1906

1906 was the 35th year after the founding of the city of Birmingham.

Events

• Elm Leaf Cemetery was renamed Elmwood Cemetery.
• October 16: Vulcan went on display at the Alabama State Fairgrounds for the 1906 Alabama State Fair.
• 1906 Brookside strike

Business

• January 6: The Alabama Bakery Company was incorporated.
• William Donovan founded the Donovan Provision Company, now Red Diamond.
• W. A. Watts founded the Cement Block & Manufacturing Co.
• Standard Portland Cement opened a plant in Leeds.
• The Tutwiler Coal, Coke & Iron Company was reincorporated as the Birmingham Coal & Iron Company.
• New boilers were installed at Sloss Furnaces.
• The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company was acquired by U.S. Steel.
• The First National Bank of Ensley merged with the Bank of Ensley.
• The Bank of Alabama (Ensley) was founded.
• Sidney Lee began selling ginger-flavored tonic under the "Buffalo Rock" name.
• Thomas Benners founded T. H. Benners & Co., coal, coke & iron brokers.
• December 4: William Lay founded the Alabama Power Company in Gadsden.

Education

• The North Alabama Conference College was renamed Birmingham College.

Government

• March 21: The Birmingham Board of Aldermen voted to display the Vulcan statue in Capitol Park, but never followed through.
• D. F. Sugg was elected Mayor of Ensley in the 1906 Ensley municipal election.
• B. B. Comer was elected Governor of Alabama in the 1906 general election.

Religion

• McElwain Baptist Church purchased a pipe organ.
• Frederick Weidman succeeded Henry Heise as pastor of Zion Lutheran Church.
• Wilson Chapel Baptist Church in Collegeville was founded.
• Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church in Evergreen was founded.

Sports

• Harry Vaughn's 1906 Birmingham Base Ball Club went 85-47 on their way to their first Southern Association title.
• October 7: The Fairgrounds Raceway hosted its first motorcycle race.
• November 17: Alabama defeated Auburn 10-0 in the Alabama-Auburn Game at the Alabama State Fairgrounds.

Individuals

• Architect S. Scott Joy joined the firm of Wheelock & Wheelock.

Births

• July 7: Satchel Paige, Hall of Fame pitcher
• July: John L. Howell, administrator of Carraway Hospital
• November 10: Hugh Kaul, president of the Kaul Lumber Company

Graduations

• Hugo Black graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law.
• Houston Brice Sr graduated from Pittsburg High School in Pittsburg, Texas.

Deaths

• April 8: Mary Cahalan, principal of Powell School.
• April 9: Laura Burton, physician
• December 20: Hazel Farris, who gained fame as "Hazel the Mummy".
• The fictional James "Slag" Wormwood, mascot of Sloss Fright Furnace, supposedly died in October 1906.

Works

• Paul Cook (August 1906) "Birmingham, Alabama: The Magic City". National magazine

Buildings

The 1906 Brown Marx Building

• Brown Marx Building
• Ensley Library
• Mason Building on 3rd Avenue North
• The Jemison Company developed the Mountain Terrace subdivision, now part of Forest Park.
• Shelby County Courthouse (with the 1906 Shelby County time capsule)
• Standard Portland Cement plant in Leeds.
• Expansion of the Buck Creek Mill.

Context

In 1906, HMS Dreadnought was launched, sparking a naval race between Britain and Germany. Native American tribal governments in Indian Territory were teminated, a prerequisite for creating the state of Oklahoma in 1907. Mount Vesuvius erupted and devastated Naples. The San Francisco Earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroyed much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.

Also in 1906, the first Grand Prix was held in Le Mans, France. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was signed into law by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. The first Imperial German Navy submarine, U-1, was launched. The first Victor Victrola phonographic record player was manufactured. SOS became an international distress signal.

Notable 1906 births include those of actors Mary Astor, Louise Brooks, John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr., Lou Costello, Ozzie Nelson, and George Sanders; authors Samuel Beckett and Robert E. Howard; computer scientist and U.S. Navy admiral Grace Hopper; gangster Bugsy Siegel; Puyi, Last Emperor of China; Nazi SS officer Adolf Eichmann; physicist Ernst Ruska; Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev; and musician, author, and actor Oscar Levant.

Deaths in 1906 included composer John Knowles Paine, Confederate and later U.S. Army General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, First Lady of the Confederate States of America Varina Davis, murder victim Grace Brown, painter Paul Cézanne, physicist Pierre Curie, women's suffragist Susan B. Anthony.

The 1906 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Theodore Roosevelt.

Notable books published in 1906 included White Fang by Jack London. Popular music published in 1906 included "Anchors Aweigh" by Alfred Hart Miles, R. Lovell and Charles A. Zimmerman and "School Days" by Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards.

1900s

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