(1519) Spanish explorer, Alonzo Alvarez de Piñeda, explored Gulf of Mexico,
including Mobile Bay
(1539 - 1541) Hernando de Soto explored Southeast; met Chief Tuskaloosa in
Battle of Maubila
(1559 - 1561) Don Tristán de Luna attempted to establish Spanish colony;
failed
(1600) Developments created by Indian tribes
(1702) Le Moyne brothers established Fort Louis de la Mobile and settlement
on Mobile River
(1712) La Moyne brothers moved fort and settlement to present day Mobile
(1717) Fort Toulouse established on Coosa River to trade with Indians
(1721) Ship Africane sailed into Mobile harbor with over 100 slaves
(1724) Slavery institutionalized in Mobile area by the French Code Noir
(Black
Code)
(1756 - 1763) Seven Years War
(French and Indian War), won by Great
Britain; France ceded territories east of Mississippi River
(1780) Spanish captured Mobile during American Revolution
(1798) Mississippi Territory organized from western Georgia, included Alabama
(1799) U. S. took possession of Fort St. Stephens from Spanish; Andrew Ellicott
surveyed boundary between U. S. and Spanish West Florida, placed stone north of
Mobile to mark 31st latitude
(1802) Georgia formally ceded western claims at 31st parallel
(1805 - 1806) White settlements of Indian lands began
(1813) U. S. captured Mobile from Spanish
(1813 - 1814) Creek Indian Wars
(1814) Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated Creeks; lands ceded to federal government;
British failed in attack on Fort Bowyer on Mobile Point
(1815) British forces captured Fort Bowyer; abandoned when heard war was
over
(1817) Alabama Territory created
(1818) First legislature of Alabama Territory met at St. Stephens; Cahaba
designated as state capital
(1819) State constitution adopted; first general election held; Alabama became
22nd U. S. state
(1820) Steamboat Harriett reached Montgomery; river trade opened between
Montgomery and Mobile
(1820 - 1840) Over 150,000 slaves brought into Alabama
(1826) Capital relocated to Tuscaloosa
(1830 - 1835) Indian Removal Bill treaties signed; Indians ceded lands in
Alabama for western lands
(1832) First railroad, Tuscumbia, opened
(1833) Meteor shower caused night to be known as "the night stars fell
on Alabama"
(1835 - 1836) Alabama gold rush in east-central hill country
(1836 - 1837) Second Creek War; Battle of Hodby's Bridge was last Indian
battle in Alabama
(1846) Montgomery selected as state capital
(1849) Capitol in Montgomery destroyed by fire
(1852) Senator William Rufus King elected u.s. vice president; died before
taking office
(1861) Civil War began; Alabama became fourth state to secede from Union
(1861 - 1865) (194) land battles, (8) naval battles occurred within Alabama
boundaries during America's Civil War
(1868) Alabama readmitted to Union
(1895) State flag adopted
(1909) Wright brothers established flying school outside Montgomery; boll
weevil entered state, destroyed cotton crops
(1926) University of Alabama won Rose Bowl
(1931) Conviction and death sentence by all-white jury of black youths, "Scottsboro
Boys" caused international outrage
(1936) Jesse Owen won Olympic gold medals in Berlin, Germany
(1937) State sales tax instituted to fund education
(1944) First oil well in Alabama
(1948) Dixiecrat Convention met in Birmingham, elected Strom Thurmond as
Presidential candidate; Henry Truman's name not on ballot
(1954) State Attorney General nominee, Albert Patterson, murdered in Phenix
City, "wickedest city in America"
(1955) Black seamstress, Rosa Parks, arrested for refusing to give seat on
bus to white passenger; Montgomery Bus Boycott began; Parks named "mother of
modern day civil rights movement"
(1956) Army Ballistic Missile Agency established at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville;
segregated seating on Montgomery's public transportation vehicles banned by
Supreme Court; Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks among first people to ride
integrated bus; Montgomery Bus Boycott ended
(1961) Freedom Ride, integrated bus trip from Washington, D. C.arrived at
bus terminal in Montgomery, attacked by angry mob
(1963) Civil Rights targets bombed in Birmingham; four children killed in
bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church; first African-American students register
at University of Alabama
(1965) 600 demonstrators made first of three attempts to march from Selma
to Montgomery protesting voting restrictions on black Americans, attacks by law
enforcement officers forced them to turn back, broadcast across U.S. caused surge
of support for protestors; Martin Luther King led 3,200 marchers from Selma toward
Montgomery; Voting Rights Act became law, ending voting restrictions
(1967) Lurleen Wallace elected first woman governor in state
(1972) Gov. George Wallace shot in Maryland during presidential campaign,
paralyzed from waist down
(1981) Academy of Country Music selected music group, Alabama, "Vocal
Group of the Year"
(1993) Governor Guy Hunt, removed from office, convicted of misuse of public
funds
(1995) Heather Whitestone became first Miss America with a disability
(1998) Dr. David Satcher of Anniston appointed U. S. Surgeon General
(2001) Condoleezza Rice, Birmingham native, appointed National Security Advisor
to President Bush
(2002) Vonetta Flowers became first African American to win gold medal in
Winter Olympics; Bobby Frank Cherry convicted of murder for his part in 1963 bombing
of 16th Street Baptist Church
(2004) Condoleezza Rice appointed U.S. Secretary of State by President George
W. Bush
(2005) Hurricane Katrina caused major damages along coastal areas