December 15 in San Antonio history…

1917
Johnny Reynolds, “The Human Fly,” a steeplejack and building climber of nationwide reputation, held a great throng breathless today as he scaled the Wolff and Marx Building.  On reaching the roof, he took a chair and sat on the edge.  He then climbed the flagpole and balanced himself across the knob surmounting the pole.  Johnny, now a soldier at Kelly Field, was advertising the minstrel show which the men of the aviation section will present at the Empire Theater January 9.

1938
“America’s Sweetheart” and “America’s Boyfriend,” Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers, make a brief stop at Stinson Field on a trip from Mexico to New Orleans.  Rogers was the star of “Wings” filmed in and around San Antonio and the winner of the first “Best Picture” Academy Award in 1927.

1999
The Wolff family sells the Sun Harvest grocery chain for $21.5 million.

June 12 in San Antonio history…

1938
After a decade of construction, the Sunken Garden Theater, one of San Antonio’s beauty spots, today stood completed.  The project was started in 1928 with erection of a 30×40 foot stage.

(photo from mariolanzatenor.com)

1939
Max Reiter (right), noted orchestra conductor who recently fled Europe to escape fascism, holds a demonstration concert in the Sunken Garden Theater with an 80-piece orchestra and noted Metropolitan Opera tenor, Charles Kullman.  This leads to Reiter being named musical director of the San Antonio Symphony.

1944
Marine SSgt. William J. Bordelon Jr. of San Antonio was announced as posthumous recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. He died at Tarawa.

March 27 in San Antonio history…

1938
The Pearl Brewery announces that it is the first brewery in North America to be completely air-conditioned.

1941
Robert Emmet Lucey is installed as the second Archbishop of San Antonio at San Fernando Cathedral.

1964
The “Good Friday Earthquake” in Alaska generates shock waves that create a sloshing effect in the Aquifer and an almost instantaneous surge of over five feet in the J-17 well.  This graph is published in the San Antonio Express on May 20.

January 29 in San Antonio history…

1917
The Robert B. Green opens to the public as the county hospital (right).

1938
Actress Judy Garland makes a “whistle stop” in San Antonio and signs autographs for fans.

1979
A traffic accident at at IH-10 and South New Braunfels at 12:06 a.m. is the first emergency reported to the 911 system.  San Antonio is the first metropolitan area in Texas to have the 911 emergency system.

January 24 in San Antonio history…

1905
The State Legislature passed a bill to purchase the Alamo for a historic shrine for $65,000.

1938
Demolishing of the old market house on Market Plaza started today.  After the 37-year old structure is razed, construction will begin on a new $168,981 market house.  It will be one story of brick and concrete.

1999
“Old No. 794″ Southern Pacific steam locomotive is moved from Maverick Park to Sunset Station.

December 16 in San Antonio history…

1889
The city council decides to extend Crockett Street across the river to St. Mary’s Street.

1938
Robert H. H. Hugman is named the official architect of the River Beautification Project  W. H. Lilly is named engineer.

1987
KABB 29 goes on the air quietly as San Antonio’s second independent television station and the only one in a year since KRRT took on the new Fox network. In 1995, after spending over seven years as an independent, KABB picked up the Fox affiliation from KRRT, which became affiliated with UPN.  The official debut is December 20.

December 1 in San Antonio history…

1884
The Light asked San Antonians to assure the city’s future by purchasing beer from local breweries rather than ordering from St. Louis.  (The Lone Star Brewery was founded in 1884 by Adolphus Busch of Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company in St. Louis.)

1938
The headlines of the San Antonio newspapers describe a bus/train accident that resulted in the death of 26 children.  This accident spawned the myth of the “ghost tracks” at Shane and Villamain. Despite being the lead story in the newspaper, the accident actually took place in Salt Lake City, Utah.

1973
A dark but colorful will be the story of this year’s city Christmas tree in Alamo Plaza. Finishing touches are being made on the 60-foot tree, which will not have any lights this year because of the energy crisis, according to City Manager Sam Granata.

October 31 in San Antonio history…

1938
George Johnson, station manager, of KTSA reports in the San Antonio Light that received a call from an official at Fort Sam Houston who asked “what in the hell are you doing?” during last night’s broadcast of “War of the Worlds.”

1967
In the process of lifting the tophouse to the top of the Tower of the Americas structure, three steel lifting rods snapped halting the process.  Elmer Joiner, project engineer, said that if one more rod had broken, the whole tophouse structure would have fallen to the ground crushing as many as ten men.  In the meantime, seven giant cranes have been brought in to support the tophouse while the lifting rods are being replaced.

1993
An artic cold front brings a record low temperature of 27 degrees to San Antonio and breaks a number of records. It is the earliest day in San Antonio history that the temperature has dropped into the 20’s.

October 30 in San Antonio history…

1912
A tragic fire at St. John’s Orphans Home (right), on the corner of San Saba and W. Houston Street, kills six nuns and three orphans.

1938
Radio station KTSA broadcasts “Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre” featuring a radio drama of H. G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” from 7 to 8 p.m.  Despite announcements before, during and after the program, some frightened radio listeners believe it is a real invasion of aliens from Mars.

1975
Montgomery Ward opens their third San Antonio location – a brand new 194,000 sq. ft. store in Windsor Park Mall.  Metro manager J. V. Johnson announces plans for expanding the Wonderland and McCreeless stores in the near future also.

October 27 in San Antonio history…

1938
Sears, Roebuck & Co. moves from the Transit Tower location to their new downtown headquarters at Romana Plaza. In 1995, this location would become the San Antonio Central Library.

1940
H.G. Wells, in San Antonio to attend the 65th annual United States Brewers Convention, meets Orson Welles for the first time at the Plaza Hotel.  Welles stopped in the city briefly, en route to Tucson to scout a movie location.  He admitted to being apprehensive at meeting the “War of the Worlds” author.

2007
The Trinity Tigers defeat the Millsap Majors 28-24 on the last play of the game using 15 laterals.