The Houston Portal

Houston (pronounced /'hjuːstən/) is the largest city in the state of Texas and the fourth-largest in the United States of America. As of the 2006 U.S. Census estimate, the city has a population of 2.14 million within an area of 600 square miles (1,600 km²). Houston is the seat of Harris County and an economic center of the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area—the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. with a population of more than 5.5 million.

Houston was founded on August 30, 1836 by brothers Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen on land near the banks of Buffalo Bayou. The city was incorporated on June 5, 1837 and named after then-President of the Republic of Texas—former General Sam Houston—who had commanded at the Battle of San Jacinto, which took place 25 miles (40 km) east of where the city was established. The burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the city's population. In the mid-twentieth century, Houston became the home of the Texas Medical Center—the world's largest concentration of healthcare and research institutions—and NASA's Johnson Space Center, where Mission Control Center is located.

Houston's economy has a broad industrial base in the energy, manufacturing, aeronautics, and technology; only New York City is home to more Fortune 500 headquarters. The area is a leading center for building oilfield equipment. The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled and second in total cargo tonnage handled. The city has a multicultural population with a large and growing international community. As a world city, it is home to many cultural institutions and exhibits—attracting more than 7 million visitors a year to the Houston Museum District. Houston has an active visual and performing arts scene in the Theater District and is one of five U.S. cities that offer year-round resident companies in all major performing arts.

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The Shamrock was a hotel constructed between 1946 and 1949 by wildcatter Glenn McCarthy southwest of downtown Houston, Texas next to the Texas Medical Center. It was the largest hotel built in the United States during the 1940s. The grand opening of the Shamrock is still cited as one of the biggest social events ever held in Houston. Sold to Hilton Hotels in 1955 and operated for over three decades as the Shamrock Hilton, the facility endured financial struggles throughout its history. In 1985, Hilton Hotels donated the building to the Texas Medical Center and the structure was demolished on 1 June 1987. The hotel opened with fireworks displays on St. Patrick’s Day 1949. Two thousand Houstonians paid $42 a person to have dinner at what was widely publicized as “Houston’s biggest party" which cost an estimated one million dollars. The party was attended by over 150 Hollywood celebrities including Ginger Rogers, Hedda Hopper, Robert Preston and Errol Flynn along with noted Los Angeles business executives and reporters, some of whom were flown in to Houston Municipal Airport on a customized Boeing 307 Stratoliner airplane which McCarthy had bought only days earlier from Howard Hughes

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Jennifer Anne Garner (born April 17, 1972) is an Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe- and SAG Award-winning American actress. She is best known for her role as CIA agent Sydney Bristow on TV's Alias. In December 2007, Garner was named The Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail's 2007 West Virginian of the Year "for her dedication, work ethic and unique role as role model and ambassador for West Virginia".

Garner was born in Houston, Texas, the daughter of Patricia Ann (née English), an English teacher from Oklahoma, and Billy Jack Garner, a chemical engineer who worked for Union Carbide from Texas. She is the middle child between two sisters, Melissa Garner Wylie (born 1969, resides in Boston, Massachusetts) and Susannah Kay Garner Carpenter (born January 24, 1975 in Texas, resides in Charleston, West Virginia). Her family is Methodist. At three years old, Garner began taking ballet lessons which she continued throughout her youth. Although she admitted that she loved dancing, she never had ambitions to become a classical ballerina. When she was four years old, her father's job with Union Carbide relocated her family to Princeton, West Virginia, then to Charleston, West Virginia, where Garner resided until her college years.

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The Baytown Nature Center is located in Baytown, Texas, 20 miles east of Houston. It is located on a 450-acre peninsula along the Houston Ship Channel and surrounded on three sides by Burnet Bay, Crystal Bay, and Scott Bay. The Baytown Nature Center is both a recreation area and a wildlife sanctuary that is home to hundreds of bird species, mammals, reptiles, and aquatic species. The City of Baytown created this Nature Center 10 years ago. The SWA Group’s Houston office provided carried out land planning and landscape architectural services.

The Baytown Nature Center was, in the 1940s and 1950s, a highly desirable residential neighborhood known as Brownwood with nearly 400 substantial homes on a 500-acre peninsula. In 1961, Hurricane Carla devastated the Texas Gulf Coast, flooding Brownwood and ending any new development in the area. Afterwards, subsidence became a serious problem as oil and chemical facilities along the Houston Ship Channel pumped out groundwater faster than natural forces could replenish the water table. Thus, during the 1970s and 1980s, much of the Texan Gulf Coast (including Brownwood) sank a total of 10 to 15 feet. Brownwood, which had previously been high and dry, was repeatedly inundated by high tides and storms.

Did you know...

• ...that the Houston Volunteers signed up to replace those lost aboard USS Houston after its sinking in 1942 by the Japanese Navy?

• ...the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Johnson Space Center is where the first astronauts returning from the moon were quarantined and where samples of lunar soil and moon rock are stored?

• ...many buildings in downtown are linked by a system of tunnels and skywalks. The tunnel system also includes shops, restaurants, and convenience stores?

• ...in 2001, Tropical Storm Allison dumped up to 39 inches of rain on parts of the city, causing billions of dollars in damage and killing 43 people. To date, the flooding caused by Allison was the worst in the city's history?

• ...University of Houston is ranked second among national universities for Campus Ethnic Diversity in U.S. News & World Report 2007 America's Best Colleges?

• ... construction of the 610 Loop began in 1950? The loop was completed in 1976 with the interchange that connects Loop 610 to Interstate 10 east of Houston?

• ... Howard Hughes died en route to the The Methodist Hospital on April 5, 1976 on an airplane that departed Mexico?

• ... Kathryn J. Whitmire former Mayor of the city of Houston, Texas, from 1982 to 1991, is now living in Hawaii where she is in the real estate business?

• ... the Houston Comets have won more championships than any other team in the WNBA?

• ... Lakewood Church is the largest and fastest growing church in the United States with more than 40,000 attendees during its services?

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• Houston, Texas
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• Yao Ming
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• Galveston, Texas
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• Gulfton, Houston
• Vengeance: Night of Champions
• Enron scandal
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• George H. W. Bush
• Shamrock Hotel
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You are invited to participate in WikiProject Houston, a project dedicated to developing and improving articles about the Greater Houston area.

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You are invited to participate in WikiProject University of Houston, a WikiProject intended to improve contributions relating to the University of Houston.

Houston news

• Houston Red Light Camera Report undermines Texas Department of Transportation camera study. The study finds accidents doubled at the city's red light camera intersections undermining the conclusions of a statewide report. [1]
• California musician is fighting in federal court for the right to dig for treasure he believes is buried along the Texas Gulf Coast with the help of satellite imagery of Google Earth and a metal detector.[2]
• Texas Lottery ticket revenues plummeted by $45.1 million since last fiscal year, a sales plunge that state officials attribute to Hurricane Ike and the recession. The hurricane season wiped out lucrative sales across Houston and Galveston, a region that accounts for one-fourth of state lottery retailers.[3]
• Houston company plans to help light up the Big Apple with a project to build high-voltage transmission lines under the Hudson River. Cavallo Energy will begin raising $600 million for the 700-megawatt project in the next few weeks with the help of Credit Suisse. [4]

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