1. Actress Eva Longoria, who is originally from Corpus Christi, used to work at a local Wendy’s. In 2008, she returned for the day to work behind the counter and served up hamburgers, fries and shakes once again. 
2. Corpus Christi was the nation’s first major city to offer city-wide free wi-fi. It was done in attempt to allow remote meter reading after a meter reader was attacked by a dog.
3. The popular Texas burger chain, Whataburger, opened its first location in Corpus Christi in 1950.
4. Corpus Christi first began as small trading post called Kinney’s Trading post, or Kinney’s Ranch. It was only renamed because it needed a more definite postmark for letters.
5. Singer-songwriter Selena Quintanilla-Perez hails from Corpus Christi and is buried there today.
6. Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor responsible for creating the presidents’ heads at Mount Rushmore, drafted a design for Corpus Christi’s seawall. However, the city ended up turning it down. 
7. Corpus Christi’s Whataburger Field is home to what’s believed to be the largest bronze statue of a baseball player.
8. Of the 5 million people that visit Corpus Christi each year, 74% are from Texas.
9. Author Fred Gibson, who wrote “Old Yeller,” worked as a journalist for Corpus Christi Caller-Times in the late 1930s. 
10. Corpus Christi’s record for most snowfall is 5.2 inches, which is more than all the previous years’ records combined.
11. A portion of the 2001 movie, Pearl Harbor, was filmed on the USS Lexington.
12. Actress Farrah Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi and graduated from local W.B Ray High School.
13. Much of Corpus Christi was destroyed by a hurricane in 1919.
14. Former US president George Bush Sr. received his naval aviator wings at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi
15. Corpus Christi is America’s “birdiest” city, with more individual species of birds than any other US city.
16. The USS Lexington is as tall as a 19 story building and as long as three New York city blocks. It’s so large, you could play 3 football games at the same time on its flight deck. 
17. The USS Lexington also was the first aircraft carrier to have women crew members in US Naval History, and the ship served longer than any other Essex Class carrier in the world.
18. At 825,000 acres, King Ranch is larger than Rhode Island and one of the largest cattle and horse ranches in the world.
19. In 2007, Corpus Christi wildlife officials found a record-breaking 128 Kemp’s Sea Turtles, the most endangered sea turtle on earth, on beaches in the area. 
20. One of Corpus Christi’s best known churches, the Corpus Christi Cathedral, has existed since the 1940s. However, the church as a congregation has been in the city since the 1840s.
21. Just south of Corpus Christi is Padre Island National Seashore, the longest stretch of underdeveloped barrier island in the world. 
22. Corpus Christi’s eight bay front gazebos, called Miradores del Mar, were actually copied from similar structures in Morocco, Mexico and Spain.
23. During the Mexican-American War, General Zachary Taylor’s soldiers dug an artesian sulphur well where Artesian Park is today.
24. The Corpus Christi Midget Ocean Racing Fleet holds the record for the longest- running weekly sailboat races in the US. 
25. At 410 feet, the South Tower of One Shoreline Plaza is the tallest building in Texas south of San Antonio.
26. The Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History displays two life-size replicas of Columbus’ Fleet, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. The ships were built by the Spanish government to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ sailing. Before laying to rest in Corpus Christi, they visited 22 ports in Europe, were sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, and toured 18 American ports.
27. During the Civil War, the Britton Evens Centennial House served as a confederate hospital.
28. Built in 1851, The Britton Evens House is also Corpus Christi’s oldest surviving residence.
29. NASCAR champions Bobby and Terry Labonte are from Corpus Christi.
30. Harbor Playhouse Theater is one of oldest continually operating community theatres in Texas.
31. Hurricane Alley Waterpark is the only waterpark to ever be integrated into a professional baseball stadium.
32. The theme of Corpus Christi International Airport is “When the Sun Meets the Sea.
33. The Ice Rays hockey team is named after the stingrays that inhabit the water of the Gulf of Mexico.
34. Despite its name, there aren’t any Gators in South Texas Botanical Gardens & Nature Center’s Gator Lake (but, apparently, there used to be).
35. Bob Hall Pier, on Padre Island, is one of the best and most productive fishing piers on the Gulf Coast. What's your favorite Corpus Christi fun fact? Tell us in the comments below!
