Alabama State Facts

Catch up on your trivia with these Alabama history firsts and fun facts.

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Alabama History Firsts - Alabama State Facts

• 1811 and 1812 - Schools established in Mobile include Washington Academy (founded in 1811) and Huntsville Green Academy (founded in 1812).
• 1814 - 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.
• 1817-1819 - Between 1817 and 1819 Old Saint Stephens was the first territorial capital of Alabama.
• 1818 - Blount County was created on February 7, 1818 and is older than the state.
• 1819 - Alabama became the 22nd state on December 14, 1819.
• 1834 - Peter Bryce is recognized as the state's first psychiatrist. He was born in 1834 and died in 1892.
• 1846 - January 28, 1846, Montgomery was selected as capital of Alabama.
• 1861 - Confederate flag was designed and first flown in Alabama.
• 1861 - January 11, 1861, Alabama becomes the fourth state to secede from the Union.
• 1864 - Battle of Mobile Bay, Admiral David Farragut issued his famous command, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." The event occurred on August 5, 1864.
• 1886 - World's first Electric Trolley System was introduced in Montgomery.
• 1895 - Alabama State Flag was authorized by the Alabama legislature on February 16, 1895.
• 1902 - Dr. 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.
• 1902 - Tallulah Bankhead was born in Huntsville. She died in 1968,  entertained as a star of stage, screen, and radio during the 1930s-1950s.
• 1914 - Boxer Joe Louis was born in Lexington. He died in 1981.
• 1919 - Singer and entertainer Nathaniel Adams (Nat King) Cole was born in Montgomery, known as the man with the velvet voice. He died in 1965.
• 1931 - Baseball player Willie Howard Mays was born in Westfield.
• 1931 - The Birmingham Airport opened in 1931. At the time of the opening a Birmingham to Los Angeles flight took 19 hours.
• 1934 - Baseball player Henry Louis (Hank) Aaron was born in Mobile.
• 1937 - To help fund education Alabama instituted its state sales tax.
• 1950s - The United States space flight program at Redstone Arsenal and George C. Marshall Space Flight Center made Huntsville a leading aerospace center.
• 1955 - Black woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white passenger.  Martin Luther King, Jr. led a successful boycott of the city's public transportation and brought the technique of passive resistance to national prominence. 
• 1956 - The Army Ballistic Missile Agency was established at Huntsville's Redstone Arsenal.
• 1995 - Heather Whitestone serves as first Miss America chosen with a disability. 

More Alabama History Firsts - Alabama State Facts

• Alabama workers built the first rocket to put humans on the moon.
• There are no large natural lakes in Alabama, but the state has several large reservoirs, including Wheeler Lake on the Tennessee River and R. L. Harris Reservoir on the Tallapoosa River.
• 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.
• Alabama introduced the Mardi Gras to the western world. The celebration is held on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins.
• Alabama is the only state with all major natural resources needed to make iron and steel.
• Montgomery is the capital and the birthplace of the Confederate States of America.
• 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.
• Located in the Hall of History, in Bessemer, is Hitler's typewriter.
  "Alabama" is the official state song.
• A skeleton of a pre-historic man was found in Russell Cave.
  At 2,405 feet Cheaha Mountain is Alabama's highest point above sea level.
• Huntsville is known as the rocket capital of the World.
• The Alabama Department of Archives is the oldest state-funded archival agency in the nation.
• The musical singing group Alabama has a Fan Club and Museum in Fort Payne.
• Montgomery was the birthplace and capital of the Confederate States of America.
• The United States Army Chemical Corps Museum in Fort McClellan contains over 4,000 chemical warfare artifacts.
• Governor George C. Wallace served four terms in office.
• Alabama's geographic center is located in Chilton a community located 12 miles southwest of Clanton.
• The word Alabama means tribal town in the Creek Indian language.
• The United States Army Chemical Corps Museum in Fort McClellan contains over 4000 chemical warfare artifacts.
• Winston County is often called the Free State of Winston. It gained the name during the Civil War.
• Mobile is named after the Mauvilla Indians.
• Hematite is Alabama's official state mineral and is known as oxide of iron (Fe2O3).
• The Monarch butterfly (Danaus pleipuss) is the state's official insect.
• The star blue quartz is the state's official gemstone.
• The Florence Renaissance Faire is the Alabama's official fair.
• The pecan is the Alabama's official nut.
• People from Alabama are called Alabamians.
• Alabama resident Sequoyah devised the phonetic, written alphabet of the Cherokee language.
• Alabama's mean elevation is 500 feet at its lowest elevation point.
  Audemus jura nostra defendere is the official state motto. Translated it means "we dare defend our rights."
• Washington County is the oldest county in Alabama.
• Workers in Alabama built the first rocket to put humans on the moon.