October 11 in San Antonio history…

1937
San Antonio’s new federal building and post office opens on Alamo Plaza.  Ralph Cameron, a San Antonian, was architect and A. W Kutsch and Sons of Detroit were general contractors. The contract price was $1,768.510.93 but with extras which included features of the building cut out of the original plans and replaced, total cost of the building when entirely completed will aggregate approximately $2,225,000.

1986
Southwest High School quarterback Ty Detmer breaks Tommy Kramer’s city record of 54 career touchdown passes in a 47-0 drubbing of Memorial High School.  Detmer also broke the record of five touchdown passes in a game with seven, most yards passing with 435 (breaking his previous record of 430), and setting the state record for career passing yardage with 6,245, breaking Gary Kubiak’s record of 6,190.

2007
San Antonio City Council votes to purchase the Mission Drive-In property for $3.2 million and redevelop the site for a multi-use complex which includes a public library.

June 3 in San Antonio history…

1937
City police are called to quell a riot when roustabouts drive away crews of trucks sent to seize the assets of the Stanley Graham Midget Circus to satisfy creditors.  The big top and circus paraphernalia are eventually taken and the roustabouts retreat to a provision railcar and steal all the food therein.  122 performers in the circus, all little people, are left stranded and penniless in San Antonio.

Photo courtesy of NASA Archives

1965
San Antonian Ed White becomes the first astronaut to “walk” in space when he opens the hatch of his Gemini 4 capsule and floats outside.

1975
The Rolling Stones perform at Convention Center Arena, the first of two consecutive sold-out shows.

May 27 in San Antonio history…

Newspaper advertisement – San Antonio Light

1937
Stanley Graham’s Midget Circus arrives in the Alamo City for a five-day performance sponsored by Sommer’s Drugstores.  The circus features elephants, tigers, aerialists and acrobats. All the human performers are little people.

1958
Frank Penicka was driving his car more comfortably today, after a Ft. Hood demolition team removed a 75-mm high explosive shell head from his car.  He spotted the bright object along the road, put it in his car trunk and drove to the Courthouse where the deputies identified it as a live shell.

1981
Foley’s announces that they will give a sneak preview of their new San Antonio store on Tuesday, July 21 at a gala to benefit the Children’s Zoo.  The store’s grand opening is scheduled for July 23.

February 22 in San Antonio history…

1885
U.S. Marshal Hal Gosling of San Antonio is shot to death by a bandit on a train south of New Braunfels.

1937
The Ripley’s Believe It or Not appearing in the San Antonio Light features a dog owned by Mr. C. F. Schultz of St. Paul, Minnesota (right).  A picture of the dog is drawn by his son, Sparky.  Charles “Sparky” Schultz.  The dog is named Spike, and will be the model for Snoopy in the future “Peanuts” comic strip.

1999
Amtrak opens a new passenger station between Sunset Station and the Alamodome.

October 19 in San Antonio history…

1937
Emma Tenayuca and Homer Bartchy, known as Homer Brooks, are married by a Justice of the Peace here in San Antonio.

1949
Bexar County’s brand new coliseum was “open for business” with the two-day performance of the Ringling Brothers – Barnum & Bailey Circus.

1980
Jay Robinson, in this 16th year on the force, becomes San Antonio’s first black police captain.

October 11 in San Antonio history…

1937
San Antonio’s new federal building and post office opens on Alamo Plaza.  Ralph Cameron, a San Antonian, was architect and A. W Kutsch and Sons of Detroit were general contractors. The contract price was $1,768.510.93 but with extras which included features of the building cut out of the original plans and replaced, total cost of the building when entirely completed will aggregate approximately $2,225,000.

1991
Mayor Nelson Wolff jetted off to Paris, France yesterday to ride a bullet train and meet representatives of the TGV Consortium, who plan on constructing the bullet train in Texas to connect Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston.

2007
San Antonio City Council votes to purchase the Mission Drive-In property for $3.2 million and redevelop the site for a multi-use complex which includes a public library.

July 4 in San Antonio history…

1937
Convinced her husband was cheating on her, an Austin woman leaps to her death from the eighth floor of the Bluebonnet Hotel.  Her suicide note ends with, “So long, Casanova.”

1978
The Express and the News newspapers are combined for the day.

2007
The structure at 13445 Blanco Road that was once known as one of the biggest casinos east of Reno and was most recently known as Larry Herman’s Roaring 20s is destroyed by fire. In its heyday, between 1926 and the early 1960’s, it operated as the Shadowland Night Club.

February 22 in San Antonio history…

1910
Louis Paulhan, “King of the Air,” flew his aeroplane over the city today.  He attained an altitude of 2,500 feet flying from Kirby to San Antonio and return, a distance of 18 miles in 21 minutes.
[This was the first airplane flight in Texas.  Benjamin Foulois made the second, and the first military flight, on March 2, 1910]

1937
The Ripley’s Believe It or Not appearing in the San Antonio Light features a dog owned by Mr. C. F. Schultz of St. Paul, Minnesota (right).  A picture of the dog is drawn by his son, Sparky.  Charles “Sparky” Schultz.  The dog is named Spike, and will be the model for Snoopy in the future “Peanuts” comic strip.

1946
Tex Ritter appears in a stage show at the Texas Theater.

February 5 in San Antonio history…

1877
The first passenger train leaves San Antonio bound for New York.  Military officers are aboard the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio train, nicknamed the “Sunset Route.”

1929
The old City Hall clock which tolled the passing of the hours since it was placed in the tower in 1890 has been declared beyond human aid and will be retired.

1970
Roger Martinez, a sophomore at St. Mary’s University, sets a world record by swallowing 225 live goldfish in 41 minutes.

February 4 in San Antonio history…

1937
Work on the state park to surround the Alamo will start immediately.  Included in the $82,000 project is preservation work on the shrine, erection of a museum, landscaping, sprinklers and plaques.

1957
Today at 2 p.m. is the deadline for bids for the concession to own and operate pedal craft boats on he San Antonio river in Brackenridge Park.  The contract will be for one year beginning March 1, 1957.

1999
Solo Serve holds their final liquidation sale and closes after 80 years in business.