The Old Spaghetti Factory

The Harris County Courthouse in Houston in 1913 Languages Ezekiel W Cullen Building at the University of Houston. 7.3 Blues Nacogdoches (32,996) On the morning of January 10 1901 Anthony F Lucas an experienced mining engineer drilled the first major oil well at Spindletop a small hill south of Beaumont Texas the East Texas Oil Field discovered on October 5 1930 is located in east central part of the state and is the largest and most prolific oil reservoir in the contiguous United States Other oil fields were later discovered in West Texas and under the Gulf of Mexico the resulting Texas Oil Boom permanently transformed the economy of Texas and led to its most significant economic expansion after the Civil War, Afonso de Albuquerque set sail in April 1511 from Goa to Malacca with a force of 1,200 men and seventeen or eighteen ships. Following his capture of the city on 24 August 1511 it became a strategic base for Portuguese expansion in the East Indies; consequently the Portuguese were obliged to build a fort they named a Famosa to defend it That same year the Portuguese desiring a commercial alliance sent an ambassador Duarte Fernandes to the kingdom of Ayudhya where he was well received by king Ramathibodi II in 1526 a large force of Portuguese ships under the command of Pedro Mascarenhas was sent to conquer Bintan where Sultan Mahmud was based Earlier expeditions by Diogo Dias and Afonso de Albuquerque had explored that part of the Indian Ocean and discovered several islands new to Europeans Mascarenhas served as Captain-Major of the Portuguese colony of Malacca from 1525 to 1526 and as viceroy of Goa capital of the Portuguese possessions in Asia from 1554 until his death in 1555 He was succeeded by Francisco Barreto who served with the title of "governor-general", Greater Houston's freeway system is monitored by Houston TranStar a partnership of four government agencies which is responsible for providing transportation and emergency management services to the region. Most of the region consists of the Piney Woods ecoregion and East Texas can sometimes be reduced to include only the Piney Woods. At the fringes towards Central Texas the forests expand outward toward sparser trees and eventually into open plains.

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