Introduction
Houston (/ˈhjuːstən/ (listen) HEW-stən) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the fourth most populous city in the United States, with a census-estimated population of 2.312 million in 2017. It is the most populous city in the Southern United States and on the Gulf Coast of the United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the seat of Harris County and the principal city of the Greater Houston metropolitan area, which is the fifth most populous metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States and the second most populous in Texas after the Dallas-Fort Worth MSA. With a total area of 627 square miles (1,620 km2), Houston is the eighth most expansive city in the United States (including consolidated city-counties). It is the largest city in the United States by total area, whose government is similarly not consolidated with that of a county or borough. Though primarily in Harris County, small portions of the city extend into Fort Bend and Montgomery counties.
Houston was founded by land speculators on August 30, 1836, at the confluence of Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou (a point now known as Allen's Landing) and incorporated as a city on June 5, 1837. The city is named after former General Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas and had won Texas' independence from Mexico at the Battle of San Jacinto 25 miles (40 km) east of Allen's Landing. After briefly serving as the capital of the Texas Republic in the late 1830s, Houston grew steadily into a regional trading center for the remainder of the 19th century.
Selected general articles
Did you know...
- ... that the purpose of the statue Spirit of the Confederacy in Houston, Texas, unveiled on Robert E. Lee's birthday in 1908, has been questioned since the 2015 Charleston church shooting and the 2017 Unite the Right rally?
- ... that Governor-elect of Tamaulipas, Mexico, Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca was born in McAllen, Texas, and played soccer at Houston Baptist University?
- ... that the Westboro Baptist Church called Houston's Montrose Center "an oozing, purulent sore of sodomite contagion?"
- ... that former Houston Astros pitcher Mike Grzanich bought his own uniform in an internet sale?
- ... that during her 2016 concert, Siti Nurhaliza performed "Memories", a tribute duet with vocals by Whitney Houston which had been recorded when she was 19?
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