Alabama (/ˌæləˈbæmə/ AL-ə-BAM-ə) is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west.

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.

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.

The Wetumpka crater is a 5-mile (8 km)-wide meteorite impact crater located in Elmore County, just north of Montgomery. It is considered Alabama’s greatest natural disaster, created by a meteorite impact about 80 million years ago.

In the Alabama language, the word for a person of Alabama lineage is Albaamo (or variously Albaama or Albàamo in different dialects; the plural form is Albaamaha).

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

Hurricane Ivan caused over $18 billion in damage in Alabama, making it one of the most destructive storms to hit the state in modern history.

Alabama is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird. It is also known as the “Heart of Dixie” and the “Cotton State.”

The 2011 tornado outbreak in Alabama resulted in 238 deaths and caused significant devastation to many communities across the state.