarters of many high-technology companies, such as Dell, Inc., Texas Instruments, Perot Systems, AT&T, and Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
The resulting “Oil Boom” permanently transformed the economy of Texas.
Mexico ended the Spanish policy of allowing only full-blooded Spaniards to settle Texas.
The Panhandle has colder winters than North Texas, while the Gulf Coast has mild winters.
Due to its long history as a center of the American cattle industry, Texas is associated throughout much of the world with the image of the cowboy.
Until the 1970s, the commission had enormous control over the price of petroleum because of its ability to regulate Texas's oil reserves.
The University of Texas and Texas A&M University are flagship universities of the state of Texas.
A charter member of the Confederacy, Texas was a "supply state" for Confederate forces during the American Civil War due to its distance from the front lines, contributing men, especially cavalry.
From 2000–2006 Texas had the fastest growing illegal immigration rate in the nation.
Texas has the most farms—both in number and acreage—in the United States and leads the nation in livestock production.
The Republic of Texas included the area of the present state of Texas and additional unoccupied territory to the west and northwest.
When oil discoveries initiated an economic boom in the early twentieth century, Texas's economy has diversified to include technology, biomedical research, and higher education.
The Texan history includes the famous Battle of the Alamo, its ten-year period as the Republic of Texas, and its annexation by the U.S. and its period of secession following the Mexican American War.
On November 6, 1528, shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Бlvar Nъсez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European in Texas.
Due to the state's large size and rough terrain, Texas has built America's largest highway and railway systems in terms of mileage.
Texas's central location within the North American continent has made it an important transportation hub.
President Andrew Johnson, on August 20, 1866, declared that civilian government was restored in Texas.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) administers the state's public school systems.
Texas students ranked higher than average in mathematics but lower in reading.
Other fields were later discovered nearby in East Texas, West Texas, and under the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2000 and 2004, Republican George W. Bush won Texas with 60.1 percent of the vote, due in part to his "favorite son" status as the governor.
Discoveries of valuable minerals, principally oil, on this land is the basis of the state’s two largest university systems, the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M University System.
The history of the state's settlement an admittance to the United States is a bloody one, involving battles with Native Americans, the Texas Revolution and its War of Independence from Mexico.
Thunderstorms strike Texas often, especially the eastern and northern portion of the state.
The American Legislative Exchange Council ranked Texas 26th among the 50 states for education in 2007.
Over 1,000 seaports dot Texas's coast with over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of channels.
The Railroad Commission of Texas, contrary to its name, regulates the state's oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipeline safety, safety in the liquefied petroleum gas industry, and surface coal and uranium mining.
The Louisiana Purchase by the United States caused a border dispute over Texas.
Texas has a plural executive branch system that limits the power of the governor.
Both were established by the Texas constitution and hold stakes in the Permanent University Fund.
Currently, three federally recognized Native American tribes reside in Texas: The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe, and the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo.
The bicameral Texas Legislature consists of the House of Representatives, with 150 members, and a Senate, with 31 members.
In 2005–2006, Texas spent $7,584 per pupil, ranking it below the national average of $9,295.
Texas's affluence stimulates a strong commercial sector consisting of retail, wholesale, banking and insurance, and construction industries.
Especially from this period on, African Americans left Texas to get work in the northern United States or California and to escape the oppression of segregation.
American Indian tribes that once lived inside the boundaries of present-day Texas include Apache, Atakapan, Bidai, Caddo, Comanche, Cherokee, Kiowa, Tonkawa, Wichita, Hueco, and the Karankawa of Galveston.
Texas ports connect with the rest of the Atlantic seaboard with the Gulf section of the Intracoastal Waterway.
Several petroleum companies are based in Texas, such as Conoco-Phillips, Exxon-Mobil, Halliburton, Valero, and Marathon Oil.
Despite not meeting Reconstruction requirements, on March 30, 1870, Congress readmitted Texas into the Union.
Migrants abandoned the worst-hit sections of Texas during the Dust Bowl years.
Texas also leads the nation in production of cotton, its second-most-valuable farm product.
Texas lies in the socially conservative Evangelical Protestant Bible Belt, and has the highest percentage of people with a religious affiliation in the United States.
Texas leads in natural gas production, accounting for one-fourth of the nation's supply.
Other prominent private institutions include Rice University in Houston, Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), located in southeast Houston, sits as the crown jewel of Texas's aeronautics industry.
The first major oil well in Texas was Spindletop, south of Beaumont, on January 10, 1901.
Spain returned to East Texas in 1716, again establishing missions as well as a presidio to maintain a buffer between New Spain and the territory of Louisiana.
Alonso Бlvarez de Pineda made the first documented European sighting of Texas in 1519.
Texas has a total of 25 metropolitan areas, with four having populations over 1 million and two over 5 million.
Postwar Texas grew rapidly as migrants poured into the cotton lands of the state.
Texas has two courts of last resort: the Texas Supreme Court, for civil cases, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Historically and culturally, Texas is part of the American South.
Maxvorstadt, which was was Munich's first planned city expansion in the early nineteenth century, has museums, galleries and student pubs.
Some of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history have impacted Texas.
The second president of the Republic of Texas, Mirabeau B. Lamar, set aside land for the support of two universities that would later become the basis of the state’s Permanent University Fund.
A wide array of different high-technology industries have developed in Texas.
Texas—the second largest U.S. state in both area and population covering 268,820 square miles (696,200 kmІ) and has a steadily growing population of 23.9 million.
The Commonwealth Fund ranks the Texas health-care system the third worst in the nation.
Texas has the most cities, three, with populations exceeding 1 million: Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas.
Known for their role in Texas law enforcement history, the Texas Ranger Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety continues to provide special law enforcement services to the state.
Texas ranks close to last in access to health care, quality of care, avoidable hospital spending, and equity among various groups.
Two years later, Spain established the first European civilian settlement in Texas, San Antonio.
The Texas political atmosphere leans toward fiscal and social conservatism.
In 1685 Renй Robert Cavelier de La Salle established the first European community in Texas, the French colony of Fort Saint Louis.
That year was also characterized by political disarray in Texas. In 1836, no fewer than five Texas sites served as temporary capitals of the new republic (Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco and Columbia), before President Sam Houston moved the capital to Houston in 1837.
Among cities with populations of more than 100,000 residents, Austin, Texas, is considered one of the safest in the United States, according to The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Statistics report reviewing statistics for 2009. ... So, it's best to know the safe areas and the areas to avoid in Austin.Aug 26, 2010
In the 1830s the first permanent Anglo settlers arrived and called their village Waterloo. In 1839, tiny Waterloo was chosen to be the capital of the new Republic of Texas. A new city was built quickly in the wilderness, and was named after Stephen F. Austin, "the father of Texas."
The capital then moved to Velasco until October. In October 1836, Columbia (today's West Columbia) became the first capital of an elected government of the Republic of Texas. President Houston, on Dec. 15, 1836, ordered the seat of government removed to Houston. ... Austin became the capital again in 1844.
Texas is popularly known as The Lone Star State. The Alamo is located in San Antonio. It is where Texas defenders fell to Mexican General Santa Anna and the phrase Remember the Alamo originated. The Alamo is considered the cradle of Texas liberty and the state's most popular historic site.
In 1845, the Republic of Texas was annexed to the United States of America, becoming the 28th U.S. state. Border disputes between the new state and Mexico, which had never recognized Texas independence and still considered the area a renegade Mexican state, led to the Mexican–American War (1846–1848).
In 1845, the Republic of Texas voluntarily asked to become a part of the United States, and the government of the United States agreed to annex the nation. Mexican leaders had long warned the United States that if it tried to make Texas a state, it would declare war.
Official designations and symbolsTypeSymbolDate designatedState mammal (small)Nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus)1927State mammal (large)Texas Longhorn1995State mammal (flying)Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis)1995State dogBlue LacyJune 18, 200514 more rows
Only two presidents of the United States were born in Texas. Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th president, was born in Denison on October 14, 1890. Lyndon Johnson, our 36th president, was born in Johnson City on August 27, 1908.Feb 15, 2010
By the 1890s two beverages had changed the character of the soft-drink industry. In 1885 Charles Alderton, a Waco pharmacist, originated Dr Pepper Phos-Ferrates (see DR PEPPER COMPANY), and in 1886 John Pemberton concocted Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia.Jun 15, 2010