The History
Houston was founded in August 1836 by real estate entrepreneurs Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen, who purchased over 6,600 acres of land along the Buffalo Bayou. The brothers named the settlement after General Sam Houston, the hero of the Battle of San Jacinto and first president of the Republic of Texas. The city officially incorporated in 1837 and quickly grew as a regional rail and shipping hub for cotton and timber. The discovery of oil at Spindletop in 1901, combined with the opening of the Houston Ship Channel in 1914, sparked a massive industrial boom that permanently transformed the local economy. In 1961, the establishment of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center—later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center—solidified Houston's position as a prominent global leader in science, technology, and aerospace engineering.
