Timeline: 1941 -1990

• “Pappy” O’Daniel invites all Texans to a barbecue at the Mansion after his inauguration at U. T.’s Memorial
• Stadium Gov. O’Daniel broadcasts his Sunday morning radio program from the Mansion.
  
• Germany invades Poland on Sept. 1, 1939; Britain and France declare war on Germany.
  
• Publication of Ernest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls.
  
• Winston Churchill becomes the British Prime Minister in 1940.
  
• Release of the movie Citizen Kane starring Orson Welles.
  
• “Deep in the Heart of Texas” becomes a popular song in the U.S.

Governor: W. Lee O’Daniel

• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
  
• Texas First Lady Fay Stevenson dies in the Mansion on Jan. 3, 1942
  
• Start of the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb.
  
• The play Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder wins the Pulitzer Prize.
  
• The D-Day invasion of France by the Allies takes place on June 6, 1944.
  
• Harry S Truman becomes President of the U.S. upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
  
• The war in Europe ends on May 8, 1945 and Japan surrenders on August 14, 1945.
  
• Juan Perón becomes president of Argentina.
  
• Publication of Robert Penn Warren’s novel, All the King’s Men.
  
• Marriage of Princess Elizabeth of England to Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh.

Governor: Coke R. Stevenson

• Invention of the transistor at Bell Labs.
  
• Assassination of Gandhi.
  
• Establishment of Israel.
  
• Opening of the musical South Pacific by Rogers & Hammerstein.
  
• The People’s Republic of China prevails on the mainland, led by Mao Tse-tung.
  
• Gov. Jester dies of a heart attack while traveling, the only governor to die in office.

Governor: Beauford H. Jester

• Central heating and air conditioning first installed in the Mansion.
  
• The Mansion gets its first TV in 1954.
  
• The Korean War begins.
  
• Dwight D. Eisenhauer becomes the 34th President of the U.S.
  
• Publication of J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye.
  
• The 1950 census gives the U.S. population as 150,697,999.
  
• Publication of Dylan Thomas’ Collected Poems.
  
• Maureen Connolly wins the four women’s tournaments in the tennis Grand Slam.
  
• Crowning of Queen Elizabeth II in Great Britain.
  
• Publication of Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy, winner of Pulitzer Prize.

Governor: Allan Shivers

• The Governor’s Mansion receives Austin’s first Texas Historical Landmark medallion.
  
• Texan Van Cliburn wins the Tchaikovsky piano competition in Moscow.
  
• Albert Camus wins the Nobel Prize for literature.
  
• Arnold Palmer wins his first Masters golf tournament.
  
• In Cuba, Fidel Castro becomes the Cuban premier.
  
• Publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Harper Lee.
  
• John F. Kennedy becomes the 35th President of the U.S.
  
• Construction of the Berlin Wall.
  
• John Steinbeck wins the Nobel Prize for literature.
  
• Death of Marilyn Monroe.
  
• Dr. Michael DeBakey of Houston first uses an artificial heart to sustain a patient during surgery.

Governor: Price Daniel

• President John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
  
• Governor Connally wounded during the assassination of Kennedy.
  
• New York debuts of the musicals Hello Dolly and Fiddler on the Roof.
  
• Martin Luther King wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
  
• Lyndon Baines Johnson wins election as 36th President of the U. S.
  
• Hit movies include The Sound of Music and Dr. Zhivago.
  
• Indira Gandhi becomes Prime Minister of India.
  
• Soviet spacecraft lands on the moon.
  
• Six Day War between Arab countries and Israel in 1967.
  
• Assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy.
  
• Woodstock music festival takes place in New York state.

Governor: John B. Connally

• Neil Armstrong, U.S. astronaut from the Apollo 11 mission, walks on the moon on July 4, 1969.
  
• The National Guard kills four people during student anti-war protests at Kent State in Ohio.
  
• Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th U.S. President.
  
• Salvador Allende wins election to presidency of Chile.
  
• Opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
  
• The Watergate Affair begins with the arrest of five men in Democratic National Headquarters.
  
• The Dallas Cowboys win the 1972 Super Bowl.
  
• U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns and is replaced by Gerald R. Ford.
  
• Secretariat wins the Triple Crown of horse racing.

Governor: Preston Smith

• Cease fire agreement signed by the U.S., Vietnamese governments and the Vietcong.
  
• An energy crisis in the U.S. and other countries results from the Arab oil embargo.
  
• Richard Nixon resigns the presidency and is succeeded by Vice President Gerald R. Ford.
  
• U.S. evacuates South Vietnam as the country falls to the communists.
  
• United States celebrates its bicentennial in 1976.
  
• Jimmy Carter becomes the 39th U.S. President.
  
• Publication of Roots by Alex Haley.
  
• Visit to Israel by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt.
  
• Death of Elvis Presley.
  
• Pope John Paul II becomes the first Polish-born Pope.

Governor: Dolph Briscoe, Jr.

• The Governor’s Mansion undergoes structural restoration and interior redecoration.
  
• Mid-east peace treaty agreement between Israel, Egypt and the U.S. at Camp David.
  
• Shah of Iran goes into exile; hostages taken in the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
  
• Ronald Reagan becomes the 40th President of the U.S.
  
• Seachers find the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic.
  
• Native Texan Sissy Spacek wins Academy Award as best actress for Coal Miner’s Daughter.
  
• The refurbished Mansion is re-opened to the public on April 1, 1982.
  
• Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space on the Challenger space shuttle.

Governor: William P. Clements, Jr.

• Britain’s Prince Charles visits the Governor’s Mansion during the Texas Sesquicentennial.
  
• Lech Walesa of Poland wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
  
• Terms of Endearment, based on the novel by Texan Larry McMurtry, becomes a hit film.
  
• Introduction of the Apple Macintosh computer.
  
• U. S. athlete Carl Lewis wins four gold medals at the Olympic Games.
  
• Sally Field wins Academy Award for best actress for Places in the Heart, a film set in Texas.
  
• Corazon Aquino becomes president of the Philippines.
  
• Elie Wiesel of the U.S. wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
  
• Vincent van Gogh’s painting, Irises, sells at auction for $49 million.

Governor: Mark Wells White