The Tombigbee District in Alabama covered the area within a few miles of the Tombigbee River, including portions of what is today southern Clarke County, northernmost Mobile County, and most of Washington County.

Alabama hosts 420 bird species that spend at least part of their year in the state.

There are 73 amphibian species in Alabama.

3.2% of Alabama’s area is water.

Alabama receives an average of 56 inches (1,400 mm) of rainfall annually.

Alabama remained chiefly agricultural, with an economy tied to cotton. The state constitution of 1868 created Alabama’s first public school system and expanded women’s rights. Legislators funded public road and railroad projects, despite allegations of fraud and misappropriation.

The French controlled Alabama from 1702 to 1763 as part of La Louisiane. After the French lost to the British in the Seven Years’ War, it became part of British West Florida from 1763 to 1783. Following the American ...Read more

A company of cavalry soldiers from Huntsville, Alabama, joined Nathan Bedford Forrest’s battalion in Kentucky. Their uniforms had yellow trim, leading to them being nicknamed “Yellowhammer,” a name later applied to all Alabama troops in the Confederate Army.

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

Alabama ranks fifth in the nation for the diversity of its flora, with nearly 4,000 pteridophyte and spermatophyte plant species.