IN: Celine Marie Claudette Dion, ChLD (; French: [selin djo]; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Born into a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband Rene Angelil mortgaged his home to finance her first record. Dion first gained international recognition in the 1980s by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest where she represented Switzerland.

Dion was born in Charlemagne, Quebec, the youngest of 14 children of Therese (nee Tanguay), a homemaker, and Adhemar Dion, a butcher, both of French-Canadian descent. Dion was raised a Roman Catholic in a poor, but, by her own account, happy home in Charlemagne. Music had always been a major part of the Dion family; indeed, Dion herself was named after the song "Celine," which French singer Hugues Aufray had recorded two years before her own birth. On 13 August 1973, at the age of five, the young Celine made her first public appearance at her brother Michel's wedding, where she performed Christine Charbonneau's song "Du fil des aiguilles et du coton". She continued to perform with her siblings in her parents' small piano bar called Le Vieux Baril, "The Old Barrel." From an early age, Dion had dreamed of being a performer. In a 1994 interview with People magazine, she recalled, "I missed my family and my home, but I don't regret having lost my adolescence. I had one dream: I wanted to be a singer." At age 12, Dion collaborated with her mother and her brother Jacques to write and compose her first song, "Ce n'etait qu'un reve," whose title translates as "It Was Only a Dream" or "Nothing But A Dream." Her brother Michel sent the recording to music manager Rene Angelil, whose name he discovered on the back of a Ginette Reno album. Angelil was moved to tears by Dion's voice and decided to make her a star. In 1981, he mortgaged his home to fund her first record, La voix du bon Dieu, which later became a local No. 1 hit and made Dion an instant star in Quebec. Her popularity spread to other parts of the world when she competed in the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo, Japan, and won the musician's award for "Top Performer" as well as the gold medal for "Best Song" with "Tellement j'ai d'amour pour toi". By 1983, in addition to becoming the first Canadian artist to receive a gold record in France for the single "D'amour ou d'amitie" ("Of Love or of Friendship"), Dion had also won several Felix Awards, including "Best Female performer" and "Discovery of the Year". Further success came when Dion represented Switzerland in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" and won the contest by a close margin in Dublin, Ireland. At age eighteen, after seeing a Michael Jackson performance, Dion told Angelil that she wanted to be a star like Jackson. Though confident in her talent, Angelil realized that her image needed to be changed in order for her to be marketed worldwide. Dion receded from the spotlight for a number of months, during which she underwent dental surgery to improve her appearance, and was sent to the Ecole Berlitz in 1989 to polish her English. In 1989, during a concert on the Incognito Tour, Dion injured her voice. She consulted the otorhinolaryngologist William Gould, who gave her an ultimatum: have immediate surgery on her vocal cords or do not utilize them at all for three weeks. Dion chose the latter and underwent vocal training with William Riley.

When did she release her first album?

OUT: In 1981, he mortgaged his home to fund her first record, La voix du bon Dieu,

IN: Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 - December 27, 1836) was an American empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas", and the founder of Texas, he led the second, and ultimately, the successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families from the United States to the region in 1825. Born in Virginia and raised in southeastern Missouri, Austin served in the Missouri territorial legislature before moving to Arkansas Territory and later Louisiana. His father, Moses Austin, received an empresario grant from Spain to settle Texas.

During Austin's time in Arkansas, his father traveled to Spanish Texas and received an empresarial grant that would allow him to bring 300 American families to Texas, they would be called "The Old 300." Moses Austin caught pneumonia soon after returning to Missouri. He directed that his empresario grant would be taken over by his son Stephen. Although Austin was reluctant to carry on his father's Texas venture, he was persuaded to pursue the colonization of Texas by a letter from his mother, Mary Brown Austin, written two days before Moses Austin would die. Austin boarded the steamer, Beaver, and departed to New Orleans to meet Spanish officials led by Erasmo Seguin. He was at Natchitoches, Louisiana, on June 31, 1821, when he learned of his father's death. "This news has effected me very much, he was one of the most feeling and affectionate Fathers that ever lived. His faults I now say, and always have, were not of the heart." At the age of 24, Austin led his party to travel 300 miles (480 km) in four weeks to San Antonio with the intent of reauthorizing his father's grant, arriving on August 12. While in transit, they learned Mexico had declared its independence from Spain, and Texas had become a Mexican province, rather than a Spanish territory. Jose Antonio Navarro, a San Antonio native with ambitious visions of the future of Texas, befriended Stephen F. Austin, and the two developed a lasting association. Navarro, proficient in Spanish and Mexican law, assisted Austin in obtaining his empresario contracts. In San Antonio, the grant was reauthorized by Governor Antonio Maria Martinez, who allowed Austin to explore the Gulf Coast between San Antonio and the Brazos River to find a suitable location for a colony. As guides for the party, Manuel Becerra and three Aranama Indians, went with the expedition. Austin advertised the Texas opportunity in New Orleans, announcing that land was available along the Brazos and Colorado rivers. A family of a husband, wife, and two children would receive 1,280 acres (520 ha) at twelve and a half cents per acre. Farmers could get 177 acres (72 ha), and ranchers 4,428 acres (1,792 ha). In December 1821, the first U.S. colonists crossed into the granted territory by land and sea, on the Brazos River in present-day Brazoria County, Texas.

Did his father own property in Texas?

OUT:
his father traveled to Spanish Texas and received an empresarial grant that would allow him to bring 300 American families to Texas,