Alec O'Brien ⚾️

Believer, Husband, Father, Consultant

[Alec O'Brien ⚾️ @alecobrien]

I was baptized today!

Colossians 2:12 ESV
… having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

[Texas Baseball @TexasBaseball]

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT OMAHA 🤘

#HookEm

[Austin-Bergstrom International Airport @AustinAirport]

Drum roll, please! 🥁

We are thrilled to share the first announced new concession for our expansion! We will be recreating a perfect scale replica of Chili's located at 4420 N. Lamar Boulevard.

We can't wait to show travelers what makes Chili's at 45th & Lamar so special.

[Echoes of War @EchoesofWarYT]

245 years ago today, a 35-year-old Spanish nobleman fired a single artillery shell that redrew the map of North America, broke British power in the Gulf of Mexico, and arguably saved the American Revolution. His name was Bernardo de Gálvez. He's not in your textbook. He should be.

When Spain entered the war against Britain in June 1779, the American cause was bleeding out. Washington's army was unpaid and shrinking. The Continental dollar was worth pennies. The British had taken Savannah and were preparing to take Charleston. France was helping, but France alone couldn't bankrupt the British Empire.

Spain could. And in New Orleans sat the man who would prove it.

Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid was 33 years old, the governor of Spanish Louisiana, a battle-scarred career officer who had been wounded fighting Apaches in northern Mexico and Algerians in North Africa. The day he learned Spain had declared war, he didn't wait for orders from Madrid. He raised an army of Spanish regulars, Louisiana Creoles, free Black militia from New Orleans, Acadian refugees, German settlers, and Choctaw scouts, and he went on the attack.

In three months he took Manchac, Baton Rouge, and Natchez. The next year he took Mobile. The British presence on the Gulf shrank to one last fortress. Pensacola, the capital of British West Florida, defended by Major General John Campbell with 1,500 redcoats, the 3rd Waldeck Regiment of German mercenaries, loyalist battalions from Maryland and Pennsylvania, and a powerful alliance of Creek and Choctaw warriors led by the brilliant mixed-race chief Alexander McGillivray.

Gálvez arrived off Pensacola in March 1781 with 7,000 men and a fleet. The Spanish naval commander, Admiral Calbo de Irazábal, refused to enter Pensacola Bay. The entrance was narrow, raked by British guns at Fort Barrancas Coloradas, and treacherous with sandbars. So Gálvez did something insane. He boarded his own little brig, the Galveztown, hoisted his personal pennant, and sailed her into the bay alone, in full view of the British batteries, daring the Royal Navy to sink him. The British fired and missed. The Spanish fleet, shamed, followed him in. For this he was awarded the right to put the words "Yo Solo," meaning "I alone," on his coat of arms by the King of Spain.

The siege ground on for two months. Gálvez was shot in the abdomen and the finger directing artillery and refused to leave the field. The British defenses at the Queen's Redoubt, also called the Crescent, held against everything thrown at them. And then, on the morning of May 8, 1781, a Spanish howitzer crew lofted a shell over the parapet. It dropped, by pure luck or perfect skill, directly into the open powder magazine.

The explosion killed roughly 100 defenders in a single instant. Waldeck grenadiers, British regulars, loyalists, all gone. The blast tore the redoubt's wall open like paper. Spanish grenadiers and Louisiana militia poured through the breach within minutes and turned the captured British guns on the inner works. Campbell knew it was over.

The next morning, May 9, white flags went up. By May 10 the entire province of West Florida belonged to Spain. Over 1,100 British troops marched out as prisoners of war.

The strategic consequences were catastrophic for Britain. The Gulf Coast was lost. The Mississippi was a Spanish river from source to sea. Britain could no longer reinforce its southern armies by sea from the Caribbean, and the Royal Navy's Caribbean squadron had to be redeployed. Five months later, Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, in a siege funded in part by 500,000 silver pesos that Gálvez and the people of Havana raised in a matter of days to pay French Admiral de Grasse's fleet to come north.

Without that money, no French fleet. Without the French fleet, no Yorktown. Without Yorktown, no independence on those terms.

Gálvez was made Count of Gálvez and Viscount of Galveztown. The bay he charted in Texas still bears his name, Galveston. His portrait hangs in the United States Capitol by act of Congress. In 2014, he was made an honorary citizen of the United States, an honor given to only eight people in American history, including Lafayette, Churchill, and Mother Teresa.

He died of yellow fever in Mexico City at 40 years old, three years after the war ended.

Most Americans have never heard his name.

[Orietta Rose 🇺🇲 @0riettaRose]

Miss Pearl explains 10 small things she does to stay close to God each day 🙏🏽 🙌🏽

[Steve 🇺🇸 @SteveLovesAmmo]

This was fun.

Someone used an overlay of the state of Texas and showed how the state sized up with different parts of the world.

The true size of Texas.

[Governor Abbott Press Office @GovAbbottPress]

Today marks the 190th celebration of the Battle of San Jacinto when Texas secured its independence from Mexico.

General Sam Houston led the brave Texians to victory in 18 minutes and, following the battle, captured General Antonio López de Santa Anna.

Happy San Jacinto Day!

[Sai Krishna V K @5aitec]

@VibeMarketer_ So basically, this

Yesterday: Claude Design: "UI becomes easier than ever"
Today: Salesforce: "The very concept of any UI is dead"

[Alec O'Brien ⚾️ @alecobrien]

@ZachLee56711340 @iah drove up to DFW. didn’t wait for pre-check to open. walked up to general screening at 3:30 AM. no line.

[Alec O'Brien ⚾️ @alecobrien]

@davis_wx nice shot - looks like 33rd and Seawall

[Christopher Wipper @SGTWipper1Each]

USS Texas (BB-35)

The first US battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns, the first US battleship to launch an aircraft, and the only Allied battleship that took part in the 4 amphibious landings of North Africa, Normandy, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.

[Dave DiCello @DaveDiCello]

What a morning in #Pittsburgh today. I was downtown for over six hours capturing the snow as it fell on the Steel City, and it might be one of my favorite snowfalls ever. I have so many views to share, but we'll start with one from Mt. Washington, a snowglobe view of the incline.

[Dave DiCello @DaveDiCello]

I have tried and failed for a decade to capture this view in #Pittsburgh, and this morning I was finally able to. In this scene, the Duquesne Incline passes above the train tracks right as a Norfolk Southern train was going underneath it. Can't believe my luck that it worked out.

[James Baker @JamesBakerUFL]

Rest in peace my sweet Prince 💔

[Texas Longhorns @TexasLonghorns]

it’s been an honor, Coach 🤘🫡

#HookEm

[BaseballHistoryNut @nut_history]

It took 70 years but it finally happened

[Nate Feken @TheGreat_Nate]

Will miss Uncle Verne this year.

[Howard Simon @hsimon62]

The masters coverage is fine today but it’s reminding me how much I miss Verne Lundquist. On anything!

[FanDuel @FanDuel]

"OH WOW! In your life have you ever seen anything like that?"

Masters Sunday.
Tiger Woods on 16.
Verne Lundquist on the call.

20 years ago today, one of the most iconic moments in Masters history ⛳️