Famous People of Alabama
(1934 - ) Baseball player that holds the record for home runs and runs batted in; born in Mobile.
(1929 - 1968) Famous minister and civil rights leader; lived in Montgomery.
(1956 - ) First African-American woman in space; born in Decatur.
(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.
(1913 - ) Civil rights leader who refused to give up her bus seat to a white man, born in Tuskegee.
(1914 - 1981) Famous boxer; born in Lexington.
(1931 - ) Famous baseball player; born in Westfield.
(1913 - 1980) Track & Field athlete. Winner of four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics; born in Oakville.
(1973 - ) In 1995 served as the first Miss America chosen with a disability; born in Dothlan.
(1923 - 1953) Country western singer, born in Georgiana.
(1864 - 1943), educator and agricultural chemist at Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute.
(1961 - ) Olympic Gold Medallist in track and field; born in Birmingham.
Civil rights activist, Linden
Actress, Huntsville
Entertainer, Dothan
Army officer, physician, Mobile
Jazz musician, Birmingham
Composer, Florence
Singer, Birmingham
Actress, Birmingham
Inventor, Montgomery
Civil rights leader, Marion
Actor, Sylacauga
Athlete, Danville
Singer, Geiger
Surgeon general, Anniston
TuscaloosaChoctaw chief
Zelda Sayre FitzgeraldWriter, Montgomery
Hugo LaFayette BlackJurist, Harlan
Marva CollinsEducator, Monroeville
Waldo L. SemonInventor, Demopolis
George Wallacegovernor, Clio
William Weatherford (Red Eagle)Creek indian leader
Heather WhitestoneMiss 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."