Alabama History in April
Excerpted from Alabama Department of Archives and History
April 1, 1862: As the first year of the Civil War comes to a close, an order by Gov. John Gill Shorterprohibiting the distillation of hard liquors in Alabama goes intoeffect. Shorter was willing to make some exceptions, but was determinedto prevent distillers from "converting food necessary to sustain ourarmies and people into poison to demoralize and destroy them."
April 3, 1825: During his tour of the United States, French general and Revolutionary War hero, the Marquis de Lafayette,is entertained at Montgomery with great fanfare. Gov. Israel Pickensspared no expense for Lafayette's visit to Alabama--which includedstops at Cahaba and Mobile--expending more funds than existed in thestate treasury.
April 3-4, 1974: During a record outbreak of tornadoesin twelve states and Canada, eighty-six Alabamians die and 949 areinjured. A total of 148 tornadoes caused 315 fatalities, 6,142injuries, and $600 million in property damage in the United States andCanada.
April 5, 1856: Booker T. Washington,African-American educator, author and leader, is born near Hale's Ford,Virginia. Born a slave, Washington worked his way through school and in1881 was selected to head the newly established Normal School forColored Teachers at Tuskegee, Alabama. He guided the development of theinstitution until his death in 1915. (The date of his birth was unknowneven to Washington; based on evidence submitted after his death, theBoard of Trustees of Tuskegee Institute adopted April 5, 1856, as "the exact date of his birth.")
April 8, 1911: An explosion at Jefferson County’s Banner Minekills 129 miners. Most of the miners were prisoners leased to PrattConsolidated Coal Company under the state’s notorious convict leasesystem. While many southern states leased convicts, Alabama’s programlasted the longest, from 1846 to1928. In 1883 at least 10% of staterevenue was derived from the convict lease program.
April 8, 1927: Horace Devaughn, a black man convicted of double murder in Jefferson County, is executed at Kilby Prison, marking Alabama's first use of the electric chair.Two weeks later, Virgil Murphy, a veteran of World War I who wasconvicted in Houston County of murdering his wife, became the firstwhite man electrocuted in the chair. Before the state's use of theelectric chair, executions generally were carried out in the countiesby hanging.
April 8, 1974: Mobile native Hank Aaronof the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th career home run to break BabeRuth's longstanding record. Aaron finished his career with 755 homeruns, still the best in Major League Baseball.
April 9, 1931: The Scottsboro Boys,eight young men ranging in age from 13 to 21, are sentenced to die forthe alleged rape of two white women on a freight train betweenChattanooga, Tennessee, and Scottsboro, Alabama. The conviction by anall-white jury and the subsequent appeals were widely publicized andled to major protests around the world. Four of the men were freed in1937, while the others endured lengthy prison sentences. The finalprisoner was released in 1950.
April 12, 1887: Alabama industrialist Henry DeBardeleben and hispartners sell the first lots for the new city of Bessemer. Locatedtwelve miles southwest of Birmingham and named after Henry Bessemer, the British inventor of the Bessemer steel process,the community was envisioned as a steelmaking center. Within a yearBessemer had a population of 3,500 and boasted a large industrialcomplex.
April 13, 1813: Surrounded, with little hope of support from hisgovernment, Captain Cayetano Perez, commander of the Spanish forces atFt. Charlotte in Mobile, meets with General James Wilkinson of theUnited States. Two days later U.S. forces take possession of Ft.Charlotte and Spanish Mobile.
April 14, 1955: In a ceremony at Huntsville High School, Wernher von Braun and 102 other German-born scientists, technicians, and family members based at Redstone Arsenalbecome American citizens. Recruited to the United States at the end ofWorld War II, the scientists conducted rocket research crucial to thedevelopment of the U.S. space program.
April 15, 1956: A Sunday afternoon tornadotouches down in western Jefferson County, killing 25 people andinjuring 200, most of whom lived in the Stacey Hollow and McDonald'sChapel communities. Rated an F4, the tornado traveled 20 miles, was 300yards wide, and destroyed or damaged more than 350 homes.
April 16, 1979: Alabama native Edward O. Wilson wins the Pulitzer Prize in the General Non-Fiction category for his book, On Human Nature.Wilson was born in Birmingham, and lived in Mobile, Brewton, andDecatur, before attending the University of Alabama, where he studiedbiology. He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University and went on to aninternationally recognized career in the sciences, receiving more thansixty other awards and honors, including another Pulitizer Prize in1991 for The Ants.
April 18, 1831: The University of Alabamaformally opens its doors. Fifty-two students were accepted that firstday, but by the end of the session the student body had swelled tonearly one hundred. The faculty was made up of four men including theReverend Alva Woods, who had been inaugurated president of theuniversity on April 12, 1831.
April 18, 1853: William Rufus King,Alabama’s leading nineteenth-century politician, dies in Dallas County.King was a member of the state’s first constitutional convention in1819 and served for many years in the U.S. Senate and as Minister toFrance in the 1840s. In 1852 King was elected vice-president of theU.S. on the Democratic ticket with Franklin Pierce. King took the oathof office in Havana, Cuba, where he had gone to recuperate from illhealth. King’s health did not improve and he returned to his plantationin Dallas County to die, never actually serving as vice-president.
April 23, 1957: An earthquakewith its epicenter near Guntersville affects parts of Alabama, Georgia,and Tennessee, but causes little damage. The Montgomery Advertiser reported that "thousands of light sleepers were awakened by the shock" at about 3:30 a.m.
April 23, 1963: At the outset of his one-man march against segregation, William Mooreis slain alongside an Etowah County highway when he is shot by a riflefired at close range. Moore, a white postal worker from Binghamton, NewYork, had begun his march in Chattanooga intending to travel toJackson, Mississippi. A white store owner from DeKalb County wasimplicated in the shooting but never indicted.
April 24, 1922: Alabama’s first radio station, WSY, beginsbroadcasting. The station was started by Alabama Power Company to helpkeep in touch with line crews in isolated areas. In 1925 the stationmerged with Auburn’s WMAV to become WAPI.
April 25, 1944: The United Negro College Fund is established by Tuskegee president F. D. Patterson,after convincing 26 other black colleges to "pool their small moniesand make a united appeal to the national conscience." Since itsfounding, UNCF has raised more than a billion dollars in support of itsmember institutions.
April 28, 1926: Harper Lee is born in Monroeville. Her famous novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, was published on July 11, 1960, and sold more than two-and-one-half million copies in the first year. On May 1, 1961, To Kill A Mockingbird was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Letters.
April 30, 1863: The Battle of Day's Gapis fought between the cavalry forces of Union Col. Abel Streight andConfederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. The engagement was the firstin a series of skirmishes between Streight and Forrest duringStreight's Raid across north Alabama. The raid ended with Streight'ssurrender to Forrest just short of Streight's intended destination ofRome, Georgia.