Alabama state, Детальна інформація

The state is divided into 67 counties. Each county is governed by a board of commissioners, known as the county commission.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

Alabama claims many persons who did important work in government, education, the law, military affairs, business, and the arts. The following are some of the honored names:

William Wyatt Bibb (1781-1820) was Alabama's only territorial governor and the first governor of the state. He was born in Georgia.

Josiah Gorgas (1818-83), born in Pennsylvania, was a teacher and an army officer. He became an Alabamian after his marriage to Amelia Gayle, daughter of John Gayle, governor of Alabama from 1831 to 1835. During the

Civil War, Josiah Gorgas was chief of military supplies, and eventually a brigadier general, in the Confederate Army. Later he served for a year as president of the University of Alabama. His son, William C. Gorgas (1854-

1920), who was born near Mobile, is world famous as the U.S. Army surgeon and sanitation expert who stamped out yellow fever in the Canal Zone and made possible the building of the Panama Canal.

Julia Strudwick Tufwiler (1841-1916) was born in Greene County. She established several girls' vocational schools and secured admission of women to the University of Alabama. She was also active in prison reform.

She wrote the words of "Alabama," the state song.

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) is known throughout the world as the founder of Tuskegec Institute and as an educator, author, and lecturer. He was born in Virginia and was educated at Hampton Institute. His biography is included in Volume W.

George Washington Carver (1864-1943), botanist and agricultural scientist, gained international fame for his work in agricultural research at Tuskegee

Institute. He taught improvement of the soil and developed hundreds of products from the peanut, sweet potato, and soybean. A biography of George

Washington Carver, who was born in Missouri and educated in Iowa, is included in Volume C.

William Brockman Bankhead (1874-1940) was born in Moscow (now Sulligent),

Alabama. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1917 to 1940.

He was speaker of the House from 1936 to 1940. His daughter, Tallulah

Brockman Bankhead, became one of America's best-known actresses. His father, John H. Bank-head, and his brother, John H. Bankhead, Jr., were both U.S. senators.

Helen Adams Keller, who was born in Tus-cumbia in 1880, lost both sight and hearing before she was 2 years old. Because she could not hear, she also lost the ability to speak. In spite of her disabilities, she gained an education, learned to speak, and then spent her life lecturing and writing to raise money for the training of other disabled persons. Her biography is included in Volume K.

George Corley Wallace (1919- ) was born in Clio, Alabama. He was a judge and state legislator before his election in 1962 as governor of Alabama. He was re-elected to that office in 1970, 1974, and 1982. He was also a presidential candidate in 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976. A bullet from an assassination attempt during the 1972 campaign left him disabled.

Three Alabamians have become justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices

John McKinley and John A. Campbell, who served during the I 800's, were born in other states. Hugo L. Black, who became a justice in 1937, was born in Clay County, Alabama.

Writers, musicians, and entertainers who were born in Alabama include novelists Nelle Harper Lee (Monroeville) and Bordcn Deal(Tuscaloosa), composer William C. Handy (Florence), and singer Nat "King" Cole

(Montgomery).

Famous names in sports include heavyweight champion Joe Louis (born Joe

Louis Barrow, Lafayette); baseball players Henry "Hank" Aaron (Mobile),

Frank Lary (North-port), and Willie Mays (Fairfield); and sports announcer

Mel Alien (born Melvin Alien Israel, Birmingham).

HISTORY

At the time of Columbus, Alabama was inhabited by four main groups of

Indians. They were the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws.