Alabama Timeline
1540: On October 18, 1540, the largest Indian battle in North America occurred when the Spaniards under Hernando de
Soto attacked Chief Tuscaloosa's village of Mabila (or Mauvila). Most of the 2,000 inhabitants were killed during the battle.
1833: The night the stars fell on Alabama occurred when a fantastic meteor shower fell across the skies of the American southeast.
1861: The Confederate flag was designed and first blown in Alabama.
1881: On February 10, 1881, the Alabama legislature established Tuskagee Institute for the education of “colored teachers.”
1886: The world's first electric trolley system was introduced in Montgomery, Alabama.
1902: At Montgomery, Alabama, 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.
1919: The Boll Weevil Monument was dedicated on December 11, 1919, at Enterprise, Alabama. It is the world's only monument dedicated to an insect pest.
Address: Boll Weevil Monument,
Intersection of Main and College, Enterprise, Alabama 36331-0577; 334-347-0581;
800-235-4730; Fax: 334-393-8204.
Web: http://www.enterprisealabama.com.
1941: The Tuskagee Airmen began training.
1955: Rosa Park's refusal to change seats
on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus begins the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the
landmarks in the American civil rights movement.
1995: Heather Whitestone of Alabama became the first Miss America chosen with a disability.
2002: Birmingham, Alabama, native Vonetta
Flowers became the first African American to win a gold medal in the winter
Olympics when she and her teammate Jill Bakken won the gold medal in bobsledding
in Salt Lake City, Utah.
