38 Facts About Birmingham Alabama

1.

Birmingham Alabama serves as an important regional hub and is associated with the Deep South, Piedmont, and Appalachian regions of the nation.

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2.

Birmingham Alabama was founded in 1871, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, notably, Elyton.

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3.

Birmingham Alabama was named for Birmingham Alabama, England, one of that nation's major industrial cities.

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4.

From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham Alabama was a primary industrial center of the South.

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5.

Mining in the Birmingham Alabama area is no longer a major industry with the exception of coal mining.

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6.

In higher education, Birmingham has been the location of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine and the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry since 1947.

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7.

Between these colleges and universities, the Birmingham Alabama area has major colleges of medicine, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, law, engineering, and nursing.

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8.

Birmingham Alabama is the only place worldwide where significant amounts of all three minerals can be found in close proximity.

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9.

Birmingham Alabama is known for a bombing which occurred later that year, in which four black girls were killed by a bomb planted at the 16th Street Baptist Church.

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10.

In 1998 the Birmingham Alabama Pledge, written by local attorney James Rotch, was introduced at the Martin Luther King Unity Breakfast.

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11.

In 2011, the Highland Park neighborhood of Birmingham Alabama was named as a 2011 America's Great Place by the American Planning Association.

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12.

Birmingham Alabama occupies Jones Valley, flanked by long parallel mountain ridges running from north-east to south-west.

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13.

Birmingham Alabama has a humid subtropical climate, characterized by hot summers, mild winters, and abundant rainfall.

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14.

The greater Birmingham Alabama area has been hit by two F5 tornadoes; one in Birmingham Alabama's northern suburbs in 1977, and second in the western suburbs in 1998.

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15.

City is home to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham Alabama, covering 39 counties and comprising 75 parishes and missions as well as seven Catholic high schools and nineteen elementary schools; there are two Eastern Catholic parishes in the Birmingham Alabama area.

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16.

Birmingham Alabama is a leading banking center and is the location of the headquarters of Regions Financial Corporation.

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17.

In 2012, Birmingham Alabama was the 9th largest banking hub in the United States by the amount of locally headquartered deposits.

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18.

Birmingham Alabama has seen a noticeable decrease in the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the city, due to mergers, moves, and buy-outs.

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19.

Birmingham Alabama used to be home to more than 30 publicly traded companies, but in 2011 there were only 15.

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20.

Downtown Birmingham Alabama is currently experiencing a cultural and economic rejuvenation, with several new independent shops and restaurants opening in the area.

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21.

Birmingham Alabama's nightlife is primarily clustered around Five Points South and Lakeview.

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22.

Birmingham Alabama is home to numerous cultural festivals showcasing music, films, and regional heritage.

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23.

The Birmingham Alabama Folk Festival is an annual event held since 2006.

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24.

Birmingham Alabama Bound is an annual book and author fair that celebrates Birmingham Alabama authors and publishers.

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25.

The Birmingham Alabama Zoo is a large regional zoo with more than 700 animals and a recently opened interactive children's zoo.

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26.

Birmingham Alabama Botanical Gardens is a 67-acre park displaying a wide variety of plants in interpretive gardens, including formal rose gardens, tropical greenhouses, and a large Japanese garden.

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27.

In 1974, Birmingham Alabama established a structured network of neighborhood associations and community advisory committees to insure public participation in governmental issues that affect neighborhoods.

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28.

Birmingham Alabama is divided into a total of 23 communities, and again into a total of 99 individual neighborhoods with individual neighborhood associations.

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29.

Birmingham Alabama is the home of the Social Security Administration's Southeastern Program Service Center.

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30.

In 2005, the Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School in Irondale, an eastern suburb of Birmingham Alabama, was rated as the No 1 high school in America by Newsweek, a national publication.

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31.

Noteworthy institutions of higher education in greater Birmingham include the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Samford University, Birmingham School of Law, Miles College, the independent Miles Law School, Jefferson State Community College, Birmingham-Southern College, University of Montevallo, Lawson State Community College, and Virginia College in Birmingham, the largest career college based in Birmingham.

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32.

Birmingham Alabama is served by the city magazine of the Chamber of Commerce, Birmingham Alabama magazine.

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33.

The Alabama Baptist, published weekly in Birmingham, is an entity of the Alabama Baptist Convention.

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34.

Major broadcasting companies who own stations in the Birmingham Alabama market include Clear Channel, Cox Radio, Cumulus Media, and Crawford Broadcasting.

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35.

Birmingham Alabama is home to EWTN, the world's largest Catholic media outlet and religious media network of any kind, broadcasting to about 350 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories, as of 2022.

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36.

Robert Jemison company developed many residential neighborhoods to the south and west of Birmingham Alabama which are still renowned for their aesthetic quality.

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37.

Birmingham Alabama officials have approved a City Center Master Plan developed by Urban Design Associates of Pittsburgh, which advocates strongly for more residential development in the downtown area.

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38.

Birmingham Alabama is served by three major railroad freight companies: the Norfolk Southern Company, CSX Transportation, and the BNSF Railway.

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