Texas Perks and Quirks: Part II
Posted: 09.23.2011 at 2:27 PM
Updated: 09.25.2011 at 7:00 AM
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TEXAS -- Strictly for entertainment, here is Part II of Texas Perks and Quirks: laws, history and people that will make you scratch your head, drop your jaw and applaud your Texas heritage!

*Early Spanish missionaries touring Texas gave flannel underwear to Native Americans to gain their trust.

*Wichita Falls experienced the most powerful tornado to touch down in US history.  On April 2, 1958, the tornado wind speed was clocked at 258 mph.

*Sam Houston is the only person in Texas history to have been the governor of two states, Texas and Tennessee.

*Texas legend says a UFO aircraft reportedly crashed in Aurora in 1897 after flying into a windmill.  It is said the alien pilot was buried with "Christian rights" in the Aurora Cemetery,  where the incident is documented by a Texas Historical Commission marker.

*The world's second-longest burning light bulb can be found at the Fort Worth Stockyards Museum.  Originally installed in 1908, the light bulb brightened the Byers Opera House, which later became the Palace Theater.

*Texas native Audie Murphy was the most decorated soldier in World War II.  He earned more than 30 medals, including the Congressional Medal of Honor.  The only grave at Arlington National Cemetery that is visited more than Murphy's is the grave of President John F. Kennedy.

*San Antonio native Carol Burnett received flowers on her 56th birthday from Lucille Ball.  Burnett later learned that Ball died earlier that day.

*The smallest state park in Texas measures 0.01 acre.  Acton State Historical Park is the small burial plot of Davy Crockett's second wife, Elizabeth.

*The Texas State Mammal, the Nine-banded Armadillo, always gives birth to identical quadruplets.

*In January of 2008, Christopher McCuin of Tyler called 911 to report he had killed his girlfriend.  Police arrived at his house to find him preparing to eat her ear.

*Prison staff in Austin once found a cell phone hidden in an inmate's rectum.

*Mason County's re-offense rate dropped by 70 percent after Sheriff Clint Low painted the jail cells pink and instituted pink jumpsuits and pink sheets.

*Texas politicians cannot be kept from office because of their beliefs, but they do have to acknowledge a higher power.

*A Houston law states beer may not be purchased after midnight on Sunday, but it may be purchased on Monday.

*Because of the Constitution of 1845, Texas still holds the right to divide into four states in the future.