August 31 in San Antonio history…

1898
A party who read in the Sunday Light the proposition of the doctors to be allowed right-of-way when calling on patients, suggests that they be compelled to put gongs on their vehicles to prevent accidents.

1915
The largest single piece of glass in the South was installed at Joske Bros.  It is 21 feet, five and one-half inches long and exceeds by two feet any piece of glass ever used in the South.

1976
After 17 years of planning, battling and waiting, the end is in sight for completion of the North Freeway, now officially named the W.W. McAllister Freeway. The last section extends from Sandau Road on the south to north of Bitters Road on the north, a distance of some two or three miles. Construction on this final section should begin in five to six months and should be completed in about 18 months, according to Mal Steinberg, highway department consultant.

August 28 in San Antonio history…

1874
Pope Pius IX creates the San Antonio Catholic diocese as part of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

1915
A contract for the erection of Robert B. Green Memorial Hospital is awarded to H.N. Jones Construction Co., at an agreed price of $200,092.

1990
As a relief from the recent increase in gasoline prices, Pen Foods at 8101 Callaghan Road offers to reduce your grocery bill by ten cents for every gallon of gasoline or diesel purchased that day.

August 12 in San Antonio history…

1915
Police cars are equipped with sirens similar to those used by the fire department. They are to be used only while the cars are responding to emergency calls.

1922
Frost Bank moves into its new multistory “skyscraper” at the SW corner of Commerce and Flores streets (now the Municipal Plaza Building.)

1927
“Wings”, a silent World War I epic filmed in San Antonio, premieres in New York.  The movie stars Clara Bow and Buddy Rogers and features the (brief) film debut of Gary Cooper.  The next year, “Wings” will be the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.

June 24 in San Antonio history…

1930
Maj. William C. Ocker, “the Father of Instrument Flying,” flies 900 miles from San Antonio to Scotts Field, Illinois in an enclosed cockpit, without reference to outside visual cues.  He calls the flight “an unofficial test.”

1939
Mayor Maverick today has obtained from Aubrey Williams, NYA director, a commitment for $100,00 of NYA funds for restoration of the Villita Street Spanish Village.

1949
Trinity Baptist Church is founded.

May 7 in San Antonio history…

1849
Gen. William Jenkins Worth, veteran of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, dies of cholera in San Antonio. Fort Worth was named for him on November 14, 1849.  Worth is originally buried in San Antonio’s City Cemetery but later exhumed and reinterred

1915
The RMS Lusitania, once the world’s largest ship, is torpedoed and sunk off the southern coast of Ireland.  The sinking of the Lusitania helps to turn American feelings against Germany.  1,195 of the 1,959 passengers died of drowning or hypothermia as only six lifeboats were able to be launched. 128 American lives were lost.  Two of the victims were Dr. and Mrs. Frederick Stark Pearson.  Dr. Pearson was the designer and financier of the Medina Dam in Medina, Texas.

2011
The Mission branch of the San Antonio Library, in the location of the Mission Drive-In theater, holds its grand opening.

December 30 in San Antonio history…

1915 
The new bandstand in Alamo Plaza has been completed (right).  It will probably be opened to the public in early January as soon as all the furniture is installed.  The bandstand contains San Antonio’s first “comfort station” (public restroom). “The basement, in which the comfort station is located, has a tile floor and ample sewer connections for the purpose to which it will be devoted. One room will be fitted up with first-aid appliances and it is proposed to have a nurse there so that persons injured or overcome while downtown can be given temporary dressings or treatment.”

1973
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. finalizes the purchase of the San Antonio Express and News newspapers from Harte-Hanks.

2010
One of the San Antonio Police Department’s “Blue Eagle” helicopters loses power in flight and is forced to make an emergency landing on Highway 281 in the northbound lanes south of Bitters Road.  Neither the pilot nor the observer are seriously injured.

December 24 in San Antonio history…

1874
Rt. Reverend Anthony Dominic Pelicer is installed at San Fernando Cathedral as first Bishop of  San Antonio (he was buried in this cathedral April 17, 1880.)

1915
As a Christmas gift to the city, Mrs. Emma Koehler donates the 11 acres known as Madarasz Park to connect Brackenridge Park with the Zoological Gardens, to be known henceforth as Otto Koehler Park.

1986
The San Antonio Express-News prints a form to survey readers for their opinions on a future sports stadium for San Antonio (right).

November 9 in San Antonio history…

1915
Future possibilities of the wireless telephone as a medium of communication were said to be practically unlimited by an official of the Southwestern Telephone and Telegraph Co. The official was a visitor in the city.

1968
The city holds festivities at the former World’s Fair site as it is dedicated as HemisFair Plaza. Entrance to the park, featuring attractions such as the SkyRide, the mini-monorail and El Trencito, is 25 cents for adults and ten cents for children under 12.

1990
After meeting with Mayor Lila Cockrell and representatives of Alamo Dome Cos. Inc., the company that copyrighted the Alamodome name, the VIA board accepts the trademark offer and the name of the dome is officially changed from Fiesta Dome to Alamodome.  (The naming controversy prompts many to refer to the stadium as the “Fiasco Dome.”)

November 1 in San Antonio history…

1911
The San Antonio Express has received entries to try and win the $25 offered to rename San Antonio’s annual carnival.  Some of the names suggested are: “The Feast of the Hot Tamale,” “Fiesta de Bexar,” “Alacinto,” and “The Celebration of the Town That Needs Paving.”

1915
Fire partially destroyed Beethoven Hall on S. Alamo Street, San Antonio’s largest auditorium, causing damages near $25,000.

1992
San Antonio’s telephone area code changes from 512 to 210.

August 28 in San Antonio history…

1875
Temple Beth–El is dedicated across Jefferson from Travis Park.

1915
A contract for the erection of Robert B. Green Memorial Hospital is awarded to H.N. Jones Construction Co., at an agreed price of $200,092.

1955
San Antonio School Superintendent Thomas Portwood said he was “going ahead with plans” to integrate white and Negro students during the approaching school term. Edgewood and Alamo Heights school districts decide to integrate on this day also – the same day that Emmett Till is murdered in Mississippi.