Sweet Home Alabama Part 2

Alabama Facts and Trivia
1. Alabama introduced the Mardi Gras to the western world. The celebration is held on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins.

2. Alabama was the first state to make Christmas an official holiday in 1836…


3. Alabama workers built the first rocket to put humans on the moon (after coming to the states I’ve heard a couple of conspiracy theories about this ..you know who you are!!! But whatever).

4. The pecan is the Alabama's official nut. ( I love Pecans, wish I could eat Pecan Pie more often!!).

5. Many scenes from Forrest Gump where shot at the University of Alabama. Tom Hanks’ character studies here. And that famous run across the Football field takes place in T town’s Bryant Denny Football stadium .

6. The University of Alabama also is home of the Crimson Tide, 12-time national football champions


7. The Birmingham Airport opened in 1931. At the time of the opening a Birmingham to Los Angeles flight took 19 hours.( Isn’ t much better now bro.. took me 24 hours to reach Birmingham from LA, thanks to Delta canceling my flight, and delays.. and this after a 24 hour journey across the Pacific ,needless to say I was pretty frazzled when I reached Tuscaloosa slept for 2 days straight after that I think.. the people who I stayed with thought that was a bit strange( you know who you are !!!) .FYI the flight from LA to Birmingham takes around 5 to 5 and a half hours I think).

8. Courtney Cox- Arquette (Monica from FRIENDS is from Birmingham,Alabama… you didn’t know that did you ???). Other famous Alabamians, Nat King Cole, Helen Keller, Lionel Ritchie!!! The Temptations and Condoleeza Rice .


9. Harper Lee the author of Too Kill a Mockingbird is from Alabama , and is an Alumnus of The University of Alabama.


10. Vivian Malone and James Hood both registered for classes in 1963 to become the University of Alabama's first two black students. This was the final battle to end racial segregation in American higher education. President Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, personally negotiated what was to happen in Tuscaloosa that summer, after Gov. George Wallace blocked the doorway to Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama ,symbolically trying to prevent the African American students from entering ( not highly encouraging huh, yeah I learnt all this after I came here because in school they know of their disgraceful history and have spent 40 years to make up for it.. good job too !!!).

11. In 1955 Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus and sparks the Montgomery bus boycott which brought Dr. Martin Luther King to leadership in the Civil Rights Movement.


Compiled from the internet…………