The Great Migration led tens of thousands of African Americans from rural Alabama to seek opportunities in northern and midwestern cities, significantly affecting Alabama’s population growth rate from 1910 to 1920.

Alabama is home to roughly 307 native freshwater fish species.

The name “Alabama” first appears in written accounts from the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1540, with Garcilaso de la Vega using Alibamo, the Knight of Elvas using Alibamu, and Rodrigo Ranjel using Limamu.

The Rosenwald Fund helped fund the construction of schools for African American children in Alabama. Between 1913 and 1937, 387 schools, seven teachers’ houses, and several vocational buildings were built with partial funding from the Rosenwald Fund.

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

During Reconstruction, Alabama was represented in Congress by three African-American congressmen: Jeremiah Haralson, Benjamin S. Turner, and James T. Rapier.

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

Alabama was under military rule from the end of the war in May 1865 until its official restoration to the Union in 1868.

About three-fifths of Alabama’s land area is part of the Gulf Coastal Plain, a gentle plain that descends towards the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.

Cahaba in Dallas County was Alabama’s first permanent state capital from 1820 to 1825.