CROCKETT, DAVID (1786-1836). David (Davy) Crockett, frontiersman, congressman, and defender of the Alamo, son of John and Rebecca (Hawkins) Crockett, was born in Greene County, East Tennessee, on August 17, 1786.

BOWIE, JAMES (1796-1836). James Bowie was born near Terrapin Creek (now Spring Creek) where it crosses Bowie's Mill Road (Turnertown Road), nine miles northwest of Franklin, Logan County (now Simpson County), Kentucky, probably on April 10, 1796.

HOUSTON, SAMUEL(1793-1863). Sam Houston, one of the most illustrious political figures of Texas, was born on March 2, 1793, the fifth child (and fifth son) of Samuel and Elizabeth (Paxton) Houston, on their plantation in sight of Timber Ridge Church, Rockbridge County, Virginia.

ALAMO, BATTLE OF THE The siege and the final assault on the Alamo in 1836 constitute the most celebrated military engagement in Texas history. The battle was conspicuous for the large number of illustrious personalities among its combatants.

TRAVIS, WILLIAM BARRET (1809-1836). William Barret Travis, Texas commander at the battle of the Alamo, was the eldest of eleven children of Mark and Jemima (Stallworth) Travis.

AUSTIN, STEPHEN FULLER (1793-1836). Stephen Fuller Austin, founder of Anglo-American Texas, son of Moses and Maria (Brown) Austin, was born at the lead mines in southwestern Virginia on November 3, 1793.

CATTLE BRANDS Cattle brands still play an important role in identifying an animal's owner in Texas cattle ranching. The practice of branding is ancient. Some Egyptian tomb paintings at least 4,000 years old depict scenes of roundups and cattle branding, and biblical evidence suggests that Jacob the herdsman branded his stock.

TEXAS REVOLUTION The Texas Revolution began with the battle of Gonzales in October 1835 and ended with the battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836; but there were earlier clashes between official forces and groups of colonists...

AFRICAN AMERICANS People of African descent are some of the oldest residents of Texas. Beginning with the arrival of Estevanico in 1528, African Texans have had a long heritage in the state and have worked alongside Americans of Mexican, European, and indigenous descent to make the state what it is today.

SANTA ANNA, ANTONIO LOPEZ DE (1794-1876). Antonio López de Santa Anna Pérez de Lebrón, soldier and five-time president of Mexico, was born at Jalapa, Vera Cruz, on February 21, 1794, the son of Antonio López de Santa Anna and Manuela Pérez de Lebrón.

REPUBLIC OF TEXAS In the fall of 1835 many Texans, both Anglo-American colonists and Tejanos, concluded that liberalism and republicanism in Mexico, as reflected in its Constitution of 1824, were dead.

GERMANS The largest ethnic group in Texas derived directly from Europe was persons of German birth or descent. As early as 1850, they constituted more than 5 percent of the total Texas population, a proportion that remained constant through the remainder of the nineteenth century.

QUINTANILLA PEREZ, SELENA [SELENA] (1971–1995). Singer Selena Quintanilla Perez, known simply as Selena, the daughter of Abraham and Marcella (Perez) Quintanilla, Jr., was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas.

LAMAR, MIRABEAU BUONAPARTE (1798-1859). Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, son of John and Rebecca (Lamar) Lamar, president of the Republic of Texas, was born near Louisville, Georgia, on August 16, 1798.

DICKINSON, SUSANNA WILKERSON (ca. 1814-1883). Susanna Wilkerson Dickinson (Dickenson), survivor of the Alamo, was born about 1814 in Tennessee, perhaps in Williamson County.

SAN JACINTO, BATTLE OF The battle of San Jacinto was the concluding military event of the Texas Revolution. On March 13, 1836, the revolutionary army at Gonzales began to retreat eastward. It crossed the Colorado River on March 17 and camped near present Columbia on March 20, recruiting and reinforcements having increased its size to 1,200 men.

OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY Luis de Moscoso, a survivor of the DeSoto expedition, recorded the first sighting of oil in Texas. After the expedition was forced ashore in the area between Sabine Pass and High Island in July 1543, the explorers observed oil floating on the surface of the water. They collected the asphaltic substance and used it to caulk their vessels.

CIVIL WAR The sectional controversies that divided the North and South in the 1850s deeply troubled Texans (see ANTEBELLUM TEXAS). While most Texans had a strong attachment to the Union that they worked so hard to join in 1845, they expressed increasing concern over the attacks upon Southern institutions by Northern political leaders.