The town of Houston was founded in 1836 by brothers John and Augustus Allen, a couple of real estate promoters from New York. Named for Sam Houston, hero of the Battle of San Jacinto and the first elected president of the Republic of Texas, the town was incorporated in 1837. That same year, it became the seat of Harrisburg County (later renamed to Harris County) and the temporary capital of the new Republic of Texas.

Houston's earliest industry was cotton, which led to the city's emergence as a commercial and railroad hub by 1860. The discovery of oil at Spindletop in 1901 marked the birth of the petroleum industry in the region, and the opening of the Port of Houston in 1914 started the city down the path of international commerce. Aerospace has been a major industry in Houston since 1961, with the opening of NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, and has since earned the nickname "Space City." Today, Houston is a thriving metropolis of commerce, second only to New York City in Fortune 500 headquarters. Houston also serves as the seat of the Texas Medical Center, the largest concentration of health care and research facilities in the world.