History of Dallas
The area was also claimed by the French, but in 1819 the Adams-Onís Treaty officially placed Dallas well within Spanish territory by making the Red River the northern boundary of New Spain.
De Mezieres, a Frenchman in the service of the King of Spain probably crossed the West Fork of the Trinity River near present-day Fort Worth.
[1] Present-day Dallas remained under Spanish rule until 1821, when Mexico declared independence from Spain, and the area became part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas.
[2] John Neely Bryan, looking for a good trading post to serve Native Americans and settlers, first surveyed the Dallas area in 1839,[3] perhaps drawn by the intersection of Caddo trails at one of the few natural fords for hundreds of miles along the wide Trinity floodplain.
The official historical marker states it was named after future Vice President George M. Dallas of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1845-1849).
[6] By 1860, the town's population reached 678, including 97 African Americans (mostly enslaved), as well as Belgian, French, German, and Swiss immigrants.
In 1869 the Reconstruction legislature established a funding mechanism to support public education for the first time, and authorized school districts to be set up across the state.
One was a Civil War veteran, but, both men were farmers and real estate developers.” Ross Avenue is named in honor of the two brothers and bisects the land they formerly owned.
Dallas was the epicenter of the markets for raw materials and commodity crops, such as grains and cotton, which were shipped to the South and East.
Cotton prices dipped below five cents a pound, and the lumber and flour markets had all but vanished, so many people began leaving the city.
By the turn of the 20th century, Dallas was the leading drug, book, jewelry, and wholesale liquor market in the Southwestern United States.
Texan blacks, Mexican Americans and poor whites were excluded from much of the progress by being disfranchised when the state legislature imposed a poll tax in 1902.
In addition, it had earlier established Jim Crow laws, making racial segregation legal and imposing white supremacy.
[13] After the flood, the city wanted to take action to control the Trinity and to build a bridge linking Oak Cliff and Dallas.
[3] The expansion of industrial jobs attracted migrants from across the region, as well as waves of immigrants, first from southern and eastern Europe.
The mob tortured Brooks, then killed him at the downtown intersection of Main and Akard by hanging him from a decorative archway inscribed with the words "Welcome Visitors."
That year millionaire Dr. William Worthington Samuell, purchased the first ambulance for the city of Dallas, and later donated thousands of dollars to expand Parkland Hospital.
In 1942, the Ford Motor plant in Dallas converted to war-time production, producing only jeeps and military trucks.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Dallas became the nation's third-largest technology center, with the growth of such companies as Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV Corporation) and Texas Instruments.
In 1957, developers Trammell Crow and John M. Stemmons opened a Home Furnishings Mart, designed by Donald H. Speck, that grew into the Dallas Market Center, the largest wholesale trade complex in the world.
On November 22, 1963, United States President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Elm Street while his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.
The upper two floors of the building from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy, the Texas School Book Depository, have been converted into a historical museum covering the former president's life and accomplishments, Kennedy was declared legally dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital, 30 minutes after the shooting.
In the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s, Dallas underwent the building boom which produced a distinctive contemporary profile for the downtown area and a prominent skyline, influenced by nationally acclaimed architects.
[19] From the mid-to-late 1980s, many banks, especially in Dallas, collapsed during the Savings and Loan crisis, nearly destroying the city's economy and scrapping plans for hundreds of structures.
Pei and Partners), Dallas became the only city in the world with four buildings within one contiguous block that were all designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winners.
[22][23] On July 7, 2016, multiple shots were fired at a protest in downtown Dallas, held against the police killings of two black men from other states.
After hours of negotiation failed, police resorted to a robot-delivered bomb, killing the gunman inside El Centro College.
On June 17, 2019, a shooting occurred outside the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse leaving the perpetrator dead and one injured.
