Editing Killeen, Texas (section)

==History  ==

In 1881, the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway|Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway]] extended its tracks through central Texas, buying {{convert|360|acre|km2}} a few miles southwest of a small farming community known as Palo Alto, which had existed since about 1872. The railroad platted a 70-block town on its land and named it after Frank P. Killeen, the assistant general manager of the railroad. By the next year, the town included a railroad depot, a saloon, several stores, and a school. Many of the residents of the surrounding smaller communities in the area moved to Killeen. By 1884, the town had grown to include about 350 people, served by five general stores, two gristmills, two cotton gins, two saloons, a lumberyard, a blacksmith shop, and a hotel.

Killeen expanded as it became an important shipping point for cotton, wool, and grain in western [[Bell County, Texas|Bell]] and eastern [[Coryell County, Texas|Coryell]] Counties. By 1900, its population was about 780.

Around 1905, local politicians and businessmen convinced the Texas legislature to build bridges over Cowhouse Creek and other streams, doubling Killeen's trade area. A public water system began operation in 1914 and its population had increased to 1,300 residents.{{Citation needed|reason=Entire paragraph is unsourced.|date=August 2013}}

Until the 1940s, Killeen remained a relatively small and isolated farm trade center. The buildup associated with World War II changed that dramatically. In 1942, Camp Hood (recommissioned as Fort Hood in 1950) was created as a military training post to meet war demands. Laborers, construction workers, contractors, soldiers, and their families moved into the area by the thousands, and Killeen became a military boomtown. The opening of Camp Hood radically altered the nature of the local economy, since the sprawling new military post covered almost half of Killeen's farming trade area.

The loss of more than 300 farms and ranches led to the demise of Killeen's cotton gins and other farm-related businesses. New businesses were started to provide services for the military camp. Killeen then suffered a recession when Camp Hood was all but abandoned after the end of the Second World War, but when Southern congressmen got it established in 1950 as a permanent army post, the city boomed again. Its population increased from about 1,300 in 1949 to 7,045 in 1950, and between 1950 and 1951, about 100 new commercial buildings were constructed in Killeen.{{Citation needed|reason=Entire paragraph is unsourced.|date=August 2013}}

In addition to shaping local economic development after 1950, the military presence at Fort Hood also changed the city's racial, religious, and ethnic composition. No blacks lived in the city in 1950, for example. By the early 1950s, Marlboro Heights, an all-black subdivision, had been developed. In 1956, the city school board voted to integrate the local [[High school (North America)|high school]]. The city's first resident Catholic priest was assigned to the St. Joseph's parish in 1954, and around the same time, new Presbyterian and Episcopal churches were built.

By 1955, Killeen had an estimated 21,076 residents and 224 businesses. Troop cutbacks and transfers in the mid-1950s led to another recession in Killeen, which lasted until 1959, when various divisions were reassigned to Fort Hood. The town continued to grow through the 1960s, especially after US involvement deepened in the [[Vietnam War]] and demand for troops kept rising.

By 1970, Killeen had developed into a city of 35,507 inhabitants and had added a municipal airport, a new municipal library, and a junior college ([[Central Texas College]]). By 1980, when the census counted 49,307 people in Killeen, it was the largest city in Bell County.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

After the Iraqi [[invasion of Kuwait]] in the late summer of 1990, the city prepared for war, sending thousands of troops from the [[2nd Armored Division (United States)|2nd Armored Division]] and the [[1st Cavalry Division (United States)|1st Cavalry Division]] to the [[Middle East]].

On October 16, 1991, George Hennard [[Luby's shooting|murdered 23 people and then committed suicide]] at the [[Luby's]] Cafeteria in Killeen.

In December 1991, one of Killeen's high school [[American football|football]] teams, the Killeen Kangaroos, won the 5-A Division I state football championship by defeating [[Dulles High School (Sugar Land, Texas)|Sugar Land Dulles]] 14–10 in the Astrodome.{{Citation needed|reason=Entire paragraph is unsourced.|date=August 2013}}

By 2000, the census listed Killeen's population as 86,911, and by 2010, it was over 127,000, making it one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Killeen city, Texas; United States |url=https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/killeencitytexas,US/PST045221 |website=QuickFacts |publisher=United States Census Bureau |access-date=27 October 2022}}</ref>

Numerous military personnel from Killeen have served in the wars in [[Iraq War|Iraq]] and [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|Afghanistan]]. As of April 2008, more than 400 of its soldiers had died in the two wars.<ref name='BBC 2008-04-09'>{{cite news | first=Jonathan | last=Beale | title=Grief hangs over Texas army town | date=2008-04-09 | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7336427.stm | work=BBC News | access-date=2008-04-08| url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409190548/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7336427.stm | archive-date=2008-04-09}}</ref>

On November 5, 2009, only a few miles from the site of the Luby's massacre, [[2009 Fort Hood shooting|a gunman opened fire]] on people at the Fort Hood military base with a handgun, killing 13 and wounding 32. Major [[Nidal Hasan]], a career officer and psychiatrist, sustained four gunshot wounds after a brief shootout with a civilian police officer. He suffered paralysis from the waist down. He was arrested and convicted by a [[court-martial]], where he was sentenced to death.

In 2011, Killeen got media attention from a new television series called ''Surprise Homecoming'', hosted by [[Billy Ray Cyrus]], about military families who have loved ones returning home from overseas.{{Citation needed|date=August 2013}}

On April 2, 2014, a second [[shooting spree]] occurred at several locations at Fort Hood. Ivan Lopez, a career soldier, [[2014 Fort Hood shootings|killed three people and wounded 16 others]] before committing suicide.<ref name="Herskovitz">{{cite news|url=http://in.reuters.com/article/usa-texas-shooting-idINDEEA310JL20140402|title=Shooter at Fort Hood Army base in Texas, injuries reported – police|last=Herskovitz|first=Jon|date=April 2014|work=[[Reuters]]|access-date=April 2, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407090117/http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/04/02/usa-texas-shooting-idINDEEA310JL20140402|archive-date=April 7, 2014}}</ref><ref name="FoxNews">{{cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/us/fort-hood-shooter-snapped-over-denial-of-request-for-leave-army-confirms/|title=Fort Hood shooter snapped over denial of request for leave, Army confirms|date=7 April 2014|work=[[Fox News Channel]]|access-date=12 April 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140411132027/http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/04/07/fort-hood-shooter-snapped-over-denial-request-for-leave-army-confirms/|archive-date=11 April 2014}}</ref>