The Flag of Alabama
Alabama ( AL -ə-BAM -ə ) is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States . It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th largest by area and the 24th-most populous of the 50 U.S. states .
Alabama is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State , after the state bird . Alabama is also known as the "Heart of Dixie " and the "Cotton State". The state has diverse geography, with the north dominated by the mountainous Tennessee Valley and the south by Mobile Bay , a historically significant port. Alabama's capital is Montgomery , and its largest city by population and area is Huntsville . Its oldest city is Mobile , founded by French colonists (Alabama Creoles ) in 1702 as the capital of French Louisiana . Greater Birmingham is Alabama's largest metropolitan area and its economic center. Politically, as part of the Deep South , Alabama is predominantly a conservative state, and is known for its Southern culture . Within Alabama, American football , particularly at the college level, plays a major part of the state's culture.
Originally home to many native tribes, present-day Alabama was a Spanish territory beginning in the sixteenth century until the French acquired it in the early eighteenth century. The British won the territory in 1763 until losing it in the American Revolutionary War . Spain held Mobile as part of Spanish West Florida until 1813. In December 1819, Alabama was recognized as a state. During the antebellum period, Alabama was a major producer of cotton , and widely used African American slave labor. In 1861, the state seceded from the United States to become part of the Confederate States of America , with Montgomery acting as its first capital, and rejoined the Union in 1868. Following the American Civil War , Alabama would suffer decades of economic hardship, in part due to agriculture and a few cash crops being the main driver of the state's economy. Similar to other former slave states, Alabamian legislators employed Jim Crow laws from the late 19th century up until the 1960s. High-profile events such as the Selma to Montgomery marches made the state a major focal point of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. (Full article... )
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The Alabama Centennial half dollar , or Alabama half dollar , was a commemorative fifty-cent coin struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1921 as a belated acknowledgement of the 100th anniversary of Alabama 's admission to the Union in 1819. The coin was created by Laura Gardin Fraser , the first woman credited with designing a coin.
Alabama Congressman
Lilius Bratton Rainey introduced legislation for a commemorative coin at the request of the state's centennial commission. The bill originally provided for commemorative
quarters but was amended to provide for halves instead. The bill moved quickly through the legislative process and became the Act of May 10, 1920, with the signature of President
Woodrow Wilson . (
Full article... )
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Birmingham ( BUR -ming-ham ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama . Birmingham is the county seat of Jefferson County , Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2023 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 196,644, down 2% from the 2020 census , making it Alabama's second-most populous city after Huntsville . The broader Birmingham metropolitan area had a 2020 population of 1,115,289, and is the largest metropolitan area in Alabama as well as the 47th-most populous in the United States. Birmingham serves as an important regional hub and is associated with the Deep South , Piedmont , and Appalachian regions of the nation.
Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post–
Civil War Reconstruction period , through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, notably,
Elyton . It grew from there,
annexing many more of its smaller neighbors, into an industrial and
railroad transportation center with a focus on mining, the
iron and steel industry , and
railroading . Birmingham was named after
Birmingham in
Warwickshire ,
England , one of the
UK 's major industrial cities. Most of the original settlers who founded Birmingham were of
English ancestry . The city may have been planned as a place where cheap, non-unionized, and often African-American labor from rural Alabama could be employed in the city's steel mills and blast furnaces, giving it a competitive advantage over industrial cities in the
Midwest and
Northeast . (
Full article... )
List of selected articles
History of Alabama Huntsville, Alabama Montgomery, Alabama Tuscaloosa, Alabama George Wallace Dauphin Island, Alabama Talladega, Alabama Talladega Superspeedway University of Alabama COVID-19 pandemic in Alabama Chattahoochee River Alabama people Alabama Department of Corrections Iron & Steel Museum of Alabama LGBT rights in Alabama Jefferson County, Alabama Cannabis in Alabama Russell Cave National Monument Cahaba, Alabama Cahaba River Vulcan statue Confederate States of America Muscle Shoals, Alabama Chickasaw J. Lister Hill Alabama beach mouse Mary Anderson (inventor) Rosa Parks Montgomery bus boycott Nat King Cole Booker T. Washington Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Conecuh Ridge Whiskey Hank Williams The Machine (social group) Helen Keller First White House of the Confederacy Harper Lee Marshall Space Flight Center Dothan, Alabama University of Montevallo Capital City Street Railway Condoleezza Rice Enterprise, Alabama Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard Decatur, Alabama Barber Motorsports Park Hank Aaron Carl Lewis Bo Jackson Lionel Richie Emmylou Harris Jim Nabors Jordan Fisher Terrell Owens Courteney Cox Rickwood Field Octavia Spencer Willie Mays Selma to Montgomery marches History of Montgomery, Alabama WDIG (AM)
The following are images from various Alabama-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 Tornado damage in
Phil Campbell following the statewide
April 27, 2011, tornado outbreak (from
Alabama )
Image 2 Artists conception of
Moundville , a
Mississippian culture site on the Black Warrior River in Hale County (from
History of Alabama )
Image 3 A stand of
Cahaba lilies (
Hymenocallis coronaria ) in the
Cahaba River , within the
Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge (from
Alabama )
Image 4 The
State Capitol Building in Montgomery, completed in 1851 (from
Alabama )
Image 5 Ono Island in Baldwin County (from
Alabama )
Image 6 Harrison Plaza at the
University of North Alabama in Florence. The school was chartered as LaGrange College by the
Alabama Legislature in 1830. (from
Alabama )
Image 7 The Islamic Center of Tuscaloosa (from
Alabama )
Image 8 Shelby Hall, School of Computing, at the
University of South Alabama in Mobile (from
Alabama )
Image 9 Alabama's population density, 2010 (from
Alabama )
Image 10 Regions-Harbert Plaza ,
Regions Center , and
Wells Fargo Tower in Birmingham's financial district (from
Alabama )
Image 11 Vestavia Hills High School in the suburbs of Birmingham (from
Alabama )
Image 12 The
Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail has a large economic impact on the state. (from
Alabama )
Image 14 Senator
Doug Jones won a
special election in 2017. (from
Alabama )
Image 16 Map of Alabama from the
National Atlas of the United States (2007) (from
Alabama )
Image 17 1823 Map of Alabama (from
History of Alabama )
Image 18 Cliffs at the rim of the
Wetumpka meteorite crater (from
Alabama )
Image 19 Airbus Mobile Engineering Center at the Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile (from
Alabama )
Image 20 Terminal at the
Montgomery Regional Airport in Montgomery (from
Alabama )
Image 21 The former
Mount Sinai School in rural Autauga County, completed in 1919. It was one of the 387
Rosenwald Schools built in the state. (from
Alabama )
Image 22 Von Braun Center in Huntsville (from
Alabama )
Image 23 The
Space Shuttle Enterprise being tested at Marshall Space Flight Center in 1978 (from
Alabama )
Image 24 Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama in Montgomery in 2010 (from
Alabama )
Image 25 Ethnic origins in Alabama (from
Alabama )
Image 26 William J. Samford Hall at
Auburn University (from
Alabama )
Image 28 Interstate 59 (co-signed with
Interstate 20 ) approaching
Interstate 65 in downtown Birmingham (from
Alabama )
Image 29 Monte Sano State Park in Huntsville (from
Alabama )
Image 30 Alabama's beaches are one of the state's major tourist destinations. (from
Alabama )
Image 32 Union Army troops occupying Courthouse Square in Huntsville, following its capture and occupation by federal forces in 1864 (from
Alabama )
Image 33 The
Moundville Archaeological Site in Hale County. It was occupied by Native Americans of the
Mississippian culture from 1000 to 1450 CE. (from
Alabama )
Image 34 Mobile is the birthplace of Mardi Gras in the U.S. (from
Alabama )
Image 36 Dauphin Street in Mobile (from
Alabama )
Image 37 The inauguration of
Jefferson Davis in
Montgomery on February 18, 1861. (from
History of Alabama )
Image 38 Temple B'Nai Sholom in Huntsville, established in 1876. It is the oldest synagogue building in continuous use in the state. (from
Alabama )
Image 39 Highlands United Methodist Church in Birmingham, part of the Five Points South Historic District (from
Alabama )
Image 40 Mercedes-Benz U.S. International in Tuscaloosa County was the first automotive facility to locate within the state. (from
Alabama )
Image 41 Regions Field in Birmingham (from
Alabama )
Image 42 The developing skyline of Birmingham in 1915 (from
Alabama )
Image 43 Lighthouse on
Guntersville Lake (from
Alabama )
Image 44 The main house, built in 1833, at
Thornhill in Greene County. It is a former
Black Belt plantation. (from
Alabama )
Image 45 Artist's conception of the
Taskigi Site , a fortified mound and village near Wetumpka, Alabama (from
History of Alabama )
Image 46 Aerial view of the port of Mobile (from
Alabama )
Image 47 Blast furnaces such as the
Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company 's Ensley Works made
Birmingham an important center for iron production in the early 20th century. (from
History of Alabama )
Image 49 Map of counties in Alabama by racial plurality, per the 2020 census
Non-Hispanic White 40–50%
50–60%
60–70%
70–80%
80–90%
90%+
Black or African American 40–50%
50–60%
70–80%
80–90%
(from
Alabama )
Image 51 Members of the Alabama state legislature on the steps of the Capitol in Montgomery during Reconstruction (1872) (from
History of Alabama )
Image 52 1725 map of
Mobile , Alabama's first permanent European settlement (from
History of Alabama )
Image 53 The Natural Bridge Rock in
Winston County is the longest natural bridge east of the Rockies. (from
Alabama )
Image 54 The
Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, one of the largest shopping centers in the southeast (from
Alabama )
... that Huntsville, Alabama , is nicknamed Rocket City?
... that Jack Biddle was the first and only person to be elected to the Alabama Legislature as a Democratic , Republican , and independent representative?
... that the two varieties of Alabama croton are separated by more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles)?
... that Symphyotrichum kentuckiense , the Kentucky aster, is only found on limestone cedar glades and limestone roadsides in Alabama , Georgia , Kentucky , and Tennessee ?
... that an Alabama radio station was described by its program director as a "no-format mess"?
... that Lieutenant Governor of Alabama Will Ainsworth started his career as a youth pastor before co-founding a hunting lodge?
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