Houston Legends:

Howard Hughes Jr. grew up in Houston.

Dec. 24, 1905

Born to Howard Hughes Sr. and Allene Gano Hughes. Feb. 7, 1910

Suffers mysterious paralysis. 1916 Builds wireless radio.

1918

Mounts motor on his bicycle. March 29, 1922

Mother dies in childbirth.

Jan. 14, 1924

Father dies of heart attack after business meeting.

Dec. 24, 1924

Hughes formally emancipated, declared an adult.

June 1, 1925

Marries Ella Rice, moves to California (though had lived there a few years earlier with his father).

1927

Produces “Two Arabian Knights,” which wins an Oscar in 1929 for best comedy direction.

1928

Produces “The Racket,” earns his pilot’s license. Dec. 9, 1929 Marriage to Rice ends in divorce.

1930

Spends $3.8 million to produce “Hell’s Angels,” a boxoffice smash that is nominated for an Oscar.

1932

Founds the Hughes Aircraft Company.

Sept. 13, 1935

Sets new land speed record in the Silver Bullet, built by Hughes Aircraft.

Jan. 19, 1937

Sets new transcontinental record from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., breaking a record he’d set the year before.

July 10-14, 1938

Sets record for around-the-world flight, making the trip in three days, 19 hours and 17 minutes.

1939

Awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

1943

Produces “The Outlaw.”

July 7, 1946

Almost dies during test flight of the XF-11 after the plane crashes in a Los Angeles suburb.

November 2, 1947

Successfully flies the “Spruce Goose,” or

the Hughes H-4 Hercules, a prototype heavy transport aircraft, which skeptics believed would never fly.

1953

Launches the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

1957

Marries Jean Peters.

1958

Suffers major nervous breakdown.

1971

Divorces Peters.

1972

Sells Hughes Tool Company for $150 million. April 5, 1976

Hughes dies.