Alabama

• Region: Southeast
• Population: 5,074,296 (ranked 24th) (2022 estimate)
• Capital: Montgomery (pop. 196,986) (2022 estimate)
• Largest city: Huntsville (pop. 221,933) (2022 estimate)
• Number of counties: 67
• State nickname: Yellowhammer
• State motto: Audemus jura nostra defendere (We dare maintain our rights)
• State flag: White field with crimson cross of Saint Andrew

Located in the southeastern United States, Alabama's nicknames have included the Cotton Plantation State, the Camellia State, and the Heart of Dixie. Alabama borders Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south and Mississippi to the west. Georgia is to its east and Tennessee to its north. In 1819, Alabama became the twenty-second state admitted to the Union. On January 11, 1861, however, the state seceded and became a "Sovereign and Independent State" in the Confederate States of America. It was in this state that the Confederate constitution was written during the US Civil War. It rejoined the Union in February 1868.

Alabama long relied heavily on agriculture, and was especially dominated by "King Cotton" until the early 1900s, after which the economy began to diversify. The state also saw important developments in the civil rights movement in the mid-twentieth century. Today Alabama remains a center of Southern culture, from food to football.

State Name: There is some dispute regarding the origin of Alabama's name. The word was spelled many different ways by early historians, and dates back as far as the 1500s, when Hernando de Soto was exploring the southeast. It is widely believed that the word was derived from a river, which was named for the Alibamu Indians of the Chickasaw tribe. In the Creek Indian language, it would translate to "tribal town." Alternatively, there are other scholars who translate the name as "thicket clearer." Also, the "Jacksonville Republican" published an unsigned article on July 27, 1842, that claimed the word Alabama signified "Here We Rest," although Native American dialect experts have been unable to find any translation that would corroborate this claim.

Capital:Montgomery was named the permanent state capital on January 28, 1846. Prior to that point, Alabama had four other capitals.

From 1817 to 1819, Old St. Stephens acted as the capital of what was then a territory. When Alabama became a state, Cahaba, where the Cahaba and Alabama Rivers meet, was chosen as the capital. However, Cahaba was often flooded, and when the 1925–26 legislature was given the power to choose a permanent capital, they chose to move it to Tuscaloosa, located on the shoals of the Black Warrior River. Eventually, it was decided that this site was not centrally located, and the capital was moved to Montgomery, where a Greek Revival-style building was constructed and presented to the state on December 6, 1847. This building was destroyed by a fire in December 1849 and later rebuilt.

Flag: Alabama's flag is patterned after the Confederate Battle Flag, also known as the "Southern Cross," and was adopted by the state in 1895. It is a crimson cross on a field of white, also known as St. Andrew's cross. The bars on the cross extend diagonally from corner to corner. The state's motto, not included on the flag, is Audemus jura nostra defendere, which is Latin for "We dare defend our rights."

Official Symbols

• Flower: Camellia
• Bird: Yellowhammer
• Tree: Southern longleaf pine
• Fish: Tarpon (saltwater); Largemouth bass (freshwater)
• Song: "Alabama" by Julia S. Tutwiler and Edna G. Gussen

State and National Historic Sites

• Belle Mont (Tuscumbia)
• Bottle Creek Indian Mounds (Stockton)
• Confederate Memorial Park (Mountain Creek)
• Dr. Francis Medical Museum (Jacksonville)
• Fendall Hall (Eufala)
• Fort Mims (Baldwin County)
• Fort Morgan (Gulf Shores)
• Fort Toulouse (Wetumka)
• Gaineswood (Demopolis)
• Joseph Wheeler Plantation (Hillsboro)
• Magnolia Grove (Greensboro)
• Middle Bay Lighthouse (Mobile Bay)
• Old Cahawba (Orville)
• State Capitol (Montgomery)
• Teague House (Montgomery County)

DEMOGRAPHICS

• Population: 5,074,296 (ranked 24th) (2022 estimate)
• Population density: 99.2/sq mi (2020 estimate)
• Urban population: 57.7% (2020 estimate)
• Rural population: 42.3% (2020 estimate)
• Population under 18: 21.9% (2022 estimate)
• Population over 65: 18.0% (2022 estimate)
• White alone: 68.9% (2022 estimate)
• Black or African American alone: 26.8% (2022 estimate)
• Hispanic or Latino: 4.9% (2022 estimate)
• American Indian and Alaska Native alone: 0.7% (2022 estimate)
• Asian alone: 1.6% (2022 estimate)
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone: 0.1% (2022 estimate)
• Two or More Races: 1.9% (2022 estimate)
• Per capita income: $30,458 (ranked 45th) (2021)
• Unemployment: 2.6% (2022 estimate)

Native American Tribes: At the time of European contact, Alabama was occupied by American Indians of the Muskogean language group, a collection of tribes that eventually gathered together to form the Creek Confederacy. Groups from the surrounding Mississippi River area formed the Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw tribes in the early 1600s. Prior to that, the area's prominent native peoples included the Coosas, the Talleses, the Mobilians, the Chickasaws, and the Alabamas. Many American Indians in Alabama were killed by Spanish explorers, and others died as a result of exposure to diseases introduced to North America by Europeans.

As more Europeans arrived in the region, relations with the American Indian population became increasingly strained. In the early 1800s, the Chickasaws ceded their land to the White colonizers, and in 1830 the US Congress signed the Indian Removal Bill. The Choctaws were "resettled" in 1832, and the Creeks, which included the Alabama Indians, were removed in 1836. The Chickasaws followed in 1837. They joined the Cherokee and Seminole tribes in Oklahoma and eventually joined the Five Civilized Tribes.

In the twenty-first century the Poarch Band of Creek Indians was the only federally recognized tribe in Alabama.

ENVIRONMENT AND GEOGRAPHY

• Total area: 52,420 sq mi (ranked 30th)
• Land area: 50,645 sq mi (96.6% of total area)
• Water area: 1,775 sq mi (3.4% of total area)
• Shoreline: 607 miles
• National parks: 9
• Highest point: Cheaha Mountain (2,407 feet)
• Lowest point: Gulf of Mexico (sea level)
• Highest temperature: 112° F (Centerville, September 6, 1925)
• Lowest temperature: -27° F (New Market, January 30, 1966)

Topography: More than half of Alabama's 52,000-square-mile area is considered a coastal plain, with the remaining area comprised of mixed terrain. Sandy beaches, bayous, and swamps are found along the Gulf of Mexico, while forests, prairies, rolling hills, and mountains reaching 2,000 feet occupy northern Alabama. All of the state's rivers flow into the Gulf, except the Tennessee, which meets the Ohio River in Kentucky.

Alabama has five major geographic regions. The southern area is referred to as the East Gulf Coastal Plain, and covers two-thirds of the state. The southwestern portion of the state is predominately swampland, while the eastern area is known for wiregrass, a tough grass with wiry roots that is beneficial to the growth of peanuts. The upper regions of the East Gulf Coastal Plain are covered in dense forests, and the region is divided in half is by what is referred to as the Black Belt prairie. This land is rich with black sticky clay, and many of the state's largest plantations can be found there.

The Piedmont Region is located in the east central area of the state, and it is here that most of Alabama's manufacturing activity takes place. Geographically, the area is made up of low hills and sandy valleys, and the state's highest elevation, Cheaha Mountain, is located in this region. To the northwest of the Piedmont is the mineral rich Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region. It is here that coal, iron ore, and limestone are mined.

The two areas in the northern part of Alabama comprise the Cumberland Plateau, which stretches to the northeast corner of the state, and the Highland Rim or the Interior Lower Plateau, which sits in the northwestern corner of the state.

Major Lakes

• Guntersville Lake
• Harding Lake
• Lake Tallapoosa
• Lewis Smith Lake
• Logan Martin Lake
• Neely Henry Lake
• Weiss Reservoir
• West Point Lake
• Wheeler Lake
• William B. Dannelly Reservoir
• Wilson Lake

Major Rivers

• Alabama River
• Black Warrior River
• Cahaba River
• Chattahoochee River
• Choctawhatchee River
• Conecah River
• Coosa River
• Mobile River
• Paint Rock River
• Pea River
• Tennessee River
• Tensaw River
• Tombigbee River

State and National Parks: Alabama boasts over twenty official state parks and nine national parks. The state also features Bankhead National Forest, Talladega National Forest, Conecuh National Forest, and Tuskegee National Forest. In these protected lands, visitors can explore many diverse landscapes, from 2,000-foot elevations to large lakes created by river dams.

Alabama's parks and monuments include the Horseshoe Bend National Military Park (Daviston), the Russell Cave National Monument (Bridgeport), the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail (Fort Payne), and the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site (Tuskegee Institute). Many of these locations offer visitors a glimpse of the history of early Alabama during the years of European settlement, as well as more current events associated with the civil rights movement. Evidence of prehistoric life in what is now Alabama has been discovered and chronicled at the Russell Cave National Monument. Other parks include Blue Springs State Park in Ozark, Cheaha State Park in Talladega, DeSoto State Park in Fort Payne, Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, and Wind Creek State Park in Alexander City.

Natural Resources: Alabama is the only state with all of the major natural resources necessary to make iron and steel. As a result, the state historically became the largest supplier of cast iron and steel pipes in the nation.

Other natural resources include the wood from the forests that cover two-thirds of the state, used primarily in lumber and paper products, fish and shellfish harvested by the commercial fishing industry that thrives in the Gulf, and the cotton, corn, peanuts, and soybean crops harvested from its fertile soil.

Plants and Animals: Alabama's national forests are referred to collectively as the state's "largest natural treasure." The forests are home to close to one thousand species of birds and animals including the white-tailed deer, the bobwhite quail, squirrels, turkeys, rabbits, raccoons, and various waterfowl. Threatened species that live in these forests are the gopher tortoise and the flattened musk turtle; the red-cockaded woodpecker is endangered.

Autumn in Alabama brings a colorful change to the state's foliage, though not until late October or early November when the days are shorter and the weather cooler. The best viewing locations are in the mountainous regions of the state.

Coastal plain trees include the longleaf pine, which is shade intolerant and thrives in sandy soil and on swamp edges, as well as pond pine, sand pine, and the swamp cyrilla. Other trees that can be found throughout Alabama are a variety of magnolias, hickories, oaks, and maples.

The Gulf waters off the coast of Alabama are the habitat of the flounder, snapper, mullet, shrimp, crabs, and oysters. The mudflats along the coast are the habitat of seabirds such as ibis, heron, egrets, and the Black-necked Stilt. Several bird sanctuaries located on the coast of Alabama allow birdwatchers to follow the winter migration of hundreds of varieties of the nation's songbirds.

Climate: Alabama is warm and sunny most of the year. In the winter, temperatures highs average around 50 degrees while the lows average around 33 degrees. Summer high temperatures average in the eighties, though there are some periods of over 90 degree weather, particularly in July. The gulf breezes keep the heat from getting oppressive during the day. The hot weather season in Alabama can begin as early as March, and autumn is generally mild.

Snow is rare in Alabama except in the higher elevations in the northern region of the state. The average annual rainfall is 45 inches, with March typically being the rainiest month. With its location on the Gulf of Mexico, Alabama is prone to severe hurricanes and tornadoes. On April 3, 1974, eight tornadoes raged through the state, killing eighty-six people and injuring close to 1,000 others. On average the state experiences twenty-three tornadoes a year.

EDUCATION AND CULTURE

Major Colleges and Universities

• Alabama A&M University (Normal)
• Alabama State University (Montgomery)
• Auburn University (Auburn, Montgomery)
• Faulkner University (Montgomery)
• Huntingdon College (Montgomery)
• Jacksonville State University (Jacksonville)
• Miles College (Birmingham)
• Oakwood University (Huntsville)
• Samford University (Birmingham)
• Stillman College (Tuscaloosa)
• Talladega College (Talladega)
• Troy University (Dothan, Montgomery, Troy)
• Tuskegee University (Tuskegee)
• University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Huntsville)
• University of Mobile (Mobile)
• University of North Alabama (Florence)
• University of South Alabama (Mobile)
• University of West Alabama (Livingston)

Major Museums

• Alabama Museum of Natural History, University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa)
• Anniston Museum of Natural History (Anniston)
• Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham)
• George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center (Tuskegee)
• Huntsville Museum of Art (Huntsville)
• Mobile Museum of Art (Mobile)
• Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (Montgomery)
• Moundville Archaeological Park, University of Alabama Museums (Moundville)
• Rosa Parks Museum (Montgomery)
• US Army Aviation Museum (Fort Rucker)
• US Space and Rocket Center (Huntsville)

Major Libraries

• Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library, University of Alabama Libraries (Tuscaloosa)
• Birmingham Public Library (Birmingham)
• Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (Huntsville)
• Reynolds-Finley Historical Library, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, University of Alabama (Birmingham)
• Mobile Public Library (Mobile)
• Montgomery City-County Public Library (Montgomery)
• Supreme Court and State Law Library (Montgomery)
• W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library, University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa)

Media

For decades the major newspapers in Alabama included the Birmingham News, the Mobile Press-Register, and the Huntsville Times. Print publication of all three ended in 2023, with content moving fully online under the al.com banner. Other papers include the Times Dailey, the Tuscaloosa News, and the Dothan Eagle.

National television networks operate various affiliates in the state. There are also many radio stations in Alabama.

ECONOMY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

• Gross domestic product (in millions USD): 277.8 (ranked 27th) (2022 estimate)
• GDP percent change: 1.6%

Major Industries: Many of Alabama's major industries, such as mining, forestry, commercial fishing, and agriculture, exist by virtue of the state's natural resources. Thanks to the abundance of coal, iron ore, limestone, and marble in the Piedmont Upland and the Appalachian Ridge regions, Alabama was a pioneer in the iron and steel industries. Other manufactured products include pulp and paper, wood products, rubber and plastic, textiles, chemicals, and transportation equipment. Tuscaloosa County is home to a large Mercedes Benz automobile factory, and Birmingham has one of the largest concentrations of financial institutions in the South.

The first rocket to take humans to the moon was built in Alabama. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center located in Huntsville, Alabama, employs thousands of civil service workers and subcontractors. The city is nicknamed "Rocket City, USA" for its importance to the space exploration industry.

The completion of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in 1984 was a significant development in Alabama's economy. More soil was removed to create the 234-mile waterway than was removed to create either the Panama or Suez Canals. The new waterway tied into the Intracoastal Waterway and connects Mobile, which is one of the nation's largest seaports, to Texas in the west and Florida in the east. The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway cuts both miles and days of travel for shipments that formerly had to be routed through New Orleans, Louisiana.

Tourism: In 2019 it was estimated that more than 28 million tourists visited and spent $16.8 billion in Alabama. Tourism dropped 20 percent, however, in 2020 due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The industry recovered strongly in the following years, with visitor numbers and spending exceeding pre-pandemic figures. The majority of the visitors to the state hail from other southern states such as Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Florida, and Mississippi.

One of Alabama's most popular areas is Baldwin County, located on the coast of the state, where visitors can enjoy the sandy beaches, play golf, and fish. Birmingham is located in Jefferson County and is served by one of the state's international airports. Many tourists in the city visit the six-block tribute to the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, in which Birmingham played a pivotal role.

Energy Production: Alabama Power, the second largest subsidiary of Southern Company, is the primary provider of energy in Alabama, providing electricity supply to about 1.5 million customers. Coal, nuclear power, and natural gas produce most of the state's energy. Another major provider of power in Alabama is the Tennessee Valley Authority. TVA operates three nuclear power plants and more than thirty hydroelectric facilities that use river water to turn electric generators.

Agriculture: For decades, cotton was the primary crop grown in Alabama. In 1915, however, there was a boll weevil infestation that forced farmers to find other crops in which to invest their time and energies. This was a significant enough event to warrant the erection of a Boll Weevil Monument in the town of Enterprise, Alabama, on December 11, 1919. The monument honors the insect that forced the state's farmers to diversify and begin growing corn, peanuts, soybeans, pecans (the state's official nut), watermelons, and peaches. Other agricultural commodities include beef and dairy cattle, poultry, and eggs.

Airports: Alabama has two international airports, one located in Birmingham and the other in Huntsville. Regional airports include Mobile, Montgomery, Dothan, and Northwest Alabama in Muscle Shoals. There are dozens of smaller local airports located throughout the state.

Seaports: The Alabama State Port Authority is responsible for managing the seaport located in Mobile Bay. The 45-foot deep channel serves the McDuffie Terminal, which is the largest port on the Gulf Coast. Major commodities imported include coal, aluminum, iron, and steel. Exports include coal, wood pulp, linerboard, paper, and lumber.

GOVERNMENT

• Governor: Kay Ivey (Republican)
• Present constitution date: 1901
• Electoral votes: 9
• Number of counties: 67
• Violent crime rate: 453.6 (per 100,000 residents) (2020 estimate)
• Death penalty: Yes

Constitution: After being governed by six different constitutions in less than two hundred years, Alabama called a special constitutional convention in 1901, and a new constitution was drafted and passed by the end of the year. The 1901 constitution has been amended several hundred times since it was written, and is now considered the one of the longest constitutions in the nation. Many of these amendments have served to right the wrongs committed by the state's forefathers, who included clauses stipulating that Black and White children must attend separate schools and denying African Americans the right to vote. The current version of the 1901 constitution is forty times longer than the US Constitution, and the state legislature has considered a referendum on a constitutional convention in order to draft a new, shorter constitution.

Branches of Government

Executive: Alabama's executive branch consists of a number of elected officials, including the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state auditor, secretary of state, state treasurer, superintendent of education, and a sheriff for each of the state's counties. The supreme executive power rests with the governor, who is elected every four years. All other officials also serve four-year terms.

Legislative: The legislative branch of government is divided into the Senate and the House of Representatives. All parties are elected to four-year terms. The House of Representatives has 105 members, each representing a district of approximately 40,000 people. The Senate is made up of thirty-five senators, each representing approximately 137,000 Alabama residents. The lieutenant governor of Alabama serves as the president of the Senate.

Judicial: Alabama's judicial branch of government is comprised of the Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, Chancery Courts, and Probate Court. The Supreme Court has nine justices, with the senior member serving as the chief justice. Justices serve for six-year terms.

HISTORY

ca. 1000 The Mississippian culture flourishes in much of what is now Alabama.

1519 Alonso Alvarez de Pineda explores the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay.

1540 Battle of Mabila (later named Mobile), a battle between Spanish explorers and Mississippian warriors, takes place and Hernando Soto claims the Mississippi River area for Spain.

1600 American Indians form the Creek Confederacy and create the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee tribes.

1702 Pierre LeMoyne, Sieur d'Iberville, and his brother, Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville, arrive in Mobile Bay and establish Fort Louis de la Mobile, the first French fort and settlement in the area.

1717 French settlers establish Fort Toulouse.

1721 One hundred enslaved people of African descent arrive at Mobile Harbor.

1724 French Code Noir institutionalizes slavery in Mobile.

1799 US Army Lt. John McClary takes Fort St. Stephens from the Spanish and the United States flag is raised.

1805 Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee tribes cede large portions of Alabama to European settlers.

1811-12 Schools open in Mobile and Huntsville, Alabama.

1813 The Spanish surrender Mobile to US forces.

1814 At the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Native Americans surrender land to the federal government under General Andrew Jackson. Half of what is currently known as Alabama opens up to White settlers.

1817 Congress passes an act that allows the division of the area surrounding the Mississippi River, and Mississippi achieves statehood.

1818 In January, the territorial capital of St. Stephens hosts the first session of the Alabama legislature. In November, the territorial capital moves to Cahaba. The Alabama, the area's first steamboat, is constructed in St. Stephens. Construction begins on Fort Morgan at Mobile Point.

1819 Alabama joins the Union as the twenty-second state. The US Constitution is adopted and Cahaba is chosen as the state capital.

1820 The second session of the state legislature meets in Cahaba.

1826 The state capital is moved to Tuscaloosa.

1831 The Tuscumbia Railway opens. It provides river traffic with a detour around the dangerous Muscle Shoals of the Tennessee River.

1846 The capital moves to Montgomery.

1849 The state capital building in Montgomery is destroyed by fire.

1854 The first statewide education system is developed as a result of the Alabama Public School Act.

1856 Underground mining begins near Montevallo.

1861 The Civil War begins on January 4. On January 11, Alabama becomes the fourth state to secede from the Union by a vote of 61–39.

1864 On April 30, after the Battle of Mobile Bay, Fort Morgan is surrendered to the Union.

1865 Slavery is abolished and the Civil War ends.

1868 Alabama rejoins the Union once the Reconstruction Constitution is ratified.

1871 Birmingham is founded and becomes the center of the nation's iron and steel industry.

1881 The Tuskegee Institute is established as a school for the education of African American teachers. No tuition is charged provided that graduates agree to teach for two years in Alabama schools.

1886 The world's first electric trolley system is introduced in Montgomery.

1895 The Alabama flag is designed by John Sanford Jr. and adopted.

1901 The Alabama Department of Archives and History is founded. It is the first state funded agency in the country.

1902 Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill performs the first open-heart surgery in the Western Hemisphere when he sutures a knife wound in a boy's heart in Montgomery.

1909 Boll weevils enter the state via the Mississippi border and destroy most of the state's cotton crops.

1910 Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright establish the first flight school for powered airplanes in Montgomery.

1919 The state erects a boll weevil monument in Enterprise, Alabama.

1936 Alabama native Jesse Owens sets four world records and earns four gold medals at the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany.

1937 Sales tax is instituted to fund public education in Alabama.

1946 Fort Morgan, which had been used as a training base during wartime, is deactivated and turned over to the state as a tourist attraction.

1955Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a White passenger. This event is remembered as a major turning point for civil rights in Alabama and the United States.

1956 The Supreme Court rules that there can be no segregated seating on public transportation.

1960President Eisenhower dedicates the Marshall Space Center in Huntsville.

1961 Monroeville native Harper Lee wins a Pulitzer Prize for her novel To Kill A Mockingbird. A civil rights group known as the Freedom Riders arrive in Montgomery to test the 1956 ruling against segregated bus seating, and are attacked by an angry mob. The event eventually leads to a federal law prohibiting segregated seating.

1962 Four African American students are killed when White supremacists bomb the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. National attention focuses on racial violence in Alabama; George Wallace begins his first of four terms as governor.

1965Martin Luther King Jr. leads 3,200 marchers in support of civil rights for African Americans from Selma to Montgomery. State troopers attack 600 marchers with billy clubs and tear gas, hospitalizing fifty. The event is later called "Bloody Sunday."

1972 George Wallace is left paralyzed from the waist down after an assassination attempt by Arthur Bremer in Maryland while Wallace was campaigning for president.

1993 Governor Guy Hunt is convicted of misuse of public funds and is removed from office.

1994 Alabama native Heather Whitestone wins the Miss America beauty pageant. Deaf since childhood, she is the first person with a disability to win the pageant.

2001 Birmingham native Condoleezza Rice is appointed National Security Advisor by President George W. Bush. She is the first woman to be appointed to the office.

2003 A 2.6-ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments is removed from the rotunda of the state judicial building on August 27, after Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's refusal to obey a federal court order to move the monument out of public view. Protestors flock to the building in attempt to prevent the removal of the monument, which critics maintain is an official state endorsement of a single religion, in violation of the US Constitution.

2004 Hurricane Ivan devastates the Alabama coast. A $7.5 million federal grant is issued for disaster relief.

2005 Birmingham native Condoleezza Rice is appointed Secretary of State by President George W. Bush. She is the first African American woman to be appointed to the office. A state of emergency is declared in light of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

2007 Toward the end of 2006 and into 2007, Alabama and other southeastern states begin to suffer one of the worst droughts in regional history. Meteorologists note that 2007 was the driest in over 113 years. Watering bans and water rationing initiatives are instituted in Alabama and other states. In addition, states begin using emergency water supplies and importing water from neighboring regions.

2011 On April 27, killer tornadoes strike several southern states. Alabama suffers the worst damage, with 238 people dead and an estimated $2.45 billion to $4.2 billion in insured losses.

2017 A special election to fill the US Senate seat left vacant by Jeff Sessions, who left to become attorney general under President Donald Trump, gains national attention. Highly conservative former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Roy Moore is narrowly defeated by Democrat Doug Jones, marking the first time since 1992 that Alabama voters elected a Democratic US senator.

2020 Alabama's first COVID-19 case is reported on March 13 and Governor Kay Ivey orders residents to stay home through most of April. Though businesses start reopening in May, the state continues to face the effects of the pandemic.

2022 Alabama's Human Life Protection Act, one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country, goes into effect after legal challenges are dismissed in the wake of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

Henry "Hank" Aaron, 1934–2021 (Mobile) , Professional baseball player, sports hero.

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead, 1902–68 (Huntsville) , Actor.

Charles Barkley, 1963– (Leeds) , Professional basketball player.

Nat King Cole, 1919–65 (Montgomery) , Musician, entertainer.

Laverne Cox, 1984– (Mobile) , Actor and activist.

Zelda Fitzgerald, 1900–1948 (Montgomery) , Writer.

Lionel Hampton, 1908–2002 (Birmingham) , Jazz musician.

William Christopher (W. C.) Handy, 1873–1958 (Florence) , Musician, nicknamed the "Father of the Blues."

Emmylou Harris, 1947– (Birmingham) , Musician.

Bo Jackson, 1962– (Bessemer) , Professional football and baseball player.

Kate Jackson, 1948– (Birmingham) , Actor.

Percy Lavon Julian, 1899–1975 (Montgomery) , Chemist, inventor.

Helen Keller, 1880–1968 (Tuscumbia) , Author, educator.

Coretta Scott King, 1927–2006 (Heiberger) , Civil rights leader.

Harper Lee, 1926–2016 (Monroeville) , Author, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960).

Carl Lewis, 1961– (Birmingham) , Track and field athlete.

John Lewis, 1940–2020 (near Troy) , Congressman, civil rights leader, author.

Joe Louis, 1914–81 (Lafayette) , Boxer.

Willie Mays, 1931– (Westfield) , Professional baseball player.

Jim Nabors, 1930–2017 (Sylacauga) , Actor, singer.

Jesse Owens, 1913–80 (Danville) , Olympic athlete.

Rosa Parks, 1913–2005 (Tuskegee) , Civil rights activist.

Condoleezza Rice, 1954– (Birmingham) , US secretary of state.

Lionel Richie, 1949– (Tuskegee) , Singer and songwriter.

David Satcher, 1941– (Aniston) , Sixteenth surgeon general of the United States (1998–2002).

Ken Stabler, 1945–2015 (Foley) , Former professional football player.

George Wallace, 1919–98 (Clio) , Politician and former four-term state governor.

William Weatherford, 1780–1824 (Red Eagle) , Creek Indian leader.

Heather Whitestone, 1973– (Dothan) , Miss America 1995.

TRIVIA

• The city of Enterprise is home to the Boll Weevil Monument, commemorating the cotton-devouring insect that prompted Alabama's farmers to experiment with other crops in the early 1900s.
• On August 5, 1864, during the Battle of Mobile Bay, Admiral David Farragut issued the command "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" which has become one of the world's most famous battle cries.
• Alabama's state flower, the Camellia, is the only symbol not native to Alabama (it's originally from Asia).
• Members of the country music band Alabama all hail from Fort Payne, which is also the location of the Alabama Museum and Fan Club, which is devoted to the band.
• Huntsville, nicknamed "Rocket City, USA," is the leader in research on rockets and space travel. The first rocket to put humans on the moon was built there.
• The first open-heart surgery in the Western hemisphere was performed in Montgomery in 1902.

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Jennifer Petersen