August 31 in San Antonio history...

1885
Ten deaths ocurred in the city last week. Four of the dead were elderly citizens. One of the deaths was caused by consumption.

1915
The largest single piece of glass in the South was installed at Joske Bros.

1956
There are eight teen-age gangs operating in the San Antonio area with 30 to 35 members each, Sgt. Leonard Salas of the juvenile bureau said today.

August 30 in San Antonio history...

1885
Judging from the promptness with which officers paralyzed the public houses, it was predicted gambling would soon be one of the lost arts.

1905
The street commissioner had a force of laborers at work on Josephine. When completed, a boulevard was to have been constructed from Government Hill to San Pedro and across Tobin Hill.

1935
San Antonio's first norther of the fall season arrived to the accompaniment of cool northeast winds, and August's high temperatures were driven permanently from the scene.

1966
It took ten police officers to quell a family squabble that erupted into a free-for-all in the 1600 block of McAdoo.

August 29 in San Antonio History...

1887
The horse to be used by Fire Company No. 1, instead of the old one, now decrepit from age, is expected to arrive tomorrow from the old Capote farm near Seguin. The animal will cost $200 and is said to come of good blood.

1915
An unexcelled climate, strategic location, tourist trade and commercial supremacy were listed as reasons why San Antonio was the leading city in Texas. Population was placed at 119,500.

1955
The first Negroes in San Antonio's history to be accepted for classes in public high schools with white students have been enrolled in Edgewood High School.

August 28 in San Antonio history...

1915
A contract for the erection of Robert B. Green Memorial Hospital was awarded to H.N. Jones Construction Co., at an agreed price of $200,092.

1936
The first day of the parking meters appeared to be a success in so far as preventing double parking is concerned. Delivery trucks were pulled flush to the curb while their drivers conducted business.

1947
In a setting of continued city-county discord over operating funds for Robert B. Green Hospital, the county institution closed its emergency room at noon today as an economy measure in compliance with instructions of its board of directors. The maternity ward and nursery were closed yesterday.

1955
San Antonio School Superintendent Thomas Portwood said he was "going ahead with plans" to integrate white and Negro students during the approaching school term

August 27 in San Antonio history...

1905
Police reported that there was not a single occasion to make an arrest in the last 24 hours. With Saturday usually averaging 60 infractions, the officers tabbed this the dullest period in years.

1925
A 15-story skyscraper on Travis, next to the St. Anthony Hotel, and a 350-room addition to the Gunter Hotel, were expected to stimulate the San Antonio building boom.

1935
A flood of mail arrived at the mayor's office protesting the removal of two murals, alleged to depict Communist symbals, from the walls of Municipal Auditorium. The mayor said they would stay down.

1976
Thousands of fans jammed the Convention Center Arena this evening to give enthusiastic reception to "The King", Elvis Presley. This concert was his last appearance in San Antonio.

August 26 in San Antonio history...

1936
Plans for the construction of a memorial stadium were junked today by the Centennial advisory committee and city officials.

1937
Another bit of San Antonio's romantic atmosphere - the portable chili stands on Haymarket Plaza - has vanished before the onslaught of civilization in the form of the city's sanitation law. The matter has been kept under wraps for fear civic organizations would contest the passing of the "chili queens."

1946
San Antonio's traffic situation has been held the worst in the state by a representative of the National Safety Council.

1957
Gang warfare flared last night in west San Antonio. Police arrested 5 adults, turned 11 youths over to juvenile authorities and put two boys in Robert B. Green hospital.

August 25 in San Antonio history...

1915
Five jitney operators, arrested for carrying passengers on the running boards of their cars, cried discrimination because street cars were allowed to operate under crowded conditions.

1935
With Bexar County going wet by a 6-to-1 majority, the largest in the state, Texas voters came out strongly for a constitutional amendment repealing prohibition.

1955
The water table beneath San Antonio had dropped to 625.52 feet above sea level, nearly 4 feet below the 629.23-foot reading of the same time a year earlier.

August 24 in San Antonio history...

1887
The N. Flores Street Car Line has a sage of a driver. He is well informed on almost every subject, polite to ladies and attentive to the babies and can talk politics by the yard to the men.

1906
The startling declaration has been made by a California "dope" fiend that morphine and cocaine can be easily purchased in San Antonio.

1957
A drastic Army economy program today consigned Camp Stanlye ammunition storage installation to mothballs. Camp Stanley, originally known as Camp Funston and located north of Leon Springs was established in 1917 for infantry training.

August 23 in San Antonio history...

1902
J.A. Berry, foreman on the work at the Carnegie Library, celebrated arrival of his first-born son yesterday afternoon. When the quit work whistle blew, Berry assembled the workmen in the main buildings where a copious spread of beer and lunch was served.

1947
San Antonio women as rallying to the colors in the war against long skirts. Armed with an agreement denouncing the new fashion, the women have adopted a battle cry of "The Alamo fell, but our hemlines will not!"

1952
With no rain predicted for the weekend, August is making a serious bid for a record drought. This is the longest August period without a trace of precipitation in 20 years or more, said weatherman Oren Edrington.

August 22 in San Antonio history...

1905
According to records in the office of the city engineer, there were 71 automobiles in San Antonio, representing a value of about $37,200.

1936
Old Bill, the Menger Hotel's star alligator and steadiest boarder for more than 50 years, was killed by another alligator today.

1955
Boy Scouts from Poteet, Hunt, New Braunfels, Ingram, Charlotte, kerrville, Seguin and Kenedy pitched camp on the Alamo Plaza and along the banks of the San Antonio River in honor of Davy Crockett.

August 21 in San Antonio history...

1895
The San Antonio Baseball Association was organized. Stock was issued to the amount of $5,000 and divided in shares of $10 each.

1916
Two motor deputy sheriffs have been assigned to exclusive duty along the south loop after aroused resident threatened to use Winchesters to stop speeding, pistol shooting and other disturbances.

1926
Preliminary stopes in the city's $600,000 flood prevention program were taken yesterday when test holes for the cross-town channel were sunk.

August 20 in San Antonio history...

1915
The city and county commissioners were expected to reject all bids submitted for construction of Robert B. Green Memorial Hospital. The estimates were considered as much as $5,000 too high.
1945
An acute ice shortage struck San Antonio. heavier demand for ice during the heat wave put all ice manufacturing companies on a 24-hour day, but they were still unable to meet the demand.

1956
A record 2.33 inches of rainfall hit San Antonio today, the heaviest rain in five years.

1957
San Antonio's picturesque old Spanish trails seem to be a little too much for the city's new $1 million downtown traffic signal system. Stewart Fischer, city traffic engineer, admitted today that the electronic brain that controls the system was not working as well as he had hoped. He said it would take time to adjust the new system to the city's street patterns.

August 19 in San Antonio history...

1886
A certain dude of this city, mad because his girl went back on him, tried to borrow a razor for suicidal purposes from a friendly barber. When the barber demanded $3 as security, the dude concluded the cost of living was too high even to die.

1897
The building of the new county courthouse was the greatest folly ever engaged in by our county government. To keep up this building - to supply the light and water, janitor and brooms, etc. - costs an immense sum.

1916
The wind reached velocity of 68 miles per hour in San Antonio his morning as a result of the tropical storm which hit the coast.

1947
Local builders today claimed San Antonio needs 10,000 new homes "just to catch up" with present demand. Noting new homes are sold before they are even completed, they said 15,000 suitable sites exist on the north side.

August 18 in San Antonio history...

1885
It was hoped the action of city council in deciding to open up Grayson would be the beginning of a new era in street work.

1913
The promise of rain cheered San Antonians. Showers and heavy rains drenched the surrounding areas.

1916
San Antonio is probably in the path of the West Indian hurricane sweeping in from the Gulf of Mexico and due to strike between Corpus Christi and Brownsville about midnight.

1946
Use of the San Antonio River as a water highway to the gulf complete with locks, docks, etc. has become a possibility of the not too distant future following agreement of the war department to conduct a survey.

August 17 in San Antonio history...

1887
A farmer from near Graytown brought in a 10-foot live alligator this morning and after exhibiting it at the campyard sold it to Col. Kerble at the springs. He dug it up out of the bottom of a dried up lake near Graytown.

1896
In opening a trench for sewers on W. Houston, workmen today unearthed a quantity of human bodies and skulls.

1906
For the first since 1892 the fountain on the east side of the courthouse is being cleaned.

1957
A motorcycle patrolman was struck and critically injured by a hit-and-run accident early this morning. Police followed a trail of water from a leaky radiator from the accident scene at 1600 S. Laredo to a nearby abandoned automobile. They later arrested the owner of the car.

August 16 in San Antonio history...

1894
Men's knit undershirts were advertised at Joske's at ten cents each.

1907
The latest fad to be introduced in San Antonio is the pillow case covered with scenes of San Antonio. The strange part about the fad is that it did not originate here but in Colorado Springs.

1916
An expert in industrial education has asserted that San Antonio's schools rank high among the nation's in facilities for manual training.

1947
A complete change in the administration and personnel of Robert B. Green hospital was recommended today by a seven-doctor committee from the Bexar County Medical Association. The group said the decline of the hospital from one of the best to an unaccredited status is due to neglect, indifference and incompetence.

August 15 in San Antonio history...

1896
The Light is in favor of making Labor Day next month in San Antonio a general holiday.

1915
Maj. Gen. Funston asked the War Department to send a battery of artillery and an airplane to support the troops fighting Mexicans at Brownsville.

1926
Although skirts will remain at the ordinary length, potatoes, butter and other starches will be fashionable with a let-up in the flat contours coming on.

1945
Burglars ransacked houses and apartments left vacant by V-J celebrants. A total of $425 in cash and numerous articles were reported missing.

August 14 in San Antonio history...

1902
The tower of the San Antonio Female College at West End is being removed. Another will be put in its place but of a different style.

1926
With the $1,000,000 Olmos Dam project nearing completion, plans are being made for a $600,000 cut-off channel between Houston and Commerce.

1952
Gov. and Mrs. Shivers were expected at the St. Anthony Hotel this afternoon. Mrs. Shivers, an expectant mother, will enter the Baptist Memorial Hospital.

August 13 in San Antonio history...

1887
Citizens are being disturbed by the far too frequent whistling of locomotives. An engineer always looks as though he were taking gymnastic lessons while going through the suburbs, he has to reach up and pull the whistle cord so often.

1937
Mary, a 26-year-old spider monkey known to thousands of San Antonians, died in the Brackenridge Park zoo hospital this morning. She was the first animal to be placed in the zoo and the first spider monkey born in the U.S.

1957
Another bomb scare was attempted today by a youth estimated to be no older than 13. The boy called police and told them there was a bomb at the northside "Spears" store, apparently meaning the Sears Roebuck Store at Romana Plaza. Police found no bomb.

August 12 in San Antonio history...

1915
Police cars were equipped with sirens similar to those used by the fire department. They were to be used only while the cars were responding to emergency calls.

1925
Barber shop proprietors reported the shingle bob, both long and short, was the most popular hair style among San Antonio women.

1932
The San Antonio postoffice band has accepted an invitation to entertain and be entertained at the Kendall County Fair. Postmaster P.G. Lucas has announced. John L. Meyer, director of the band, will be in charge.

1955
The nation's first jet light aircraft landed at San Antonio. The craft was a 4-place, twin-jet Beechcraft. Its pilot, Allen Raines, called it a "sweet aircraft."

August 11 in San Antonio history...

1896
The rooms and cells of the county jail are reported to be cool and well-ventilated during the present siege of hot weather.

1906
The school board as ruled that starting this fall the high school course will be lengthened from three to four years. The additional time is considered necessary to master the difficult courses.

1923
Station Officer Levi Stowe reported to headquarters that a cross, 16 feet high and with a cross arm of 10 feet, was burned at the foot of Fairview Avenue, four blocks east of S. Presa.

1953
Kelly's gigantic C-99, heretofore known as the XC-99 will open a new area in its historic flights Wednesday when it take off on its first intercontinental flight for Europe.

August 10 in San Antonio history...

1886
A new drink, called the "Moxie" is being served in great quantity in Galveston.

1896
Two men raced the San Antonio and Aransas Pass passenger train a half-mile yesterday on their bicycles and beat the train by several wheel lengths. The train was flying along at 35 miles per hour.

1926
The vigorous prosecution of motorists with glaring headlights and a new law requiring every motorist to make a bond, loomed today as the outgrowth of Bexar County's war on violators of the Texas Anti-glare headlights war.

1946
A critical ice shortage is in store for San Antonio as the city swelters under one of its worst heat waves in years. An unprecedented demand is given as the chief reason for the shortage.

August 9 in San Antonio history...

1887
You can pass by a little saloon on Main Plaza, and lots of ladies pass by there every day, and can hear a crowd of women in the back room playing cards and laughing loudly. As a church is nearby it would seem it could wield some influence within this small radius.

1895
The Light claimed the pavement of the streets of this city would do more to aid civic advancement than all other city work that was then in hand.

1945
Amid reports of a second atomic bomb being dropped on Nagasaki, Russia declared war on Japan and immediately sent troops across the eastern and western borders of Manchuria.

1946
A new telephone exchange designated "Circle" will provide 1,000 additional telephones in San Antonio's business district, Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. officials announced today.

August 8 in San Antonio history...

1895
A home costing $1,000 could be paid for in full in eight and one-half years at the rate of 45 cents per day. This would pay principal and interest.

1896
The police have been very active the past week in raiding the houses of women of ill fame, who have been found in the different residence portions of the several wards.

1925
A still capable of manufacturing 100 gallons of whisky each run, and reputed to be the largest ever operated in this region, was uncovered by prohibition agents at a ranch off Babcock road.

1956
A man who threatened to blow up the Bexar County National Bank with nitroglycerine escaped with $2,000 in a daring daylight holdup today.

August 7 in San Antonio history...

1894
San Antonians went to the polls and voted roughly3-to-1 to finance an up-to-date sewer system for the city through a bond issue.

1905
It was claimed new gas heaters would provide home dwellers with 33 hot baths a day for only $1.

1914
High water and heavy mud on the street car tracks following heavy San Antonio rains caused the deraillment of at least six cars.

1945
The terrible new atomic bomb led military observers to forecast a fresh Allied surrender ultimatum to Japan with the likelihood it might be accepted.

1955
Ten respirators [iron lungs] including one standby, were in use in San Antonio after an upswing in polio cases.

August 6 in San Antonio history...

1914
Two juveniles confessed to Probation Officer J. Ross Boles a plot to lure him to an abandoned shack where he would be dropped into a trap, triggering a fatal shotgun blast. Investigating, Boles found the shack and rigged shotgun just as the youths described them.

1915
Work started on the paving of Market between S. Alamo and Main Plaza. The old rock asphalt was being dug up and a foundation readied to receive wood blocks.

1944
The first rain in more than a month fell on San Antonio, dropping temperatures from 96 at 5 p.m. to 78 an hour later.

1955
A report that a cache of gold was buried in San Antonio failed to touch off a treasure hunt. The report was made in California by Miss Delores Vasquez, 67. She told reporters she learned of the gold when she was a nurse in Pancho Villa's army.

August 5 in San Antonio history...

1894
City Engineer Pancoast said a proposed sewerage system would be installed first in San Antonio Wards 1 and 2, where mortality due to poor sanitation was said to be highest.

1896
The Alamo souvenir booth has been closed for the summer months, as the keep says the times are too hard for people to buy patriotic emblems, etc.

1914
Rains breaking a drought of more than two months fell in the San Antonio area.

1966
Five unidentified flying objects, UFOs, were reported last night over the Alamo Heights area. A resident claimed that five separate aircraft of amber color appeared, going north to south.

August 4 in San Antonio history...

1886
The heat during the past few days has been intense and many citizens have been overcome by it. Care in exposure and drinking is necessary to avoid danger.

1895
Moonlight drives to the Southwestern Insane Asylum were becoming quite popular.

1916
City detectives last night caught a soldier selling morphine tablets at $1 each to flocks of drug fiends. Detectives theorized that a few more arrests would wipe out the drug traffic in the city.

1954
A test case on swimming pool segregation involving three local Negroes barred from Roosevelt swimming pool appears to be shaping up in San Antonio.

August 3 in San Antonio history...

1916
Gen. Funston has announced the appointment of a board of militia officers to investigate current newspaper stories regarding the "poor" performance of the Illinois Brigade on its recent march to Leon Springs.

1944
Maj. Thomas McGuire of San Antonio became the top ace of the Southwest Pacific after bagging his 21st enemy plane.

1954
State Highway Department officials have announced that construction of the oft-delayed Commerce St. overpass will begin as soon as the city buys the right-of-way for the project.

August 2 in San Antonio history...

1887
If that resident on San Pedro does not look out and put on some more clothing when he sits on his front gallery in the evening, he will be exposed through the courts.

1917
Of the 37 San Antonio men given their physical examinations for the draft so far, only 17 have qualified for the service. Of these, at least ten will probably seek to be exempted for dependency reasons.

1957
An 18 year-old San Antonio youth surprised police by calling the local FBI office and confessing to the June 19 murder of a tourist in Las Vegas. The youth said that he had been unable to sleep or eat since the slaying.

August 1 in San Antonio history...

1904
A German gardener was discovered hanging by his neck in the rear of a San Antonio saloon. After being cut down, he regained consciousness, was arrested and fined $5 for being drunk and disorderly.

1911
Scores of San Antonians felt much relieved when they awoke this morning to discover the city was not in flames. The prediction, made two months ago, that San Antonio would be destroyed by fire between July 19 and August 1 of this year, failed to materialize.

1931
The San Antonio public library's oldest book, it is reported, is a parchment bound story of Constantinople printed in Latin in 1632.