46 Fun Facts About Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama, was founded in 1871 by which developer?

The Elyton Land Company, formed by railroad and real-estate investors, laid out Birmingham in 1871 where two rail lines crossed; the older town of Elyton was annexed into the city in 1910.

Birmingham, Alabama, takes its name from an English namesake known for what?

The founders wanted an industrial city to match; the ironworks came within a decade.

Which nickname did Birmingham earn from its explosive growth between 1881 and 1920?

Birmingham was dubbed the Magic City because it rose from farmland in 1871 to Alabama's largest city by 1910, as if conjured; it was also called the Pittsburgh of the South for its steel output.

Which three steelmaking raw materials lie close together in the Birmingham District?

Iron ore from the ridge south of town, coal from nearby seams and limestone all lie within a few miles of the 1871 town site, a rare combination that is why the city was planted there.

Birmingham is the seat of which Alabama county?

Jefferson County's 2011 bankruptcy filing was the largest by a US local government at the time, though the city itself stayed solvent.

Which city overtook Birmingham as Alabama's largest after the 2020 census?

Huntsville's 215,006 residents in the 2020 census edged past Birmingham's 200,733, making it Alabama's largest city for the first time, though Birmingham's metro area remained the state's biggest.

Which institution was the Birmingham metro area's largest employer in 2024?

The University of Alabama at Birmingham, together with its hospital system, is the largest single employer in both the Birmingham metro and the state, with a workforce well above 20,000 in 2024.

Which US Secretary of State was born in Birmingham in 1954?

Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State from 2005 to 2009, was born in Birmingham on 14 November 1954 and spent her early childhood in the city's Titusville neighbourhood.

The Vulcan statue on the ridge south of downtown is the world's largest statue made of what?

Vulcan is the Roman god of fire and the forge; the 56-foot figure was made to advertise Birmingham's iron.

Vulcan was originally cast for which event, where it won a Grand Prize?

Vulcan was cast in Birmingham and shipped to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, where it won the Grand Prize; it did not reach its hilltop perch above the city until 1936.

When did the neon torch Vulcan held from 1946 to 1999 glow red?

The Jaycees' torch glowed red for 24 hours after any traffic fatality in the city and green the rest of the time; the restoration finished in 2004 gave Vulcan back his spear.

Which suburb is the butt of the long-running joke about the view of Vulcan's bare backside?

'Moon Over Homewood' has been a local gag for decades; the statue's head alone weighs 11,000 pounds.

Sloss Furnaces produced pig iron in Birmingham from 1882 until which year?

Sloss Furnaces made pig iron from 1882 until it shut down in 1971; it was named a National Historic Landmark in 1981 and reopened in 1983 as a museum of industry and a concert venue.

Rickwood Field, which opened on 18 August 1910, holds what distinction?

Rickwood Field is the oldest professional ballpark in the United States; industrialist Rick Woodward named it after himself, and the Barons beat Montgomery 3-2 at its opening on 18 August 1910.

Which baseball legend began his pro career with the Birmingham Black Barons at Rickwood Field in 1948?

Mays died just days before MLB played its first-ever regular-season game in Alabama at Rickwood in June 2024.

Which two teams played the first Major League game in Alabama, at Rickwood Field in June 2024?

St. Louis won 6-5 in a game honouring the Negro Leagues and Juneteenth; the annual Rickwood Classic throwback game dates from 1996.

Which local minister invited Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC to Birmingham for the 1963 campaign?

Fred Shuttlesworth, leader of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, invited King and the SCLC to Birmingham; the campaign was code-named Project C, for confrontation, and opened with sit-ins and marches in April 1963.

Where was Martin Luther King Jr. when he wrote his famous Birmingham letter in April 1963?

King wrote the letter in his cell in the Birmingham jail after his Good Friday arrest on 12 April 1963, answering eight white clergymen who had called the protests unwise and untimely.

The Children's Crusade of May 1963 saw Bull Connor's men turn what on young marchers?

On 3 May 1963 Commissioner Bull Connor's firefighters and police turned high-pressure fire hoses and police dogs on the young marchers; photographs of the attacks shocked the nation and pushed the Kennedy administration to act.

By 10 May 1963 Birmingham's business leaders agreed to desegregate what?

The 10 May 1963 agreement pledged to desegregate lunch counters, restrooms, fitting rooms and drinking fountains within 90 days and to hire Black sales clerks; a month later Kennedy proposed the bill that became the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

On what date in 1963 was 16th Street Baptist Church bombed, killing four girls?

The Klan bomb exploded on Sunday 15 September 1963, killing Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, all 14, and Carol Denise McNair, 11.

Who was the first Klansman convicted, in 1977, for the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing?

Robert 'Dynamite Bob' Chambliss was convicted of murder in November 1977 in a case brought by Alabama attorney general Bill Baxley; Thomas Blanton followed in 2001 and Bobby Frank Cherry in 2002.

Which filmmaker made the documentary '4 Little Girls' about the church bombing?

Spike Lee's 1997 documentary 4 Little Girls was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; the four victims were posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2013.

Which green space beside 16th Street Baptist Church was the staging ground for the 1963 marches?

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute stands across the street from the church, now a National Historic Landmark.

Who became Birmingham's first African American mayor in 1979?

Richard Arrington Jr., a former Miles College biology professor and city councilman, won the 1979 election and served five terms as mayor, until 1999.

Birmingham lies in which long depression, flanked by parallel ridges?

Birmingham sits in Jones Valley, a long trough running northeast to southwest between parallel ridges of the Appalachian foothills; the 1871 town grid was laid along the valley floor where two railroads crossed.

Which international multi-sport event did Birmingham host in July 2022?

Birmingham hosted the World Games, a festival of non-Olympic sports, from 7 to 17 July 2022; the city was awarded the 2021 edition in 2015 and the pandemic pushed it back a year.

Birmingham's record high temperature of 107 F was set in which year?

Birmingham's all-time high of 107 F was recorded in July 1930; the city has a humid subtropical climate of hot, humid summers, mild winters and plenty of rain.

Which soft-drink bottler, founded in Birmingham in 1901, started out making only ginger ale?

It is now a major Pepsi bottler; Coca-Cola Bottling Company United, founded a year later, is the third-largest Coke bottler in the US.

Which two Birmingham-based companies are major iron-pipe manufacturers?

The American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO), founded in 1905, and McWane, founded in 1921, both make ductile-iron pipe and fittings from Birmingham headquarters.

Which country-music singer was born in Birmingham in 1947?

Emmylou Harris was born in Birmingham on 2 April 1947, the daughter of a Marine officer, and grew up in North Carolina and Virginia before her career took off alongside Gram Parsons in the early 1970s.

Which ridge immediately south of downtown gives Vulcan his perch?

Red Mountain, the ridge immediately south of downtown, takes its name from the rust-red seam of iron ore that was mined there for the city's furnaces; Vulcan has stood on its crest since 1936.

Which industrialist founded the city of Bessemer, southwest of Birmingham, in 1887?

Henry DeBardeleben, son-in-law of Alabama industrial pioneer Daniel Pratt, founded Bessemer in 1887 as a rival iron town and named it for the English steelmaking process.

Which magnitude-5.1 tremor shook the Birmingham area in 1916?

The Irondale earthquake of 18 October 1916, magnitude 5.1, is the strongest ever recorded in Alabama; it damaged chimneys east of Birmingham and was felt across several neighbouring states.

Which arena and theatre complex downtown hosts Birmingham's biggest concerts and conventions?

The Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC), opened in 1976, includes Legacy Arena, a concert hall, a theatre and exhibition halls; Protective Stadium opened beside it in 2021.

Which nine-time Olympic gold medallist in track and field was born in Birmingham in 1961?

Carl Lewis was born in Birmingham on 1 July 1961 and raised in Willingboro, New Jersey; he won nine Olympic gold medals between 1984 and 1996 in the sprints, relay and long jump.

Which reserve east of downtown is one of the largest urban wild spaces in the United States?

Ruffner Mountain Nature Center, a 1,040-acre preserve on a former iron-mining ridge east of downtown, is one of the largest privately held urban nature preserves in the United States.

Fifty unsolved racist bombings between 1945 and 1962 earned the city which grim nickname?

Fred Shuttlesworth's own home was among the targets. In 1998 local attorney James Rotch wrote the Birmingham Pledge against racism, since used in all 50 states.

Birmingham's 1927 stadium nicknamed 'The Old Gray Lady' honours which organisation?

Legion Field, opened in 1927, was named in honour of the American Legion, the veterans' organisation; at its peak it seated 83,091 and carried 'Football Capital of the South' on the upper deck that was later removed.

Which rivalry game was played in Birmingham every year from 1948 to 1988?

Neither campus stadium could hold the crowds, so tickets were split equally. Auburn took its home games to Jordan-Hare in 1989 and Alabama followed in 2000.

Which basketball superstar spent the 1994 season playing for the Birmingham Barons?

Michael Jordan hit .202 for the Barons in 1994 during his break from the NBA, playing at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, the team's home from 1988 until it moved downtown to Regions Field in 2013.

The Birmingham Barons are the Double-A affiliate of which Major League club?

The current franchise arrived in 1981 from Montgomery, where it had played as the Rebels, and was bought by Diamond Baseball Holdings in 2023.

What is the nickname of the Alabama Theatre's 1927 Mighty Wurlitzer organ?

The Alabama Theatre's Wurlitzer, installed for the theatre's opening in December 1927, is nicknamed Big Bertha; it rises from the orchestra pit on a lift and is played before the theatre's film screenings.

Which 19-acre downtown green space, opened in 2010, do locals call 'Birmingham's Living Room'?

Railroad Park, 19 acres beside the rail lines downtown, opened in September 2010 and was partly built from bricks salvaged from surrounding warehouses; since 2016 the Rotary Trail greenway has linked it toward Sloss Furnaces.

Legion Field's all-time record crowd of 83,810 came for what event?

The record crowd came for the 1996 Olympic men's soccer match between the United States and Argentina on 20 July 1996; Legion Field had replaced its artificial turf with natural grass the year before to qualify as a venue.

Birmingham's Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum holds the world's largest collection of what?

The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, opened in 2003 beside a racetrack east of the city, holds more than 1,400 motorcycles, recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest motorcycle collection in the world.