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Houston (/ ˈ h juː s t ən / ⓘ; HEW-stən) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States.Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the seat and largest city of Harris County; as well as the principal city of the Greater Houston metropolitan area, which is the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the ...
- Greater Houston
Greater Houston, designated by the United States Office of...
- Demographics of Houston
In the U.S. state of Texas, Houston is the largest city by...
- Climate of Houston
Winters in Houston are relatively mild, dry, and temperate...
- List of Tallest Buildings in Houston
Houston, the largest city in Texas, is the site of 97...
- Houston (Disambiguation)
1.1 United States. 1.2 Elsewhere. 2 People. 3 Music. 4...
- Nineteen School Districts
Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center is the...
- Harris County, Texas
Harris County is a county located in the U.S. state of...
- List of People From Houston
Elsa Alcala, judge since 2011 of the Texas Court of Criminal...
- Greater Houston
- Overview
- History
Houston, inland port city, in Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties, that is the seat (1836) of Harris county, southeastern Texas, U.S. It is linked by the Houston Ship Channel to the Gulf of Mexico and the Intracoastal Waterway at Galveston, 50 miles (80 km) southeast. Houston is the state’s most populous city and the fourth largest city in t...
The first settlement in the area, Harrisburg (1826), was destroyed in April 1836 by the Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna in pursuit of Sam Houston and the Texas army. A week later, outside the present city at the Battle of San Jacinto, Santa Anna was captured and Texas was freed. In August 1836 two New York land speculators, the brothers Augustus C. and John K. Allen, bought a site near burned-out Harrisburg and began advertising the place as the future “great interior commercial emporium of Texas.” Two months later John Allen persuaded the first Congress of the Republic of Texas, in session at Columbia, to move to his town, named for the first elected president of Texas, Sam Houston. The maneuver was later denounced, and the government stayed there only two years (1837–39).
Mud-bogged and beset by yellow fever epidemics, the town grew slowly as a cotton-shipping port; the first railroad arrived in 1853. During the American Civil War it became a haven for Southerners running the Union naval blockade. Briefly threatened in 1862 when Union forces captured Galveston Island (which was soon recaptured by the Confederates), Houston in 1863 became the headquarters for the Confederacy’s Trans-Mississippi Department (Texas and what was then New Mexico Territory). Segregation became a problem after the war, with separate neighbourhoods developing for whites, Hispanics, and African Americans. Racial tensions resulted in serious rioting in 1917, when black U.S. Army soldiers were stationed in the city; nearly 20 people were killed.
Houston developed as a rail centre, with 12 railways by 1891. After a devastating hurricane and flood in 1900 destroyed Galveston’s port facilities, Houston emerged as the state’s leading port. The first dock had been built in 1840, and widening and deepening of Buffalo Bayou (now part of the Houston Ship Channel) had begun in 1869. By the early 1980s the port, then the third largest in the United States in tonnage moved, was handling more than 80 million tons of foreign, coastal, and canal shipping annually. Oil, discovered in the area in 1901, brought considerable industrial development, triggering the city’s expansion and prosperity from its 19th-century economic base of cotton and lumber. The completion of the Houston Ship Channel in 1914 led to the establishment of refineries along it in the 1920s and ’30s.
World War II brought shipbuilding and petrochemical industries to Houston, and chemicals remained important after the war ended. Land annexed in 1948 nearly tripled the city’s area. In 1961 the Manned Spacecraft Center (renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973), the command post for flights by U.S. astronauts, was opened near Clear Lake, about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of downtown, making Houston a focus of the nation’s space program. Houston experienced an economic boom in the 1970s and became a world leader in the energy business; hundreds of companies located their headquarters there. Energy largely supported the city’s economy until the oil industry went bust in the mid-1980s. By the early 1990s the city had recovered, although it sustained another blow when Enron Corp. (headquartered there) collapsed in 2001. The city hosted the Republican National Convention in 1992, and the downtown area underwent a resurgence in the late 1990s as new entertainment venues opened.
Houston’s rapid expansion after World War II was accompanied by increases in air and water pollution and urban sprawl. In addition, flooding has been a recurring problem, although measures to control it were made after serious floods in 1929 and 1935. In 2001 Tropical Storm Allison killed 22 people in the area, damaged office buildings and thousands of homes, and caused widespread flooding in the city. Hurricane Ike, though responsible for far fewer deaths, caused similar damage to Houston shortly after making landfall in nearby Galveston in September 2008. Hurricane Harvey, the strongest storm to make landfall in the United States in more than a decade, drenched the Houston area in August 2017. The city received more than 16 inches (over 400 mm) of rain in a 24-hour period, and catastrophic flooding claimed several lives.
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- The Houston Space Center. When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, he said, “Houston, the Eagle has landed.” He was referring to the on-site staff of the NASA Johnson Space Center here in H-town.
- Diverse neighborhood cuisines. Houston is the one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States and its food scene reflects that distinction.
- The Museum District. Culture buffs should make their way to the Houston Museum District which is home to 19 different institutions. To make things easier for travelers, the Museum District has been separated into four different walkable zones.
- The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. Texas has its cowboy reputation, and you can experience a taste of that culture for yourself at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.
- Johnson Space Center. Johnson Space Center is easily one of the most important scientific and historical sites in Houston. This NASA center is and continues to be where astronauts train for their missions.
- San Jacinto Battle Monument And Museum. One of the most historical landmarks in Houston, Texas can be seen from miles around.
- Hermann Park. Hermann Park is one of the most important cultural spots in Houston. Spanning 445 acres, the park isn't just a beloved place for people to relax and unwind, it's also the location of multiple Houston attractions.
- Houston City Hall. You can't have a list of Houston, Texas, landmarks without mentioning city hall. Located in Downtown Houston, the building has been a symbol of the city since the 1930s when it was built.
Houston is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Houston is located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico; it is the seat and largest city of Harris County and the principal city of the Greater Houston metropolitan area, which is the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the second-most ...
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While our shared roots are proudly planted in Texas, Houston’s reach and influence is truly global. Nearly one in four of Houston's 7.1 million residents was born outside the United States. In terms of racial and ethnic composition, the Houston of today resembles what the rest of the country is expected to look like in 40 years.
Nov 3, 2020 · The 132-acre Houston Botanic Garden, which opened on September 18, 2020, feels like a lush oasis. It’s worth visiting for the sheer range of plants that reflect various Texas Gulf Coast habitats ...
