July 14 in San Antonio history…

1925
The Dodge Brothers Automobile Company has offered a bulletproof car to the San Antonio City Police.  The sedan is of standard construction, but which, it is claimed, will ride through a fusillade of .45-caliber bullets with perfect safety to the driver and other occupants. The body, mounted on a regular production Dodge passenger car chassis, is made of 10-gauge bulletproof metal. The windshield and windows are of bullet-proof glass.

1930
The Sunken Garden Theatre is dedicated and opened with a performance of “The Bohemian Girl” by the San Antonio Civic Opera.

1972
Demolition of Fox Tech high school has begun. The 70-year-old buildings will be replaced with a $5 million, 3-000-student complex slated for completion in the fall of 1974. Tech students will go to Brackenridge High School while the work is under way.  Construction starts in October.

June 20 in San Antonio history…

1930
Randolph Field is dedicated in front of 20,000 San Antonians and visitors.  Brig. Gen. Frank P. Lahm, commander of the Air Corps Training Center, called it “the best site I have ever seen for a flying field.”  Texas Governor Dan Moody was forced to scramble from his car when it caught fire leaving the event but the auto was quickly extinguished by nearby firemen.

1954
San Antonio chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People today voted unanimously to instruct its legal redress committee to take immediate steps to have the city’s segregated swimming pool ordinance declared unconstitutional.

1966
Sister Angela Clare Moran replaces Sister Mary Vincent as administrator of Santa Rosa Hospital.

March 31 in San Antonio history…

1930
The New York Yankees, with sluggers Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, play the San Antonio Indians in an exhibition game at League Park.  The Yanks won, 14-1.  After the game, “Ruth was the principal speaker and drawing card at a rally of Knothole Gang members, their parents and friends in the Municipal Auditorium. Probably 2,000 youngsters heard Ruth advise clean living, obedience of parents, plenty of sleep and attention to schoolwork,” beamed the San Antonio Light.  The Yanks head for Austin the next morning to play the University of Texas.

1955
Rev. S.H. James, leader of the local chapter of the NAACP, leads picketers (right) in front of the Texas Theater protesting their policy of segregation. The theater set aside the mezzanine and balcony for black patrons to see the movie “Carmen Jones,” with an all-black cast. The theater had not previously admitted African-American patrons.

1986
Today is the last day to shop at the downtown Sears store located at 642 Soledad.  The store has been unprofitable since 1979 and is closing for good after 40 years.  The store employs 175 people, 107 of whom are part-time employees.

February 13 in San Antonio history…

1910
Work is progressing on an aeroplane shed at Fort Sam Houston to house the new Wright aeroplane.

1913
On this day in 1913, Ignacio E. Lozano founded La Prensa, a Spanish-language daily newspaper published in San Antonio to address the needs of Mexicans residing temporarily in the United States who wished to follow events in Mexico, which was engulfed in the Mexican Revolution.

1930
The City-Central Bank and Trust Company places this full-page advertisement to combat “false rumors” as to the stability of the bank.  The ad lists an affirmation from the Texas Commissioner of Banking, James Shaw, a financial statement and a list of prominent investors.

February 11 in San Antonio history…

1930
Hundreds of panicked small depositors cause a run on the City-Central Bank at the corner of Houston and Navarro Streets.  Hundreds of people clog Houston Street until closing time at 3 p.m., requiring a police squad.  The average amount paid out to each depositor is $31.

1950
Professional basketball comes to San Antonio for the first time with a matinee game and an evening doubleheader at Alamo Stadium gym.  The matinee game features the Harlem Globetrotters versus the New York Celtics.  The evening games are the New York Celtics against the Philadelphia Sphas and the Globetrotters against the Philadelphia Giants.

1976
The American Freedom Train (right) arrives in San Antonio for a four-day visit to celebrate the Bicentennial.

January 18 in San Antonio history…

1886
Leopold Wolfson buys the White Elephant Saloon to expand his dry goods business.   The building is destroyed on Oct. 1, 2011 in a fire.

1928
Pedestrian traffic control will be inaugurated in San Antonio within 30 days, police said today.  Equipment for installing pedestrian signal lights arrived today.  The city commission must now assess penalties for jaywalking.

1930
San Antonio shivered in its coldest winter temperature recorded since 1899 as the temperature falls to an 11 degree reading.  A four degree reading was recorded in 1899.

November 16 in San Antonio history…

1923
Mark Twain Junior High School is dedicated.

1930
The $1,500,00 Nix Professional Building opens with great fanfare.  The Gothic 23-story building, “the first of its kind in the world,” features a basement with a cafeteria, tailor shop and barbershop; eight floors of car storage space, ten floors of office space and a 200-bed hospital on the top six floors.

1984
Conceptual plans for a full-scale downtown revitalization were shown to the DownTown Owners Association this morning by a consultant team from Boston.  The study is intended to complement the Tri-Party Downtown Transportation Initiative by making Alamo Plaza and Houston Street dedicated pedestrian spaces.

November 11 in San Antonio history…

1905
Historical objects owned by the Daughters of the Texas Republic have been removed from the Alamo. The objects will not be returned until the shrine is returned to the custody of the organization.

1940
The Alamo Cenotaph is dedicated with festivities and an Armistice Day parade.

1978
Robert H. H. Hugman, architect of the RiverWalk, is honored at a ceremony inaugurating the Hugman Bells at Arneson River Theater.

August 31 in San Antonio history…

1731
Ignacia Agustina Munoz y Morillo is first recorded baptism in the parish of San Fernando, on this date.

1924
The foundation of the new Builder’s Exchange building at Navarro and St. Mary’s streets has been completed and work on the first story will begin at once.  The building will be completed next April 1 at a cost of $250,000, according to Sidney Cornelius, manager of the Exchange.

1930
The Texas Theater advertises “Animal Crackers” (right) starring the Marx Brothers plus an upcoming feature starring San Antonio-born Joan Crawford.

March 14 in San Antonio history…

1927
Town crier Julius Meyer appears before City Council dressed as a baseball player to appeal to be able to promote baseball games at League Park.  Meyers was recently banned from his town crier duties by the city fathers.  “If I’m granted the right to call out baseball games,” Meyer said, “I will be contented.”

1930
Mayor C. M. Chambers broke ground today for the new home of the San Antonio Light, which is now being erected at Broadway and 4th Street.  The Light‘s new plant will be one of the most modern in the country. [Photo courtesy of the San Antonio Express-News]

1973
Closed mouths and cautious comments were the order of  the day today after The News reported exclusively that San Antonio is likely to be the new home of the Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association. Roger Zeller, president of Columbia Industries and the only local man of the prospective group of buyers to be identified thus far, had no comment to make and was reluctant to admit a San Antonio group was bidding for the Chaps. In Dallas, Bob Briner, general manager of the Chaparrals, spoke of the recently announced sale of the Chaps to New Jersey Meadowland Professional Sports, Inc. That deal reportedly is about to fall through, however, due to problems in working out a settlement with the New York Nets over territorial rights.