Houston was founded on August 30, 1836, after Texas became independent from Mexico, by brothers Augustus C. and John K. Allen and named in honor of General Sam Houston, who had just defeated the Mexican Army at San Jacinto. The coming of the railroad boosted the economy, but it was the 1901 discovery of oil at nearby Spindletop that made Houston’s fortune. NASA's Mission Control Center opened a few miles from Houston in 1963, and six years later the city's name became the first word ever spoken by a human being on the surface of the moon. Houston Then and Now matches historic images of the early city with modern photographs that show the city as it is today—the fourth largest city in the US with a mass of high-rises, malls, and parks.
