September 25 in San Antonio history…

1922
Radio station WOAI (“World Of Agricultural Information”) transmits its first radio broadcast. It is the third radio station in San Antonio.

1965
Atheist Madelyn Murray O’Hair, noted for her 1963 Supreme Court case banning prayer in schools, is arrested in San Antonio after a flight from Mexico City.  She is taken into custody and jailed under 11 warrants from Baltimore charging her with aggravated assault on policemen.  She was arrested at the Greyhound bus terminal after police missed her at the airport.

1982
After a yearlong $2 million renovation project, La Villita is reopened with much fanfare.  The renovation funds came from a $1.7 million grant from the Economic Redevelopment Administration and $600,000 in matching city funds.

August 14 in San Antonio history..

1914
Assistant Fire Chief Gilbert Hovey dies when the front suspension of Chief Wright’s big 1910 Locomobile collapses and Hovey is thrown out of the car and into a telephone pole.  Hovey  was 42 years old.

1922
This morning, Judge James R. Davis submitted a petition from property owners in the settlement of Viva, between San Antonio and Leon Springs on the San Antonio & Aransas Pass railroad, that the streets and alleys in the 35-year-old town be ordered closed. The commissioners’ court granted the petition. Thus, the township was wiped out. There were no casualties.

1982
Workers spend five hours removing the 4,000-pound marquee from the Texas Theater only to have it bend and crumble due to structural rust.  The marquee was due to have been donated to the Institute of Texan Cultures.

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.

August 11 in San Antonio history…

1922
The second radio station in San Antonio, WCAR, begins broadcasting from 324 N. Navarro St.  It is later renamed KTSA (which stands for Kum To San Antonio). (License date 5/9/22)

1939
Bexar County Commissioners Court in a special resolution passed this morning, censured the city of San Antonio for its “ill-advised” granting of a permit for a Communist Party meeting in the Municipal Auditorium.

1984
Mother and daughter duo Naomi and Wynonna Judd make their first San Antonio appearance at Texas Dance Hall.

August 5 in San Antonio history…

1884
The San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad is first organized.

1922
San Antonio’s first radio station (WJAE) begins broadcasting, but lasts only a few months.

1974
Roddy Stinson’s first column, entitled “In Memory of Iris,” appears in the San Antonio Express newspaper.  Stinson’s columns will provoke, enlighten and entertain San Antonio readers for 34 years until his retirement in 2008.

July 19 in San Antonio history…

1885
San Antonio began keeping weather statistics in 1885.  On this day in that year, the temperature dropped to 65 and it’s still the record low temperature for the date.

1933
San Antonio and southwest Texas entered the sixth consecutive week without rain, with farmers facing heavy losses unless the drought breaks soon.

San Antonio News, p. 25

1954
“Peanuts,” by Charles M. Schultz, first appears in the San Antonio News newspaper comics section.

July 8 in San Antonio history…

1922
Robert E. O’Grady, owner of the Argyle Hotel, was chosen as the first mayor of Alamo Heights in today’s election. Aldermen are W. H. Hume, J.C. Talcott, Paul Villaret, Dr. W. S. Hamilton and Ben Hammond. W. G. Tobin was elected town marshal.

1925
Despondent over the drowning death of his only son nearly four years earlier, Alexander Joske fatally shoots himself. In mourning, Mayor John W. Tobin honored the merchant and community leader and ordered city flags flown at half–staff. Joske Brothers Company closed for two days, while throughout the Southwest people remembered Joske as a pioneer merchant who had played a key role in transforming Texas retailing industry by leading the change from 19th century dry goods stores to the modern department store of the 20th century.

1935
Postmaster Dan Quill suggested San Antonians take a last look at the old post office as crews would begin razing it soon to make way for the new building.

April 4 in San Antonio history…

1922
San Antonio’s 1922 Spring Auto show opens at the St. Anthony Hotel

1946
Alamo Drive-In opens on Austin Highway.

1988
The South Texas Nuclear Plant (officially known as South Texas Project Electric Generating Station), the first nuclear plant in Texas, begins producing power.  The city of San Antonio owns a 40% stake in the plant, located near Bay City.

February 3 in San Antonio history…

1910
The Wright aeroplane which was received in this city by the Wells-Fargo Express company yesterday was transferred to the government railroad spur that terminates on Grayson street at the Post, under the personal supervision of Mr. Heyck, the agent for the express company, this morning.

1922
The Ku Klux Klan, hooded, clad in white, visits Travis Park Methodist Church, and makes a $100 donation.

1989
A new 90-foot tall, $650,000 Ferris wheel debuts at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo carnival.  “It’s brand new,” says ride technician Kenny Hebert of Thibodeaux, La.  “The only other time this ride as been together is when they assembled it at the factory, piece by piece.”

August 14 in San Antonio history..

1914
Assistant Fire Chief Gilbert Hovey dies when the front suspension of Chief Wright’s big 1910 Locomobile collapses and Hovey is thrown out of the car and into a telephone pole (right).  Hovey  was 42 years old.

1922
The Bexar County commissioners wiped a town out of existence this morning. This was the town of Viva, about 18 miles north of San Antonio on the Kerrville branch of the S.A.A.P. railroad.

1982
Workers spend five hours removing the 4,000-pound marquee from the Texas Theater only to have it bend and crumble due to structural rust.  The marquee was due to have been donated to the Institute of Texan Cultures.