Alabama

Greetings,

1. Alabama introduced the Mardi Gras to the western world.
2. Alabama workers built the first rocket to put humans on the moon.
    
3. The world's first Electric Trolley System was introduced in Montgomery in 1886.
    
4. Montgomery is the capital and the birthplace of the Confederate States of America.
    
5. The Confederate flag was designed and first flown in Alabama in 1861.
    
6. The town of Enterprise houses the Boll Weevil Monument to acknowledge the role this destructive insect played in encouraging farmers to grow crops other than cotton.
    
7. Baseball player Henry Louis (Hank) Aaron was born in Mobile in 1934.
    
8. A skeleton of a pre-historic man was found in Russell Cave.
    
9. Huntsville is known as the rocket capital of the World.
    
10. In 1902 Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill performed the first open heart surgery in the Western Hemisphere by suturing a stab wound in a young boy's heart. The surgery occurred in Montgomery.
     
11. In 1995 Heather Whitestone serves as first Miss America chosen with a disability.
     
12. The United States Army Chemical Corps Museum in Fort McClellan contains over 4000 chemical warfare artifacts.
     
13. The pecan is the Alabama's official nut.
     
14. Singer and entertainer Nathaniel Adams (Nat King) Cole was known as the man with the velvet voice. He was born in Montgomery in 1919 and died in 1965.
     
15. At the Battle of Mobile Bay Admiral David Farragut issued his famous command, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." The event occurred on August 5, 1864.

So many more states to go...

Blessings,