September 30 in San Antonio history…

1936
Alamo Plaza is decided upon as the location for the cenotaph honoring the Alamo heroes.

1976
Dedication ceremonies at Market Square followed by a mass at Milam Park kick off a four-day fiesta to celebrate the reopening of El Mercado.

1982
“Cheers” debuts on KENS-TV Channel 4 at 8 p.m., slotted against the two-hour season premiere of “Magnum P.I.” on KMOL and “Too Close for Comfort” on KSAT.

August 27 in San Antonio history…

1883
Hugo & Schmeltzer’s store at Commerce and Navarro streets is destroyed by fire when two young men in the basement were transferring alcohol from a barrel to other containers while standing too near an open flame.  The barrel exploded and burned them severely.  The firemen managed to save Groos Bank and Hannig & Standen’s furniture store.

San Antonio Public Library, Texana/Genealogy Department microfilm collection

1945
Publication of the San Antonio Express, San Antonio Light and San Antonio Evening News is suspended this morning when members of the San Antonio Typographical Union strike and walk off the job.  All three newspapers publish late editions with the same headline (right).

1976
Elvis Presley plays the Convention Center Arena for his final San Antonio appearance.  He will die less than a year later on August 16, 1977.

July 29 in San Antonio history…

1936
Church officials were preparing today to direct the removal of the altar of San Fernando Cathedral in the hope that excavation beneath the floor of the church might produce the bones of the Alamo heroes.

1975
The Audie Murphy Veterans hospital adds guards and beefs up security after the weekend disappearance of nurse Mary Margaret “Peggy” Moran from the hospital parking lot.

1976
An estimated 100,000 people turned out today for the grand opening of Windsor Park Mall, San Antonio’s largest enclosed regional shopping center.

July 21 in San Antonio history…

1936
Thomas “Fats” Waller plays a concert in the Colored Library Auditorium.

1976
Southwest Airlines opens San Antonio International Airport’s first ground level jetway gate.

1981
More than 50 people wearing black arm bands and carrying a casket march from Travis Park to the Majestic Theater protesting the play “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.”  The march is called “The Death of Morality March” and is led by Rev. Joe H. West, pastor of Town East Baptist Church and vice president of the Moral Majority in Texas.

June 17 in San Antonio history…

1881
The first telephone company in San Antonio, the San Antonio Telephone Exchange, begins operation.

1936
Mayor C.K. Quin, accompanied by city officials and dignitaries, dedicates the new air-conditioning system in Joske’s one day before their semi-annual sale.  The ceremony is broadcast live over radio station KTSA and the scissors used to cut the ribbon are the same scissors used in the official opening of the Dallas Centennial Exposition.
“Not only should this new Air-Conditioning prove a convenience for our patrons these hot days, but it should be so invigorating and healthful for us who work in Joske’s—that better service to our customers is a certainty,” said J.H. Calvert, President.

1976
The San Antonio Spurs become members of the National Basketball Association.

June 4 in San Antonio history…

1836
Juan Seguin accepts the surrender of Mexican forces in San Antonio from General Martin Perfecto de Cos.

advertisement, San Antonio Light newspaper

1926
The Aztec Theatre opened promising “a totally new form of entertainment.”

1953
In a closed-door meeting today, the City Council and City Manager Reynolds Andricks eliminate all but two members of the library board.  Reports indicate that M. M. Harris, chairman of the library board for 33 years, was given the axe because of a letter he wrote to the city manager that was critical of the new city administration.

June 1 in San Antonio history…

1860
 Robert E. Lee is counted in the 1860 Federal census, living at Ladreska [sic] Phillips‘s boarding house here.

1929
The Smith-Young Tower [now Tower Life Building] is completed at a cost of $3 million.  It will be the tallest building west of the Mississippi River until the late 1950s.  The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

1936
The San Antonio Library begins bookmobile service to rural locations in Bexar County.

April 21 in San Antonio history…

1886
A letter in the Galveston Daily News today claims that the man responsible for naming San Jacinto Day was Charles P. Bickley, who died in 1880 in New Orleans.  He was an actor, author and journalist, being the former editor of the San Antonio Herald.

1936
The Plaza Hotel and Mexican Business Men’s Association sponsor a “Venetian Night” featuring a water carnival and a parade of 18 gondolas on the San Antonio River.  The success of this event leads to the development of the Riverwalk two years later.

Photo by Terry Jeanson

1987
The refurbished copper Indian is returned to his place atop the old Missouri Pacific depot downtown.  Castroville blacksmith Alan Lewis restored the Indian after it was found battered and bent in a nearby field when vandals removed it five years ago.

April 15 in San Antonio history…

1936
A 44-year-old salesman for a Chicago clock company leaps to his death from the seventh floor of the Hotel Lanier.

1976
The Northwest Six Theatres open at IH 10 and 410, showing “Play It Again, Sam”, “The Hiding Place”, “Crime & Passion”, “Echoes of a Summer”, “Bugs Bunny Superstar” and “The Duchess & the Dirtwater Fox.”  The multiplex will later expand to ten and fourteen screens.

1988
Sea World opens its doors for the first time for their soft opening.  The new theme park expects 5,000 visitors.  The grand opening is planned for Memorial Day weekend.

April 13 in San Antonio history…

1917
General John “Black Jack” Pershing throws out the first pitch (to Mayor Clinton Brown) to begin the season at League Park. However the San Antonio Bronchos lose to the Beaumont Oilers, 7 to 4.

1936
Robert Minor, a member of the central committee of the Communist Party, speaks at Lincoln Heights Methodist Church, after being denied use of City property for a meeting tonight. Homer Brooks vows that “next time we are going to start our plans early so any question of a location can be thoroughly fought out.”

1992
Taco Cabana buys rival Sombrero Rosa.