Did You Know...? |
| America's first Mardi Gras was held in Mobile in 1704. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The first inhabitants of Alabama were Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville built the first rocket to put humans on the moon. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began his ministerial career at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The current Alabama Constitution (1901) is one of the longest in the United States, having over 100,000 words and more than 700 amendments. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The Alabama Territory was established on March 3, 1817 by the same act which created the state of Mississippi. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The official state bird of Alabama is the yellowhammer. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The official state flower of Alabama is the camellia. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The official state mascot of Alabama is the eastern tiger swallowtail. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The first 911 call in the United States was made in Haleyville on February 16, 1968. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The first city-wide trolley was built in Montgomery in 1886. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The first University of Alabama vs. Auburn University football game was played on Feb. 22, 1893. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The Weeden House Museum in Huntsville is the birthplace of artist and poet Maria Howard Weeden. The house is full of 19th century southern culture. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Andalusia holds a world championship domino tournament, and has done so annually since 1976. The largest pay-off was over $450,000.00. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Alabama has towns with such names as: Aimwell, Burnt Corn, Slapout, Remlap, Smut Eye, Trickem and Equality. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, was from Monroeville. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Cook's Natural Science Museum in Decatur was originally a collection of employee training displays from Cook's Pest Control. Today, hundreds of wild life exhibits are open to the public. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Lionel Richie was born in Tuskegee and the original members of The Commodores met as freshmen at the Tuskegee Institute now named Tuskegee University. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Hank Williams was born in Mount Olive on September 17th, 1923. A life-sized statue of the singer now stands in Montgomery. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Nat King Cole was born in Montgomery in 1919. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Scottsboro is home to the Unclaimed Baggage Center. The Unclaimed Baggage Center buys luggage lost by airlines. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The Vulcan, located in Birmingham, is the world's largest cast iron statue. The Vulcan weighs in at 120,000 pounds and is 56 feet tall. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The Boll Weevil statue in Enterprise was erected in 1919. Its a monument to the insect that destroyed cotton crops and eventually brought prosperity to the region while forcing farmers to grow peanuts. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| DeSoto Caverns, located in Childersburg, was the first recorded cave in the United States. Cave graffiti was first discovered in the 1700s. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The second ever UFO sighting occurred in 1948, around 5,000 feet over Alabama. The UFO was sighted by pilots of Eastern Airlines flying from Houston to Atlanta on July 24th. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Anniston is home to the country's largest office chair, standing in at 31 feet tall. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Magnolia Springs has the only all-water mail route in the United States, with daily delivery by boat. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Montgomery is home to the world's first civilian flying school. Established in 1910 by Wilbur and Orville Wright, it was located at Maxwell Air Force Base. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Shelby county holds the world record for fastest Habitat for Humanity homebuilding. The house was built by professionals in 3 hours, 26 minutes and 34 seconds. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The world's youngest college graduate obtained a bachelor's degree in anthropology at the age of 10 years and four months old from the University of South Alabama. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Hellen Keller, author and educator, was from Tuscumbia. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Clanton has one of the only two peach-shaped water towers in the country. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Birmingham is nicknamed The Magic City. This name was derived in the 1900s for being the fastest growing city in the country. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Alabama is the only place in the world where all three components of steel making: iron ore, coal, and limestone, can be found within a 30-mile radius. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The official state fruit of Alabama is the blackberry. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The official state nut of Alabama is the pecan. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The longest jail sentence ever handed down in the United States was received in 1981 by Dudley Wayne Kyzer of Tuscaloosa. He received 10,000 years plus two life sentences for killing three people. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Alabama marble is considered the purest and whitest in the world. It has been used in buildings such as the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| The official state game bird of Alabama is the wild turkey. |
|
Did You Know...? |
| Alabama is home to four 'moon trees'. These trees grew from seeds which had accompanied astronaut Stuart Roosa on the January 1971 Apollo 14 mission. |
|