50 Fun Facts About Birmingham, Alabama

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

The neighbouring town of Elyton and several others were absorbed into the city in 1911.

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?

It was also called the Pittsburgh of the South for its steel output.

The Birmingham District is the only place where which three steelmaking raw materials sit close together?

That accident of geology is why the city was planted in Jones Valley in the first place.

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?

Birmingham peaked at 340,887 people in 1960 and had fallen to 200,733 by 2020, though its 1.19 million metro is still the state's biggest.

What was Birmingham's peak population, recorded in the 1960 census?

The non-Hispanic white share of the city fell from 57.4% in 1970 to 21.1% in 2010 as suburbs grew.

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

UAB's medical centre anchors an economy that also hosts Fortune 500 firms Regions and Vulcan Materials.

Which two Fortune 500 companies were headquartered in Birmingham in the early 2020s?

In 2012 the city ranked as the ninth-largest banking hub in the US by locally headquartered deposits.

Birmingham's 10% sales tax, which applies fully to groceries, holds what distinction?

Alabama is one of the few states that still taxes groceries at the full rate.

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?

Sculptor Giuseppe Moretti's figure did not reach its Red Mountain perch until 1936, with WPA money.

From 1946 to 1999 Vulcan held a neon torch instead of his spear. When did it glow red?

It shone green otherwise; a $14 million restoration from 1999 to 2004 returned the 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?

It became a National Historic Landmark in 1981 and reopened in 1983 as the only 20th-century blast furnace preserved as a museum.

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

Industrialist Rick Woodward named it after himself; the Barons beat Montgomery 3-2 on opening day.

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?

The effort was code-named Project C, for confrontation, and began with sit-ins and marches designed to fill the jails.

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

He was arrested on 12 April 1963; the letter answered white clergymen who called the protests unwise and untimely.

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

More than 3,000 people were arrested, almost all of high-school age; the images shocked the nation.

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

The deal also promised to hire Black sales staff; Kennedy's civil rights bill followed and passed after a 75-day filibuster.

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

Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson were 14; Carol Denise McNair was 11.

How many sticks of dynamite did Klansmen plant beneath the steps of 16th Street Baptist Church?

Robert Chambliss was convicted in 1977, Thomas Blanton in 2001 and Bobby Frank Cherry in 2002.

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

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?

He served five terms, until 1999.

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

Red Mountain rises immediately south of downtown; Ruffner Mountain to the east hosts one of the largest urban nature reserves in the US.

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

The city was chosen in 2015 for the 2021 edition, delayed a year by the pandemic.

What regional distinction does the Birmingham Museum of Art claim?

The Alys Stephens Center, home of the Alabama Symphony and Opera Birmingham, is another cultural anchor.

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

The city has a humid subtropical climate of hot 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 named as major steel and iron-pipe manufacturers?

The American Cast Iron Pipe Company dates from 1905; steel no longer dominates but still matters to the city's economy.

Which tag line did Birmingham's visitors bureau adopt in 2006?

The city's metro area has the second-highest ratio of Christians among US metros over one million, according to 2010 data.

Which ridge immediately south of downtown gives Vulcan his perch?

The ridge is named for its iron-rich red rock; Vulcan Park and Museum draws over 100,000 visitors a year.

Roughly how heavy is the Vulcan statue, including its accessories?

The head alone weighs 11,000 pounds; the whole figure was cast in Birmingham iron.

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

The 2003 Alabama earthquake was also felt in Birmingham and as far away as Kentucky and the Carolinas.

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

The complex includes a theatre, concert hall, exhibition halls and an arena.

Which industrialist founded the blast furnaces that still bear his name?

The site now hosts a metal-arts programme, concerts, weddings and Halloween haunted tours.

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

It sits on a former iron-mining ridge, like much of the land around the city.

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?

At its peak it seated 83,091 and carried 'Football Capital of the South' on its upper deck, which was removed in 2005 after a structural review.

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?

He played at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in the suburbs, where the Barons were based from 1988 until moving 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?

Only 17 of its Crawford Special-Publix One model were built, and it is one of just three still installed where they started.

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

It was partly built from materials salvaged from surrounding warehouses, and since 2016 the Rotary Trail greenway links it to Sloss Furnaces.

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

The United States played Argentina in the opening preliminary match. The turf had been switched back to natural Bermuda grass the year before to qualify.

Which Italian-born sculptor designed the Vulcan statue, starting in 1903?

He sculpted the clay master in an unfinished church in Passaic, New Jersey, and was paid a $6,000 fee, roughly $210,000 in today's money.

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

The city also has the McWane Science Center with an IMAX dome, and the Southern Museum of Flight near the airport.