1. The Texas Declaration of Independence was signed on September 2, 1836, officially separating Texas from Mexico and establishing the Republic of Texas as an independent nation.

2. President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Texas on September 2, 1934, to dedicate the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, which was established by the federal government as part of the New Deal program.

3. The deadliest natural disaster in United States history, the Great Galveston Hurricane, made landfall on September 2, 1900, killing an estimated 8,000 people and causing widespread devastation in the coastal city of Galveston, Texas.

4. On September 2, 1963, Dallas resident Vivian Malone became the first African American student to enroll at the University of Alabama, following a standoff between Governor George Wallace and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy over the desegregation of public schools.

5. The Texas Rangers, one of the oldest law enforcement agencies in the United States, were first established as a volunteer militia on September 2, 1823, to protect against Indian raids along the Texas frontier. The modern Texas Rangers continue to serve as a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety.