On April 4, seven Houston businessmen form the Houston Chamber of Commerce.

The Houston Police Department is formed.

Texas’ oldest newspaper, The Galveston County Daily News, is first published.

Texas becomes the 28th state.

City provides “land and good buildings” for a smallpox/yellow fever hospital.

Houston and Harris County vote to secede from the Union. During the Civil  War, the closest fighting is at Galveston.

Houston’s first bank, First National Bank, is founded.

Houston Stonewalls defeat Galveston  Robert E. Lees 35-2 in first recorded baseball game in Houston.

Houston’s first trolley cars (muledrawn) appear.

Houston’s first telephone exchange is created.

Houston Electric Light Co. is organized. Houston and New York are the first cities to build electric power plants.

Houston gets its first arc light.

Sisters of Charity open Houston’s first general hospital.

A Category 4 hurricane — deadliest in U.S. history — strikes Galveston, claiming more than 6,000 lives and causing property damage exceeding $30 million ($902 million in 2019 dollars).

Houston Left Hand Fishing Club purchases the city’s first automobile from Olds Motor Works of Detroit.

Oil discovered at Spindletop, and later discoveries at Humble in 1905 and Goose Creek in 1906, put Houston in the center of new oil and oilfield equipment development.

Congress appropriates $1 million for work on the Houston Ship Channel.

Houston has 80 automobiles.

Houston city council sets speed limit of 8 mph.

Houston Museum and Scientific Society, Inc., predecessor of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, is organized.

Houston police begin using motorcycles to enforce speed limits.

Houston Country Club opens with Houston’s first professionally designed 18-hole golf course.

Oil refineries proliferate along the Ship Channel, taking advantage of inexpensive waterborne shipping.

Houston adopts ordinance dedicating tax monies to its library system.

Second National Bank becomes Houston’s first air-conditioned building.

South Texas School of Law, as it was then known, opens its doors on Sept. 24, 1923, with seven part-time instructors and a first class of just 34 students. The institution now known as South Texas College of Law Houston is the city's oldest law school. 

Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the first fine arts museum in Texas, opens.

Natural gas first piped into Houston.

Houston Colored Junior College, the forerunner of Texas Southern University, established.

Houston Junior College (now the University of Houston) is established.

National Democratic Convention is held in Houston.

Municipal airport opened; air mail service to Houston begins.

City Planning Commission recommends that Houston adopt a zoning ordinance but finds scant support.

Petrochemical complex develops, taking feedstocks from nearby refineries.

New master plan for Houston thoroughfares emphasizes a loop system.

Texas Medical Center is founded.

Houston Golf Assn. hosts its first PGA Tour event — now the Houston Open, 10th oldest event on the PGA schedule.

Houston College for Negroes acquired by Texas Legislature; established as Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University).

Alley Theatre established. 

Engineering begins on the Gulf Freeway, Texas’ first freeway.

Houston voters reject proposed zoning ordinance.

December 31 annexation expands Houston's area from 74.4 square miles to 216 square miles. 

Port of Houston ranks second nationally in total tonnage.

KLEE-TV broadcasts first Houston commercial TV program. 

NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center moves to Houston.

Houston voters reject proposed zoning ordinance.

First event held in the Astrodome.

Houston Intercontinental Airport begins operations.

“Houston” is the first word spoken from the lunar surface.

Employment peaks at 1,583,400 in March before onset of recession.

155 office buildings completed in 12 months.

Voters approve creation of Harris County Toll Road Authority.

An estimated 1.3 million people turn out in Downtown Houston April 5, 1986 to see French composer Jean-Michel Jarre's "Rendez-vous Houston: A City in Concert."

Trough of recession in January; net recession loss of 221,900 jobs.

Wortham Center, home to Houston Ballet and Houston Grand Opera, opens.

The George R. Brown Convention Center opens on 11 blocks on the east end of downtown. The center would be expanded in 2001 to 1.8 million square feet. 

Houston Chamber of Commerce, Houston Economic Development Council and Houston World Trade Association combine to form Greater Houston Partnership.

Census finds Houston MSA has no racial or ethnic majority.

Minute Maid Park, home of Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros, opens.

Tropical Storm Allison inundates Houston June 5-9, claiming 22 lives and inflicting $4.9 billion in property damage, with storm precipitation as high as 35.67 inches in some areas.

NRG Stadium, home of the National Football League’s Houston Texans, opens.

Hobby Center for the Performing Arts opens.

Toyota Center, home of the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets, opens.

Houston’s first modern light rail line, 7.5-miles long, begins operations.

Houston hosts NFL Superbowl XXXVIII.

More than 100,000 evacuees flee to Houston from southern Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Ike makes landfall Sept. 13 at Galveston as a Category 2 storm, claiming at least 70 lives and causing some $27 billion in  property damage along the Texas Gulf Coast, ranking it third most costly among U.S. hurricanes.