Houston is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the fourth most populous city in the United States. Houston was founded by land speculators on August 30, 1836, at the confluence of Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou.  Located in the American South, Houston is a diverse city with a large and growing international community. The Houston Metropolitan area is home to an estimated 1.1 million residents who were born outside the United States, with nearly two-thirds of the area's foreign-born population from south of the United States–Mexico border. It is considered an automobile-dependent city .Many annual events celebrate the diverse cultures of Houston. The largest and longest-running is the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Another large celebration is the annual night-time Houston Gay Pride Parade . Houston Theatre District, located in downtown, is home to nine major performing arts organizations and six performance halls. It is the second-largest concentration of theatre seats in a downtown area in the United States. Houston attracts many touring Broadway acts, concerts, shows, and exhibitions for a variety of interests. 

Houston is the seat of the internationally renowned Texas Medical Center, which contains the world's largest concentration of research and healthcare institutions. They provide patient and preventive care, research, education, and local, national, and international community well-being. It is where one of the first—and still the largest—air emergency service, Life Flight, was created, and a very successful inter-institutional transplant program was developed. More heart surgeries are performed at the Texas Medical Center than anywhere else in the world. The University of Houston (UH) is a nationally recognized tier one research university and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System.