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1799 - The McAllen Ranch, covering 95,000 acres in present day Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley, was given to a family of early settlers from the king of Spain .

1817 - On this date in 1817, William Alexander Anderson "Bigfoot" Wallace was born in Lexington, Virginia. Bigfoot Wallace was a Texas Ranger, fought in Mexican American War, and several Indian battles. Wallace came to Texas to square accounts with the Mexicans following his brother's death at the Massacre of Gonzales. Wallace loved to tell stories about the free life of early Texas, oftentimes adding a few twines to the cloth. His story telling style became emulated by generations of tall-tellers to come giving future Texans a reputation for stretching the truth. The town of Bigfoot south of San Antonio was named for Bigfoot Wallace. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwa36 ]

1861 - The U.S.S. South Carolina fires on Galveston.

1898 - The Colorado County Feud began. This murderous quarrel between rival local factions was ignited when Larkin Hope, a candidate for county sheriff, was shot and killed by an unknown assailant. Jim Coleman, a family friend of Sheriff Sam Reese, was immediately suspected. He was never charged. Less than a year later Reese was killed in a gun battle on the Columbus Street where Hope had died. Stray bullets killed Charles Boehme and wounded a boy named Johnny Williams.

Even though evidence suggests that Reese had provoked the fight, his sons vowed to get revenge. In five more gunfights between May 17, 1899, and May 17, 1907, five more men were killed and several others wounded. No one was ever convicted of the killings. The feud also had a direct effect on the economic well being of Columbus. In 1906 the citizens voted to turn the administration of the city over to the county and Columbus remained unincorporated for twenty years.[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jcc07 ]

1915 - Aniceto Pizaña escaped a gunfight with Texas Rangers at his ranch north of Brownsville and became a full-fledged revolutionary. He met Ricardo Flores Magón in 1904 and with Luis De la Rosa helped formed the Floresmagonista movement to redress the injustices done to Mexicans on both sides of the Rio Grande. The plan called for the American Southwest to become an independent republic.

Commanding raiding parties from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, he was primarily responsible for the guerrilla activities of the revolutionaries, generally swift nocturnal attacks. He used regular Mexican troops in the raids, weeded out ineffective men, and used strict discipline to produce troops of combat quality. By 1916 Mexican provisional president Venustiano Carranza was being pressured by the United States government to stop Pizaña's raids. Pizaña was arrested in Monterrey in February 1916 and lived in Tamaulipas until his death in 1957.

1942 - The War Production Board gave it's approval to the Big Inch Pipe Line, and this date in 1942, construction began on the first section of the Big Inch pipeline. The Big Inch was a 24 inch diameter pipeline from Texas to to New York. After the war the pipelines were leased to transport natural gas, eventually being sold at auction to Texas Easter Transmission Corporation (TETCO) for $143 million. Today, TETCO is a major transporter of petroleum products and operates a chain of convenience stores.[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dob08 ]

1942 – Harlingen Air Force Base, described as the “Paradise of the Eastern Flying Training Command,” began training operations during WWII, specializing in aerial gunnery.[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbh01 ]

1974 - A prison siege at Huntsville comes to a bloody conclusion.