April 4

April 4 in the history of the Birmingham District:

2016: The Alabama Environmental Council's recycling center re-opened in Avondale.
2016: All four of the Brighton Police Department's cars broke down.
2012: Regions Bank completed repayment of a $3.5 billion loan from the United States' Troubled Asset Relief Program.
2006: Wes McDonald's 1:50 in The Furnace was released on Skybucket Records.
1995: The Grateful Dead performed at the BJCC Colisuem.
1977: An F5 tornado killed 22 and injured 125 in North Smithfield.
1968: Martin Luther King Jr was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray.
1966: State Vocational-Technical School opened in Bessemer.
1960: Ground was broken for Weibel Drive between Fairfield and Midfield.
1957: Ground was broken for the Lawrence Reynolds Library.
1920: Franklin Glass stepped down as editor of The Birmingham News.
1909: Sterling Foster preached his last Sunday sermon at South Highland Presbyterian Church.
1865: The University of Alabama and its library were burned by Union troops under the command of Thomas M. Johnston.

John Porter, born April 4, 1931

Births

2021: Accountant Areyelle Yarbrough was shot to death at W. C. Patton Park.
2016: Journalist, educator and historian Virginia Van der Veer Hamilton died.
2011: David Crenshaw died.
2007: Filmmaker Bob Clark died in a head-on collision on the Pacific Coast Highway.
2004: Casting director Shirley Crumley died of a heart attack at home in Birmingham.
1977: An F5 tornado killed 22 and injured 125 in Smithfield.
1977: Transgendered hair stylist Jody Ford was shot to death in the parking lot of the Vestavia Motor Lodge.
1968: Martin Luther King Jr was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray.
1845: Revolutionary War veteran William Pullen died on his farm near what was later Avondale.

2016: Rob Ehsan was named to succeed Jerod Haase as head coach of the UAB Blazers men's basketball team.
2006: Victor Mercedes was signed by the Chicago White Sox.
2003: Birmingham Steeldogs 63, Cincinnati Swarm 33 at the BJCC.