July 28 in San Antonio history…

1941
Earl “Fatha” Hines performs at the Library Auditorium (now the Carver Center) on Hackberry Street.

1969
KENS Channel 5 airs “The Harlem Cultural Festival,” an hour-long special featuring the 5th Dimension, Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, The Chambers Brothers, and the Edwin Hawkins Singers (right).

1988
Rolling Oaks Mall opens at Nacogdoches and Loop 1604.  Phase One, with 570,000 square feet of leasable area, features Dillards, Sears, Circus World, County Seat, Deck the Walls, Everything’s a Dollar, Foot Action, Hasting’s Records, Naturalizer, Radio Shack, The Accessory Store, Unique Creations, Waldenbooks, Woolworth Express, Zales and six Santikos theaters. The mall also contains 14 restaurants and a 400-seat dining area. Designed to grow with the community, Rolling Oaks plans to add four major department stores and one junior department store by the year 1990 — increasing the mall’s leasable space to 1.2 million square feet.

June 26 in San Antonio history…

1918
Beginning this morning, Bexar County women are able to obtain registration receipts to enable them to vote for the first time in the upcoming July primary.  The receipts must be obtained at the courthouse in the office of the tax collector.

1941
Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Lyndon B. Johnson, comes to San Antonio and stumps at Municipal Auditorium.

1942
The War Department separated part of Kelly Field for an aviation cadet training center, later renaming it for Brig. Gen. Frank D. Lackland.

May 8 in San Antonio history…

1881
Jean Claude Neraz is consecrated as the second bishop of San Antonio, succeeding Bishop Pellicer.

1917
The proposition to create Romana Plaza  at the north end of Soledad , which has been under discussion  by interested citizens for several years, is to have the serious consideration of the City Council, it was learned today.

1941
In a precedent-making ceremony, the San Jose Mission was turned over to the National Park Service today as a result of an agreement between the Catholic Church, the county, and the Conservation Society of San Antonio, all of which deeded land to the Federal agency. Chief participants in the ceremonies were County Judge Charles W. Anderson, Archbishop Robert E. Lucey, Mrs. Lane Taylor, president of the Conservation Society; Undersecretary of the Interior Alvin J. Wirtz , and Wendell Mayes, chairman of the Texas State Park Board.

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.

March 19 in San Antonio history…

1840
The Council House Fight takes place in the building across San Fernando Cathedral. The meeting took place under a truce with the purpose of negotiating peace after two years of war between the Comanche Indians and the Republic of Texas. The Comanches sought to obtain recognition of the boundaries of the Comancheria, their homeland. The Texans wanted the release of Texan and Mexican captives held by the Comanches. The event ended with 12 Comanche leaders shot to death in the Council House, 23 shot in the streets of San Antonio, and 30 taken captive. The incident ended the chance for peace and led to years of hostility and war.

1910
Edward Rand purchases the de la Garza homestead for $200,000 for the future home of Rand Building (Wolff & Marx.)

1941
Construction of a portion of the Harry Wurzbach Memorial highway leading to Camp Bullis, a project involving the expenditure of more than $400.000, was approved today by the WPA. This link will begin at West avenue and extend northwest to the south line of Camp Bullis, a distance of seven and one-half miles. The entire Memorial highway will extend 17 miles, linking the camp with Fort Sam Houston and costing a total of more than $1,000,000.
(This road is known today as Northwest Military Highway.)

January 27 in San Antonio history…

1875
The construction of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (right) is completed.

1941
Two wrought iron signs bearing the inscription Arneson River Theater have been placed on the San Antonio River beautification project, J. A. Hazelrigg, manager of the WPA in the San Antonio district, reported today. Made by the WPA crafts project, one of the signs is six feet long with lettering eight inches in height. This sign has been placed over the archway entrance to the river beautification project at the La Villita entrance. The second sign, 10 to 20 inches in size, has been placed on the theater building.

2009
The San Pedro Manor apartments are consumed by a three-alarm raging inferno.

December 29 in San Antonio history…

1941
Airport engineers announce that they will begin pouring concrete for the runways at the new airport on January 5.  It is estimated the work will be completed in 100 working days.  Meanwhile, work is progressing on laying the drainage pipe.

1960
Terrell Hills police searched in vain for a brightly clad spaceman. An interplanetary character, complete with bubble helmet and antennae, was reported by Dr. and Mrs. Dick Creamer, 205 Newbury.

1971
The groundbreaking for the new $6.8 million Community Hospital takes place at the corner of Floyd Curl and Wurzbach roads in the South Texas Medical Center.  The new hospital is expected to be completed in 1973.

December 8 in San Antonio history…

1890
The street car company is disposing of its large number of mules at a rapid pace. Sixty-four of the animals have already been sold for $45 each.

1928
Thurman Barrett purchases KTSA and will broadcast programming from the Columbia Broadcasting System.

1941
Travis Cotton, 28, of 206 Weaver Street, was waiting when the recruiting office opened this morning and is the first San Antonian to volunteer after the Pearl Harbor attack yesterday.

March 5 in San Antonio history…

1731
Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña is founded.

1941
The Bexar County Commissioners Court pass a resolution designating the Camp Bullis-West Avenue portion of the proposed Bullis-Fort Sam Houston military road as Harry Wurzbach Highway.  Naming of the proposed road is in honor of the late congressman from this district who died on Nov. 6, 1931.

1966
At 8:05 a.m., firefighters finally extinguish the massive five-alarm blaze that consumed Produce Row. The blaze began at 11:30 p.m and raged for over eight hours.  At the same time, a four-alarm fire burned the Stemens Card Company on Fredericksburg Road.  These two fires required the service of every firefighter in the city.  “I’ve never seen as much fire in one night,” said Chief M. L. Rogers.

 

January 27 in San Antonio history…

1941
Two wrought iron signs bearing the inscription Arneson River Theater have been placed on the San Antonio River beautification project, J. A. Hazelrigg, manager of the WPA in the San Antonio district, reported today. Made by the WPA crafts project, one of the signs is six feet long with lettering eight inches in height. This sign has been placed over the archway entrance to the river beautification project at the La Villita entrance. The second sign, 10 to 20 inches in size, has been placed on the theater building.

1946
Rudolph Carstanjen, who served on the San Antonio Police Force from 1915 to 1939, passes away at a local hospital.  For many years, Mr. Carstanjen served as a traffic officer at Houston and Main streets. He suffered a heart attack last week when he was notified of the death of his son, Lt. Rudolph Carstanjen, Jr., who died in a plane crash off the coast of Cuba.  The younger Carstanjen was a 1932 graduate of Brackenridge High School.  There will be a double funeral pending the arrival of the son’s body.

1987
“Aunt Susie,” a 30-year-old giraffe from Kenya, gave birth to a six-foot tall, 100 pound son at the San Antonio Zoo.