Alabama

Fast Facts and Trivia

1. Alabama introduced the Mardi Gras to the western world. The celebration is held on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins.
    
2. Alabama workers built the first rocket to put humans on the moon.
    
3. The world's first Electric Trolley System was introduced in Montgomery in 1886.
    
4. Alabama is the only state with all major natural resources needed to make iron and steel. It is also the largest supplier of cast-iron and steel pipe products.
    
5. Montgomery is the capital and the birthplace of the Confederate States of America.
    
6. The Confederate flag was designed and first flown in Alabama in 1861.
    
7. Alabama became the 22nd state on December 14, 1819.
    
8. The town of Enterprise houses the Boll Weevil Monument to acknowledge the role this destructive insect played in encouraging farmers to grow crops other than cotton.
    
9. Baseball player Henry Louis (Hank) Aaron was born in Mobile in 1934.
    
10. Boxer Joe Louis was born in Lexington in 1914. He died in 1981.
     
11. "Alabama" is the official state song.
     
12. Baseball player Willie Howard Mays was born in Westfield in 1931.
     
13. A skeleton of a pre-historic man was found in Russell Cave.
     
14. At 2,405 feet Cheaha Mountain is Alabama's highest point above sea level.
     
15. Huntsville is known as the rocket capital of the World.
     
16. The Alabama Department of Archives is the oldest state-funded archival agency in the nation.
     
17. The musical singing group Alabama has a Fan Club and Museum in Fort Payne.
     
18. In 1902 Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill performed the first open heart surgery in the Western Hemisphere by suturing a stab wound in a young boy's heart. The surgery occurred in Montgomery.
     
19. To help fund education Alabama instituted its state sales tax in 1937.
     
20. Schools established in Mobile include Washington Academy (founded in 1811) and Huntsville Green Academy (founded in 1812).
     
21. Between 1817 and 1819 Old Saint Stephens was the first territorial capital of Alabama.
     
22. In 1956 the Army Ballistic Missile Agency was established at Huntsville's Redstone Arsenal.
     
23. Governor George C. Wallace served four terms in office.
     
24. In 1995 Heather Whitestone serves as first Miss America chosen with a disability.
     
25. Alabama's geographic center is located in Chilton a community located 12 miles southwest of Clanton.
     
26. The word Alabama means tribal town in the Creek Indian language.
     
27. The United States Army Chemical Corps Museum in Fort McClellan contains over 4000 chemical warfare artifacts.
     
28. Hitler's typewriter survived from his mountain retreat and is exhibited at the Hall of History in Bessemer.
     
29. Blount County was created on February 7, 1818 and is older than the state.
     
30. Winston County is often called the Free State of Winston. It gained the name during the Civil War.
     
31. Mobile is named after the Mauvilla Indians.
     
32. Peter Bryce is recognized as the state's first psychiatrist. He was born in 1834 and died in 1892.
     
33. The Alabama State Flag was authorized by the Alabama legislature on February 16, 1895.
     
34. Hematite is Alabama's official state mineral and is known as oxide of iron (Fe2O3).
     
35. The Monarch butterfly (Danaus pleipuss) is the state's official insect.
     
36. The star blue quartz is the state's official gemstone.
     
37. The Florence Renaissance Faire is the Alabama's official fair.
     
38. The pecan is the Alabama's official nut.
     
39. People from Alabama are called Alabamians.
     
40. On January 11, 1861 Alabama becomes the fourth state to secede from the Union.
     
41. On January 28, 1846 Montgomery was selected as capital of Alabama.
     
42. Tallulah Bankhead entertained as a star of stage, screen, and radio during the 1930s-1950s. She was born in Huntsville in 1902 and died in 1968.
     
43. Singer and entertainer Nathaniel Adams (Nat King) Cole was known as the man with the velvet voice. He was born in Montgomery in 1919 and died in 1965.
     
44. Alabama resident Sequoyah devised the phonetic, written alphabet of the Cherokee language.
     
45. The Birmingham Airport opened in 1931. At the time of the opening a Birmingham to Los Angeles flight took 19 hours.
     
46. Alabama's mean elevation is 500 feet at its lowest elevation point.
     
47. Audemus jura nostra defendere is the official state motto. Translated it means "we dare defend our rights."
     
48. Washington County is the oldest county in Alabama.
     
49. General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek Indians in 1814. Following the event the Native Americans ceded nearly half the present state land to the United States.
     
50. At the Battle of Mobile Bay Admiral David Farragut issued his famous command, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." The event occurred on August 5, 1864.

Copyright Issues?