Notable civil rights events in Alabama included the Montgomery bus boycott (1955–1956), Freedom Rides in 1961, and the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. These events contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting ...Read more

A super outbreak of 62 tornadoes hit Alabama in April 2011, killing 238 people and devastating many communities.

Alabama ranks ninth in the number of deaths from lightning and tenth in the number of deaths from lightning strikes per capita.

Alabama’s population increased from under 10,000 people in 1810 to more than 300,000 people by 1830.

In 2002, the 11th US Circuit Court ordered the removal of the Ten Commandments statue. Chief Justice Roy Moore refused to follow the court order, leading to protests. The monument was eventually removed in August 2003.

Alabama is the 30th largest by area and the 24th-most populous of the 50 U.S. states.

The use of state names derived from Native American languages is common in the U.S.; an estimated 26 states have names of Native American origin.

Alabama has a total area of 52,419 square miles (135,760 km²).

An 1842 article in the Jacksonville Republican proposed that “Alabama” meant ‘Here We Rest’, a notion popularized in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beaufort Meek.

The economy of Alabama’s Black Belt region was built around large cotton plantations whose owners’ wealth grew mainly from slave labor. Southeastern planters and traders from the Upper South brought slaves with them as the cotton plantations in Alabama ...Read more