Alabama Facts and Trivia

• Alabama introduced the Mardi Gras to the western world. The celebration is held on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins.
• Alabama workers built the first rocket to put humans on the moon.
• The world's first Electric Trolley System was introduced in Montgomery in 1886.
• 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.
• Montgomery is the capital and the birthplace of the Confederate States of America.
• The Confederate flag was designed and first flown in Alabama in 1861.
• Alabama became the 22nd state on December 14, 1819.
• 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.
• Baseball player Henry Louis (Hank) Aaron was born in Mobile in 1934.
• Boxer Joe Louis was born in Lexington in 1914. He died in 1981.
• "Alabama" is the official state song.
• Baseball player Willie Howard Mays was born in Westfield in 1931.
• 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.
• 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.
• To help fund education Alabama instituted its state sales tax in 1937.
• Schools established in Mobile include Washington Academy (founded in 1811) and Huntsville Green Academy (founded in 1812).
• Between 1817 and 1819 Old Saint Stephens was the first territorial capital of Alabama.
• In 1956 the Army Ballistic Missile Agency was established at Huntsville's Redstone Arsenal.
• Governor George C. Wallace served four terms in office.
• In 1995 Heather Whitestone serves as first Miss America chosen with a disability.
• 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.
• Hitler's typewriter survived from his mountain retreat and is exhibited at the Hall of History in Bessemer.
• Blount County was created on February 7, 1818 and is older than the state.
• 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.
• Peter Bryce is recognized as the state's first psychiatrist. He was born in 1834 and died in 1892.
• The Alabama State Flag was authorized by the Alabama legislature on February 16, 1895.
• 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.
• On January 11, 1861 Alabama becomes the fourth state to secede from the Union.
• On January 28, 1846 Montgomery was selected as capital of Alabama.
• 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.
• 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.
• Alabama resident Sequoyah devised the phonetic, written alphabet of the Cherokee language.
• The Birmingham Airport opened in 1931. At the time of the opening a Birmingham to Los Angeles flight took 19 hours.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.