HOUSTON

Houston became a city on June 5, 1837. It was named after Sam Houston who was the President of the Republic of Texas at the time. Texas was then newly liberated from Mexico, and was yet to become a state in 1845. The city owed much of its initial growth to the booming railroad industry, but the discovery of oil in 1901 sped up the city’s progress. Eventually, Houston would become the home of NASA's Johnson Space Center where the Mission Control Center is located. It is also the site of the Texas Medical Center which contains the largest number of first-rate healthcare and research institutions in the world.

The city is second only to New York City as home to the largest number of Fortune 500 companies. Its economy is supported by important industries including energy, aeronautics, transportation, and manufacturing. The Port of Houston is the busiest port in the U.S. in terms of volume of foreign cargo (tonnage) handled, and the second busiest in terms of overall tonnage. More importantly, Houston is known worldwide for its thriving energy industry, especially for oil and natural gas. The city is also a center for research on renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.