 Alabama
Information
Capital City:
Montgomery
Economy: Manufacturing, textiles and agriculture.
Population: 4,447,100
Time Zone: 6 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (-6 GMT).
Daylight Saving Time is observed April-October
 Alabama's
Flag:
Crimson St. Andrew's cross on a white field, patterned after the Confederate
Battle Flag, and adopted in 1895. The bars forming the cross must not
be less than six inches broad and must extend diagonally across the flag
from side to side.
History
of Alabama:
Spanish explorers are believed to have arrived at Mobile Bay in
1519, and the territory was visited in 1540 by the explorer Hernando
de Soto.
The first permanent European
settlement in Alabama was founded by the French at Fort Louis de
la Mobile in 1702. The British gained control of the area in 1763
by the Treaty of Paris, but had to cede almost all the Alabama region
to the U.S. after the American Revolution.
The Confederacy was founded
at Montgomery in February 1861 and, for a time, the city was the
Confederate capital. During the last part of the 19th century, the
economy of the state slowly improved.
At Tuskegee Institute, founded
in 1881 by Booker T. Washington, Dr. George Washington Carver carried
out his famous agricultural research. In the 1950s and '60s, Alabama
was the site of such landmark civil-rights actions as the bus boycott
in Montgomery (1955–56) and the “Freedom March”
from Selma to Montgomery (1965).
Today paper, chemicals, rubber
and plastics, apparel and textiles, and primary metals constitute
the leading industries of Alabama. Continuing as a major manufacturer
of coal, iron, and steel, Birmingham is also noted for its world-renowned
medical center, especially for heart surgery.
The state ranks high in the
production of poultry, soybeans, milk, vegetables, livestock, wheat,
cattle, cotton, peanuts, fruits, hogs, and corn.
Points of interest include
the Helen Keller birthplace “Ivy Green” at Tuscumbia,
the Space and Rocket Center at Huntsville, the White House of the
Confederacy, the restored state Capitol, the Civil Rights Memorial,
the Shakespeare Festival Theater Complex in Montgomery, the Civil
Rights Institute in Birmingham, the Russell Cave near Bridgeport,
the Bellingrath Gardens at Theodore, the USS Alabama at Mobile,
Mound State Monument near Tuscaloosa, and the Gulf Coast area.
Other Alabama Links:
Alabama Bureau of Tourism
and Travel
Alabama Department of Education
Alabama League of Municipalities
Business Council of Alabama
Alabama Travel Council
Alabama Public Library Service
|
