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Houston

City in Texas, United StatesHouston spreads across Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It grew up along Buffalo Bayou, a waterway that flows east through downtown and widens into the Houston Ship Channel.

What it's known for

Houston is a major centre of the oil and gas industry, and many energy companies have their headquarters in the area. NASA's Johnson Space Center, home of Mission Control, gives it the nickname 'Space City', and the Port of Houston, opened as a deep-water port in 1914, links it by ship channel to the Gulf.

Fun facts

  1. The city is named after Sam Houston, who won Texas's independence from Mexico at the Battle of San Jacinto and was president of the Republic of Texas.
  2. Houston was briefly the capital of the Republic of Texas in the late 1830s, until the capital moved to Austin in 1839.
  3. In 1969, just after landing on the Moon, Neil Armstrong radioed Mission Control with the words 'Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.'

Finding it on the globe

Follow the Texas coast from Mexico northeast toward Louisiana. Houston is just inland, a short way northwest of Galveston Bay.

Easy to mix up

Houston is the biggest city in Texas, but the state capital is Austin, about 270 km to the west.

Sources: Wikipedia: Houston, Wikipedia: Buffalo Bayou, Wikipedia: Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center, Wikipedia: Apollo 11