CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Now, that's going to be a lot of candles.
The City of Corpus Christi is celebrating its 170th birthday with a special event at 11 a.m. Thursday at City Hall. This marks the first celebration of the City's birthday since 2002.
The celebration will include a proclamation, a historical timeline display, a performance by Los Mariachis Corpus Christi, and special annotations from the Mayor, City Manager, and Coastal Bend Historian Mary Jo O'Rear.
For those who cannot attend the event in person, a livestream of the birthday party will be available on the City's official Facebook and YouTube channel.
Since its promotion from frontier trading post to full-blown city in 1852, Corpus Christi has grown to be known for far more than sparkling by the bay. Along with being Texas' largest coastal city, Corpus Christi also claims the title of the nation's sixth largest port.
Corpus Christi's size isn't the only thing that makes it unique. Check out some fun historical facts below.
Did you know?
- The Bayfront Seawall was constructed in 1928 by Gutzon Borglum, who later became famous for carving Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The Seawall was also featured in the 1997 Selena movie as the place where young Selena Quintanilla learned to do her iconic "washing machine" dance!
- Corpus Christi has three sister cities across the world: Agen, France; Keelung, Taiwan; and Yokosuka, Japan.
- The Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi is the largest aquarium in Texas, and among the largest in the United States.
- Corpus Christi is not only the hometown of the Whataburger franchise, it's also home to Whataburger by the Bay, the world's first and only two-story Whataburger restaurant.
- The Laguna Madre is one of only six hypersaline lagoons in the world, and one of the deepest among them.
- Hip-hop boy band BROCKHAMPTON is named after the childhood home the group's founder Kevin Abstract, who lived on Brockhampton Street in Corpus Christi.
- The Corpus Christi area was first inhabited by the Karankawa people, whose descendants remain active advocates for environmental awareness and indigenous peoples' rights.
- Corpus Christi has been known as the "Birdiest City in America" for over 10 years, and hosts an annual birdwatching festival every April called The Birdiest Festival.
- Legend says that Corpus Christi and Corpus Christi Bay are named after the Roman Catholic Feast Day of Corpus Christi, which was also the day they were discovered by Spanish conquistador Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda.
- The South Texas Music Walk of Fame is located in downtown Corpus Christi, and honors South Texas musicians.
- Corpus Christi was the first major city in the United States to offer city-wide free wi-fi. This was an attempt to allow remote meter-reading after a meter reader was attacked by a dog.