After seceding, Alabama joined the Confederate States of America, and the Confederacy’s capital was initially at Montgomery. Alabama contributed about 120,000 soldiers to the war effort, though few battles were fought in the state.

In 1960, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center was established in Huntsville, boosting Alabama’s economic growth by developing a local aerospace industry.

The first European settlement in Alabama was founded by the French at Old Mobile in 1702. The city was moved to the current site of Mobile in 1711.

The northern part of Alabama, along the Tennessee River Valley, is most vulnerable to tornadoes.