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 1519
Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda of Spain explores Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Mexico, including Mobile Bay.
1528 .. 1536
Spaniard Panfilo de Narvaez fails in Florida Gulf Coast colonization attempt.
1539 .. 1541
Hernando de Soto explores Southeast, meeting Chief Tuskaloosa (Tascaluza) in Battle of Maubila (October 1540).
1559 .. 1561
Don Tristan de Luna fails to establish permanent Spanish colony on Alabama-Florida coast.
Ca. 1600
Beginning of the rise of the historic tribes of Alabama: Muskogean-speaking Indian groups, remnants of the Mississippian chiefdoms, coalesces into the Creek Confederacy. Similar developments take place among the other heirs to the Mississippian tradition, creating the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee tribes.
1702
Le Moyne brothers, Iberville and Bienville, establish French fort and settlement at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff; settlement and fort moved downriver to Mobile site, 1712.
1717
Fort Toulouse on the Coosa River constructed to trade with the Indians and offset influence of British; farthest eastward penetration of the French.
1720
French Louisiana capital moved from Mobile west to Biloxi; then to New Orleans (1722).
1721
Africane sails into Mobile harbor with cargo of over 100 slaves.
1724
French Code Noir extended from French West Indies to North American colonies, institutionalizing slavery in Mobile area.
1780
Spanish capture Mobile during American Revolution and retain the West and East Floridas as part of war-ending treaty.
1799
Andrew Ellicott surveys the boundary between the United States and Spanish West Florida and places a stone north of Mobile to mark the 31st latitude.
1802
Georgia formally cedes western claims for its southern boundary at the 31st parallel.
1803 .. 1811
Federal Road conceived and built connecting Milledgeville, Georgia to Fort Stoddert, American outpost north of Mobile.
1805 .. 1806
Indian cessions opened up to white settlement large portions of western (Choctaw) and northern (Chickasaw and Cherokee) Alabama.
1810
West Florida, from Pearl River to the Mississippi, annexed by U.S. from Spain.
1811 .. 1812
Schools established in Mobile (Washington Academy 1811) and Huntsville (Green Academy 1812).
1811 .. 1816
Newspapers established in Mobile to the south (Sentinel 1811; Gazette 1812) and Huntsville to the north (Alabama Republican 1816).
1813 .. 1814
Creek Indian War
July 1813 — Battle of Burnt Corn Creek
August 1813 — Fort Mims Massacre
December 1813 — Battle of Holy Ground
March 1814 — Battle of Horseshoe Bend
April,1813
U.S. annexed West Florida, from the Pearl River to the Perdido River, from Spain; Spanish surrender Mobile to American forces.
August,1814
Treaty of Fort Jackson signed at Fort Toulouse. Creek Indians forced to cede lands to U.S. comprising nearly half of the state. U.S. represented by General Andrew Jackson.
September,1814
British attack on Fort Bowyer on Mobile Point fails, prompting them to abandon plans to capture Mobile and turn towards New Orleans.
February,1815
British forces take Fort Bowyer on return from defeat at New Orleans, then abandon upon learning that the war is over.
1817
Alabama Territory created, with temporary capital at St. Stephens, when Mississippi becomes a state.
1818
The Alabama, the area's first steamboat, constructed in St. Stephens.
Cedar Creek Furnace, the state's first blast furnace and commerical pig-iron producer, established in (now) Franklin County.
1819
March 2, 1819: President Monroe signs the Alabama enabling act.
July 1819: Constitutional Convention meets in Huntsville. Constitution adopted with Cahaba selected as temporary seat of government for the new State.
October 25 through December 17, 1819: General Assembly meets in Huntsville until the Cahaba Capitol is constructed.
December 14, 1819: Alabama enters Union as 22nd state.
1822
December--The Legislature charters Athens Female Academy, which later becomes Athens State University.
1825
French general and American Revolution-hero, the Marquis de Lafayette, toured Alabama at Governor Israel Pickens' invitation.
1826
Capitol moved to Tuscaloosa.
1830
Tuscumbia Railway Company chartered by General Assembly; first two miles of track link Tuscumbia and Sheffield (1832).
State's population=309,527.
1830 Federal Census:
White population=190,406
African-American population=119,121
Slave population=117,549
Free black population=1,572
Urban population=3,194
Rural population=306,333.
1830
LaGrange College chartered by the Legislature January 19, 1830; eventually becomes the University of North Alabama
1831
University of Alabama opened doors to students (incorporated by General Assembly 1819).
1832
Bell Factory (Madison County), state's first textile mill, chartered by General Assembly.
1833
"Stars fell on Alabama" with spectacular meteor shower (November 13).
Daniel Pratt established cotton gin factory north of Montgomery; his company town, Prattville (founded 1839), became a manufacturing center in the antebellum South.
1835 - 1836
Alabama gold rush, concentrated in east-central hill country.
Dr. James Marion Sims, "the Father of Modern Gynecology," established a medical practice in Mt. Meigs, then in nearby Montgomery (1840), before moving on to New York in 1853 to found the renowned Woman's Hospital.
1836 - 1837
Second Creek War (Seminole War).
Battle of Hobdy's Bridge last Indian battle in Alabama (1837).
1840
State population=590,756.
1840 Federal Census:
White population=335,185
African-American population=255,571
Slave population=253,532
Free black population=2,039
Urban population=12,672
Rural population=578,084.
1846
General Assembly votes to move state capital to Montgomery (first held session there in 1847).
1850
State population=771,623.
1850 Federal Census:
White population=426,514
African-American population=345,109
Slave population=342,844
Free black population=2,265
Urban population=35,179
Rural population=736,444
Cotton production in bales=564,429
Corn production in bushels=28,754,048
Number of manufacturing establishments=1,026.
1852
Alabama Insane Hospital established at Tuscaloosa (renamed Alabama Bryce Insane Hospital upon death of its first director, Peter Bryce, 1892).
1854
Alabama Public School Act creates first state-wide education system by establishing an office of State Superintendent of Education.
1856
Alabama Coal Mining Company begins first systematic underground mining in the state near Montevallo.
East Alabama Male College established at Auburn by Methodists; evolved into Auburn University.
1860
State School for Deaf, Dumb, and Blind established at Talledega.
State population=964,201.
1860 Federal Census:
White population=526,271
African-American population=437,770
Slave population=435,080
Free black population=2,690
Urban population=48,901
Rural population=915,300
Cotton production in bales=989,955
Corn production in bushels=33,226,282
Number of manufacturing establishments=1,459.
1861
January 11: Alabama convention votes to secede from the Union.
February 4-8: Alabama invites other Southern states to Montgomery where a constitution for the Confederate States of America was adopted.
February 18: Jefferson Davis of Mississippi sworn in as President of the C.S.A.
February-May: Montgomery serves as C.S.A. capital until move to Richmond, Virginia.
March 20: Alabama Constitution of 1861 adopted.
1861 .. 1865
194 military land events and 8 naval engagements occurred within the boundaries of Alabama including:
Streight's Raid in north Alabama (April-May 1863);
Rousseau's Raid through north and east-central Alabama (July 1864);
Wilson's Raid through north and central Alabama (March-April 1865);
Battle of Mobile Bay (August 1864) and the subsequent campaign which involved action at Spanish Fort (April 8, 1865) and Blakeley (April 9) before the fall of the city of Mobile (April 12).
General Richard Taylor surrenders last sizable Confederate force at Citronelle, Mobile County (May 4, 1865).
 1865
New Alabama Constitution adopted to comply with Presidential Reconstruction dictates to rejoin Union; rejected by U.S. Congress.
1866
Lincoln Normal School founded as private institution for African-Americans at Marion; relocated to Montgomery (1887) and evolved into Alabama State University.
1868
Reconstruction Constitution ratified (February) gaining Alabama readmission to the Union, and allowing black suffrage for the first time.
1870
State population=996,992.
1870 Federal Census:
White population=521,384
African-American population=475,510
Urban population=62,700
Rural population=934,292
Cotton production in bales=429,482
Corn production in bushels=16,977,948
Number of manufacturing establishments=2,188.
1871
Birmingham founded; evolves into center of Southern iron and steel industry.
1873
Huntsville Normal and Industrial School chartered; evolves into Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University.
1874
State elections return conservative Democrat "Bourbon Redeemers" to political power.
1875
Redeemer Constitution ratified (November).
1880
State population= 1,262,505.
1880 Federal Census:
White population= 662,185
African-American population= 600,103
Urban population= 68,518
Rural population= 1,193,987
Cotton production on bales= 699,654
Corn production in bushels= 25,451,278
Number of manufacturing establishments= 2,070.
1881
Tuskegee Institute founded by Booker T. Washington; now Tuskegee University.
1887 .. 1896
Farmers' Alliance grew out of earlier Grange (1870s) and Agricultural Wheel (early 1880s) organizations; evolved into the Populist movement which challenged conservative Democrats for control of state politics.
1890
State population= 1,513,401.
1890 Federal Census:
White population= 833,718
African-American population= 678,489
Urban population= 152,235
Rural population= 1,361,166
Cotton production in bales= 915,210
Corn production in bushels= 30,072,161
Number of manufacturing establishments= 2,977.
1900
State population= 1,828,697.
1900 Federal Census:
White population= 1,001,152
African-American population= 827,307
Urban population= 216,714
Rural population= 1,611,983
Cotton production in bales= 1,106,840
Corn production in bushels= 35,053,047
Number of manufacturing establishments= 5,602.
1901
Alabama Department of Archives and History founded as first such state-funded agency in the nation.
New state Constitution ratified, disfranchising substantial numbers of black and white voters (November).
1902
Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill, in Montgomery, performed first open heart surgery in the Western Hemisphere by suturing a stab wound in a young boy's heart.
1904
Colonel William Crawford Gorgas of Alabama begins elimination of scourges of yellow fever and malaria in Panama Canal Zone.
1907
Tennessee Coal and Iron Company in Birmingham purchased by U.S. Steel.
1909
Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, establish "flying school" on land outside Montgomery (present site of Maxwell Air Force Base) six years after their first flights.
Boll Weevil, insect destroyer of cotton, enters state from Mississippi border.
1910
State population= 2,138,093.
1910 Federal Census:
White population= 1,228,832
African-American population= 908,282
Urban population= 370,431
Rural population= 1,767,662
Cotton production in bales= 1,129,527
Corn production in bushels= 30,695,737
Number of manufacturing establishments= 3,398.
1920
State population= 2,348,174.
1920 Federal Census:
White population= 1,447,031
African-American population= 900,652
Urban population= 509,317
Rural population= 1,838,857
Cotton production in bales= 718,163
Corn production in bushels= 43,699,100
Number of manufacturing establishments= 3,654.
1928
Convict lease system ended.
1930
State population= 2,646,248.
1930 Federal Census:
White population= 1,700,844
African-American population= 944,834
Urban population= 744,273
Rural population= 1,901,975
Cotton production in bales= 1,312,963
Corn production in bushels= 35,683,874
Number of manufacturing establishments= 2,848.
1931
Arrest of 9 African-American "Scottsboro Boys" prompted a decade-long racial controversy.
1936
Oakville-born Jesse Owens sets four world records and earns four gold medals at Berlin Olympics track-and-field competition.
William B. Bankhead elected Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives.
1937
State sales tax instituted to help fund education.
Alabama Senator Hugo Black appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt to the U.S. Supreme Court.
1940
State population= 2,832,961.
1940 Federal Census:
White population= 1,849,097
African-American population= 983,290
Urban population= 855,941
Rural population= 1,977,020
Cotton production in bales= 772,711
Corn production in bushels= 31,028,109
Number of manufacturing establishments= 2,052.
 1941
Training of African-American military pilots, the "Tuskegee Airmen," underway.
1945
University of Alabama Medical School moved from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham.
1947
Georgiana's Hank Williams signs recording contract with MGM and becomes regular on The Louisiana Hayride radio program.
1948
"Dixiecrat Party" organizes in Birmingham with disaffected Southern Democrats opposed to President Truman's support of civil rights plank.
1950
State population= 3,061,743.
1950 Federal Census:
White population= 2,079,591
African-American population= 979,617
Urban population= 1,228,209
Rural population= 1,833,534
Cotton production in bales= 824,290
Corn production in bushels= 40,972,309
Number of manufacturing establishments (1954)= 3,893.
1954
Democratic nominee for state Attorney General, Albert Patterson, murdered in Phenix City, prompting clean-up of the "wickedest city in America."
1955 .. 1956
Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man sparks the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which catapults Martin Luther King, Jr., pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, to leadership in Civil Rights movement.
1956
Army Ballistic Missile Agency established at Huntsville's Redstone Arsenal.
1956
Autherine Lucy unsuccessfully attempts to desegregate the University of Alabama.
1960
State population= 3,266,740.
1960 Federal Census:
White population= 2,283,609
African-American population= 980,271
Urban population= 1,689,417
Rural population= 1,577,323
Cotton production in bales= 683,491
Corn production in bushels= 62,580,000
Number of manufacturing establishments (1963)= 4,079.
1963
Governor George C. Wallace inaugurated for first of four terms in office.
Birmingham bombings of Civil Rights-related targets, including the offices of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the home of A.D. King (brother of Martin Luther King, Jr.), and the 16th Street Baptist Church (in which 4 children were killed), focus national attention on racial violence in the state.
Governor Wallace's "stand in the schoolhouse door" at the University of Alabama protests federally forced racial integration; Vivian Malone and James Hood register for classes as first African-American students.
University of South Alabama founded in Mobile.
1965
Selma to Montgomery March focuses attention on need for national voting rights legislation.
1967
Lurleen Wallace inaugurated as state's first woman governor (died 1968).
1969
University of Alabama at Huntsville established. University of Alabama at Birmingham established, joining University's medical and dental schools there since the 1940s.
1970
State population= 3,444,165.
1970 Federal Census:
White population= 2,533,831
African-American population= 903,467
Urban population= 2,011,941
Rural population= 1,432,224
Cotton production in bales= 507,000
Corn production in bushels= 12,535,000.
1972
Governor George Wallace shot in Laurel, MD while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1980
State population=3,894,000.
1980 Federal Census:
White population=2,783,000
African-American population=996,000
Urban population=2,338,000
Rural population=1,556,000
Cotton production in bales=275,000
Corn production in bushels=15,000,000.
1981
Country music group Alabama selected "Vocal Group of the Year" by Academy of Country Music; went on to garner fifth consecutive "Entertainer of the Year" award from the Country Music Association (1986).
1985
Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway opens.
1990
State population=4,040,587.
1990 Federal Census:
White population=2,975,837
African-American population=1,020,677
Urban population=2,439,549
Rural population=1,601,038
Cotton production in bales=375,000
Corn production in bushels=13,920,000.
1993
Governor Guy Hunt, in second term as first Republican governor of the state since Reconstruction, convicted of misuse of public funds and removed from office.
1995
Alabama's Heather Whitestone serves as first "Miss America" with a disability.
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