48 Fun Facts About Houston

Houston was founded in 1836 by which pair of land-investor siblings?

The Allens. Augustus and John Kirby Allen advertised their 'Town of Houston' in August 1836, named it for the hero of the hour, and lobbied the Republic's congress into making it the capital.

Sam Houston won Texas independence at which battle, fought east of the city later named for him?

San Jacinto. Houston's men charged during the Mexican army's afternoon siesta and won in about 18 minutes, shouting 'Remember the Alamo!', and they captured Santa Anna the next day.

Sam Houston was removed as governor of Texas in 1861 for refusing to do what?

Swear loyalty to the Confederacy. He had fought secession and would not take the oath, so his office was declared vacant; he is still the only person elected governor of two states.

As of the 2020 census, Houston ranked fourth among US cities, behind New York, Los Angeles and which other?

Chicago. Houston climbed the table partly by swallowing its suburbs: one round of annexation in 1948-49 more than doubled the city's size.

Which nickname did Houston earn from the Rockets' NBA titles of 1994 and 1995?

Clutch City. Local papers had sneered 'Choke City' when the team let playoff games slip in 1994, so when the Rockets fought back to win it all, the insult was turned inside out.

Houston is famous as the largest US city without what?

Formal zoning regulations. Voters threw them out in referendums in 1948, 1962 and 1993, and private deed restrictions written by subdivision developers do much of the job instead.

NASA's Houston home, opened in 1963 as the Manned Spacecraft Center, was renamed in 1973 for which president?

Lyndon B. Johnson. As a senator the Texan had steered the 1958 act that created NASA, and he chaired Kennedy's space council; the centre took his name weeks after his death.

The line misquoted as 'Houston, we have a problem' was radioed from which Apollo mission?

Apollo 13. After an explosion on the way to the Moon, Jack Swigert actually said, 'Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here'; the 1995 film shifted it into the present tense.

Which rocket on show at NASA's Houston centre is made entirely of flight-certified hardware?

A Saturn V. Its stages were built to fly on Moon missions that were later cancelled, so of the three Saturn Vs still on display, Houston's alone has no mock-up or test parts.

In July 1969 Neil Armstrong radioed 'Houston, Tranquility Base here', followed by which four words?

The Eagle has landed. Mission Control's Charlie Duke, tongue-tied with relief, answered: 'You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue.'

What killed the grass in Houston's Astrodome within months of its 1965 opening?

Painted roof panels. Glare through the clear roof was blinding outfielders, so the panes were painted, the grass died for want of sun, and the plastic replacement became known as AstroTurf.

Which famous 1973 tennis match, won by Billie Jean King over Bobby Riggs, was played in the Astrodome?

The Battle of the Sexes. Riggs, 55, had already beaten the champion Margaret Court four months earlier, but King, 29, swept him in three straight sets.

Which singer drew a record crowd of more than 60,000 to the Astrodome at the 1995 Houston Rodeo?

Selena. The sold-out show was the Tejano star's third Rodeo date in a row and her last televised concert: weeks later, aged 23, she was shot dead by the president of her fan club.

Which Houston-born tycoon inherited a fortune built on an oil-drilling bit his father patented?

Howard Hughes. His father leased the bits to drillers instead of selling them, and the Hughes Tool Company's profits bankrolled the son's films, record-setting planes and airline.

Which Houston team won the first four WNBA championships, from 1997 to 2000?

The Comets. Led by Cynthia Cooper, the league's first MVP, they were the WNBA's first dynasty, yet the franchise folded in 2008 when no new owner could be found.

Which 1900 disaster in Galveston shifted Texas's main port to Houston?

A hurricane. It killed at least 6,000 people, and although Galveston answered with a 17-foot seawall and jacked up more than 2,000 buildings to raise the island, investors had already turned to Houston.

Which two companies were formed to develop the 1901 Spindletop gusher near Beaumont?

Gulf Oil and Texaco. The gusher ran wild for nine days at an estimated 100,000 barrels a day, and the oil firms it spawned soon put their offices and refineries in Houston.

Which Houston energy company, which claimed $100 billion in revenue, collapsed in a 2001 accounting scandal?

Enron. It had bought 30 years of naming rights to the Astros' new ballpark, and within months of the bankruptcy Enron Field was plain Astros Field.

The Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical complex, is home to which renowned cancer hospital?

MD Anderson. It is named for Monroe Dunaway Anderson, a Houston cotton trader whose foundation conceived the whole medical center and put up money for the cancer hospital.

Which 2017 storm set a US rainfall record of about 60 inches over Texas?

Harvey. It stalled near the coast for days and dropped 60.58 inches of rain on Nederland, east of Houston, and the floods that followed forced thousands of water rescues.

In 2005 Houston sheltered more than 150,000 New Orleans evacuees fleeing which storm?

Katrina. A month later Rita sent about 2.5 million Houston-area residents fleeing in their turn, and most of that storm's deaths in Texas came in the jammed evacuation, not the wind.

A folk-art landmark in Houston is a house that its owner covered in an estimated 50,000 of what?

Beer cans. John Milkovisch, a retired railroad upholsterer, began in 1968, and the can garlands he hung from the eaves sing in the wind and cut the family's energy bills.

On the Friday before the Rodeo, Houstonians wear western clothing for a day known as what?

Go Texan Day. It salutes the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, first held in 1932 as the Fat Stock Show, as trail riders from around Texas converge on the city on horseback.

The Houston Astros entered the National League in 1962 under what original name?

The Colt .45s. Fans picked the name in a contest, for the gun that won the West, but it lasted three seasons: with the move into the Astrodome the club became the Astros, for the city's part in the space program.

Whom did the Astros beat in 2017 to win their first World Series?

The Dodgers. The title was later tainted: that season the Astros had used a centre-field camera and bangs on a trash can to tell batters which pitch was coming.

The Rockets moved to Houston in 1971 from which city?

San Diego. The Rockets name was chosen there in a fan contest, four years before the team moved, so its perfect fit with the home of Mission Control is pure luck.

Hakeem Olajuwon and 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson formed which nicknamed Rockets front court of the mid-1980s?

The Twin Towers. In 1986 they upset the defending champion Lakers, Sampson sinking an awkward turnaround shot to win the series, before losing the Finals to Boston.

Bud Adams moved the Houston Oilers to which state after the 1996 season?

Tennessee. The team kept the Oilers name for two more seasons, the first of them in Memphis while its Nashville stadium was built, before becoming the Titans in 1999.

Which team did the Houston Texans upset in their first regular-season game, in 2002?

The Dallas Cowboys. No expansion team had won its opening game since 1961, yet the upset of the state's established power was one of only four wins the Texans managed all season.

Houston's Rice Institute opened in 1912 only after what happened to its founder, William Marsh Rice?

He was murdered. His valet killed him in 1900 in a plot with a lawyer who had forged documents to seize the fortune; the scheme unravelled, and the estate went to found the institute.

Which 7-foot-6 centre from Shanghai did the Rockets take first overall in the 2002 NBA draft?

Yao Ming. Chinese basketball officials cleared him to play in America only on the morning of the draft, and he went on to be voted an All-Star eight times in Houston.

Which architect designed the Menil Collection, the free-admission museum in Montrose that opened in 1987?

Renzo Piano. He roofed the museum with curved concrete 'leaves' that sift the fierce Texas sun into soft daylight for the art, and later returned to design the Cy Twombly Gallery beside it.

Which painter's fourteen dark canvases line a chapel in Houston?

Mark Rothko. He never saw them hung: he died in 1970, a year before the chapel that now bears his name opened its doors.

Which Houston-born star was the lead singer of Destiny's Child before launching a solo career?

Beyoncé. Her father quit his job in medical sales to manage the group, a gamble that cost the family its house before the hits arrived.

What was Houston's George Bush airport called when it opened in 1969?

Houston Intercontinental. The old name lives on in the airport's code, IAH; it was renamed in 1997 for George H. W. Bush, the former president who had made the city his home.

Which unexpected attraction sits beneath the glass roof of the Houston Galleria, the largest shopping mall in Texas?

An ice rink. The mall opened in 1970, modelled on Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, and skaters circle year-round under its glass vault whatever the Texas heat outside.

Which two bayous meet at the downtown spot where Houston was founded in 1836?

Buffalo and White Oak. The founders sold the junction as the head of navigation, and in January 1837 the little steamer Laura became the first to reach it, up a bayou choked with branches.

Which Houston park is home to the city's zoo, its natural science museum and the Miller Outdoor Theatre?

Hermann Park. It grew from land given to the city by George Hermann, a cattleman and oilman who had once run a sawmill on the site.

Which pastry, popular across Texas, has a sausage-filled cousin properly called a klobasnek?

Kolache. A true kolache is a sweet bun filled with fruit; the sausage roll that Texans call by the same name was first made by Czechs who had settled in the state.

Houston is home to a Chinatown and which other named ethnic enclave, along Hillcroft Avenue?

The Mahatma Gandhi District. Its Indian restaurants and shops had drawn customers for years before the area was officially given the name in 2010.

Which former police chief became Houston's first African American mayor?

Lee P. Brown. As Houston's police chief in the 1980s he had turned the force towards community policing, sending officers out to build ties with the neighbourhoods they served.

Which 2001 tropical storm dumped nearly 40 inches of rain on Houston and flooded the Texas Medical Center?

Allison. Flooded hospital basements knocked out power and wiped out decades of research, and Allison became the first Atlantic storm to have its name retired without ever growing beyond a tropical storm.

Which Houston venue hosted Super Bowl LI on February 5, 2017?

NRG Stadium. The Patriots trailed Atlanta 28-3 there before winning 34-28, in the first Super Bowl ever to be settled in overtime.

What links 95 blocks of downtown Houston, sparing office workers the summer heat?

Pedestrian tunnels. They run about 20 feet below the streets, lined with shops and restaurants, but they keep office hours: most of the network is shut in the evenings and at weekends.

Which Houston club won the MLS Cup in both 2006 and 2007, its first two seasons in the city?

Dynamo. The team arrived ready-made, as the relocated San Jose Earthquakes squad, and was first named Houston 1836, a name dropped after Mexican-American fans objected to what the year stood for.

In which downtown park does the Heritage Society preserve restored Texas homes built between 1823 and 1905?

Sam Houston Park. Most of its old houses were moved to the park, but the 1847 Kellum-Noble House, the oldest surviving building built in Houston, still stands on its original foundation.

Which Olympic champion gymnast was raised in Spring, a northern suburb of Houston, by the grandparents who adopted her?

Simone Biles. Born in Ohio, she was in foster care when her grandfather stepped in, and she went on to train in Spring itself, at her family's gym, the World Champions Centre.

Which Houston newspaper, long the Chronicle's main rival, closed in 1995?

The Houston Post. It was shut abruptly when its owner sold out to Hearst, the Chronicle's publisher, and its last edition never mentioned the sale; the short-story writer O. Henry had once been on its staff.