Short answers, pulled from the story.
Texas was admitted to the United States on the 29th of December 1845, as the 28th state, following the election of President James K. Polk in 1844. Texas had first applied for annexation in 1836 but was initially refused because of its status as a slaveholding republic.
The name Texas derives from the Caddo word meaning 'friend.' Spanish colonizers applied it specifically to the Hasinai Confederacy, a Caddo people, and it later became the name for the entire territory. The Royal Spanish Academy recognizes both spellings, Tejas and Texas, as Spanish-language forms.
The first major oil well in Texas was struck on the 10th of January 1901, at Spindletop, south of Beaumont. The resulting oil boom transformed the state's economy and oil production later peaked at an average of three million barrels per day in 1972.
The 1900 Galveston hurricane is the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history, killing an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 people. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey struck Texas as a Category 4 hurricane and ultimately became the costliest hurricane worldwide, causing an estimated $198.6 billion in damage.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated Texas's population at 31,290,831 as of the 1st of July 2024, a 7.4 percent increase since the 2020 census. Texas is the second-most populous U.S. state after California and the only other state to surpass a total estimated population of 30 million people.
Energy, agriculture, technology, and aerospace are among Texas's leading industries. The state holds about 44 percent of known U.S. crude oil reserves, leads the nation in wind power production, and had a gross state product of $2.904 trillion in 2025. Texas has also led the U.S. in state export revenue since 2002 and hosts 52 Fortune 500 company headquarters as of 2024.