On this day in Texas history, in 1942, Del Valle Army Air Base was activated outside of Austin. It was changed to Bergstrom Field in 1943 after John A. Bergstrom, the first Austinite killed in WWII. Today it's Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Texas 101: Created in 1885, Dr Pepper is the oldest soft drink brand in the United States.

Texas 101: “Once you are in Texas it seems to take forever to get out, and some people never make it out.” –John Steinbeck

On this day in Texas history, in 1931.

Texas 101: According to legend, XIT stands for “Ten in Texas” since the ranch used to cover all or portions of ten Panhandle counties.

On this day in Texas history, in 1920, Josephine Lucchese, San Antonio native, soprano, and daughter of bootmaker Sam Lucchese, made her operatic debut with the San Carlos Grand Opera as Olympia in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman at the Manhattan Grand Opera House.

On this day in Texas history, in 1931, the state legislature passed the Texas Cotton Acreage Control Law, restricting the amount of cotton planted in 1932 & 33 to no more than 30% of the land in cultivation & barred farmers from planting cotton on the same land two year in a row.

On this day in Texas history, in 1964, the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg bought the Nimitz Hotel, which was built in late 1840s or early 1850s. President Rutherford B. Hayes and Robert E. Lee were one time patrons of the hotel.

Texas 101: The word barbecue is a corruption of the Spanish word barbacoa, which was a Sunday breakfast dating back to Spanish vaqueros, who use to cook wet-burlap-wrapped heads of cattle in a pit.

On this day in Texas history, in 1824, James F. Perry married Emily Austin Bryan, the widowed sister of Stephen F. Austin, in Potosi, Missouri. The Perrys moved to Texas in 1830 & founded Peach Point Plantation, SFA's resting place until he was reburied in the State Cemetery.

On this day in Texas history, in 1867, folklorist, John Avery Lomax was born. He wrote Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads after collecting lyrics of The Old Chisholm Trail, Git Along, Little Dogies, Home on the Range, and others from old cowhands across Texas.

On this day in Texas history, in 1972, the new forty-seven-foot scoreboard at the University of Texas's remodeled Memorial Stadium was dedicated to former Longhorn football player Freddie Steinmark, who was diagnosed with cancer. His left leg was amputated. He died in 1971.

Texas 101: John Wesley Hardin was the most dangerous gunman in Texas, killing more than thirty men. Nevertheless, he maintained that he never killed anyone who didn’t need killing.

Bully!

On this day in Texas history, in 1854, Hans PN Gammel was born in Denmark. He arrived in Galveston in 1877 & walked to Austin, where opened one of the first bookstores west of the Mississippi. He publishe the 10 volume Laws of Texas, 1822–1897—the basis of Texas law libraries.

Or as we say here in Texas, vaya con Dios, mi amigos.

Thirty-five and counting.

On this day in Texas history, in 1946, "Mean" Joe Greene was born in Temple. He was a star at North Texas State College and a Hall of Fame player for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

On this day in Texas history, in 1854, Alice Kirk & Benjamin Henry Grierson were married in Illinois. After the Civil War, he commanded the Buffalo Soldiers of the Tenth Cavalry at Fort Davis. She wrote about life on the frontier in "The Colonel's Lady on the Western Frontier."

Texas 101: The first convenience store in the United States was the Dallas 7-Eleven.