Mobile Misc

Famous People of Alabama

Henry Louis (Hank) Aaron

(1934 - ) Baseball player that holds the record for home runs and runs batted in; born in Mobile.

Martin Luther King Jr.

(1929 - 1968) Famous minister and civil rights leader; lived in Montgomery.

Mae Jemison

(1956 - ) First African-American woman in space; born in Decatur.

Helen Keller

(1880 - 1968) Blind and deaf author and lecturer; born in Tuscumbia.

Harper Lee

(1926 - ) Pulitzer Prize author of To Kill a Mockingbird; born in Monroeville.

Rosa Parks

(1913 - ) Civil rights leader who refused to give up her bus seat to a white man, born in Tuskegee.

Joe Louis

(1914 - 1981) Famous boxer; born in Lexington.

Willie Howard Mays

(1931 - ) Famous baseball player; born in Westfield.

James Cleveland (Jesse) Owens

(1913 - 1980) Track & Field athlete. Winner of four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics; born in Oakville.

Heather Whitestone

(1973 - ) In 1995 served as the first Miss America chosen with a disability; born in Dothlan.

Hiram “Hank” Williams

(1923 - 1953) Country western singer, born in Georgiana.

George Washington Carver

(1864 - 1943), educator and agricultural chemist at Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute.

Carl Lewis

(1961 - ) Olympic Gold Medallist in track and field; born in Birmingham.

Ralph Abernathy

Civil rights activist, Linden

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead

Actress, Huntsville

Bobby Goldsboro

Entertainer, Dothan

William Crawford Gorgas

Army officer, physician, Mobile

Lionel Hampton

Jazz musician, Birmingham

William Christopher Handy

Composer, Florence

Emmy Lou Harris

Singer, Birmingham

Kate Jackson

Actress, Birmingham

Percy Lavon Julian

Inventor, Montgomery

Coretta Scott King

Civil rights leader, Marion

Jim Nabors

Actor, Sylacauga

Jesse Owens

Athlete, Danville

Jimmie Rodgers

Singer, Geiger

David Satcher

Surgeon general, Anniston

Tuscaloosa
Choctaw chief

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald
Writer, Montgomery

Hugo LaFayette Black
Jurist, Harlan

Marva Collins
Educator, Monroeville

Waldo L. Semon
Inventor, Demopolis

George Wallace
governor, Clio

William Weatherford (Red Eagle)
Creek indian leader

Heather Whitestone
Miss America, Dotha

Mardi Gras Fun Facts

Each year 750,000 King Cakes are sold in New Orleans, while 50,000 more are shipped by over-night mail to other states.

According to the New Orleans Sanitation Department, before recycling programs began 2,000 plus tons of debris from the last 12 days of parades was removed in the late 1980s.

The Mardi Gras celebration brings in $840 million in revenues for New Orleans alone.

The official colors of Mardi Gras: purple (justice), green (faith), and gold (power) were picked in 1872, but weren't given their meanings until 1892.

The first "throw" took place in 1871, when someone dressed as Santa Claus handed out gifts to the crowd from the 24th float in the Twelfth Night Revelers parade.

The most used anthem of Mardi Gras is the song "If Ever I Cease to Love."