August 15

August 15 in the history of the Birmingham District:

2017: Primaries for the 2017 U.S. Senate special election were held.
2017: Mayor William Bell ordered that the Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument at Linn Park should be covered.
2014: Paul Finebaum's sports talk show began airing on ESPN's SEC Network.
2008: Radio station WWMM-FM went on the air at frequency FM 100.5.
2006: Aubie was inducted into the national Mascot Hall of Fame.
2003: The final Furnace Fest began at Sloss Furnaces.
1981: The Eternal Word Television Network debuted.
1978: Cheap Trick headlined a show at Al's Crossroads.
1973: The Osmonds and Springfield Revival played a WVOK "Shower of Stars" concert at Legion Field.
1972: Birmingham signed a "Ciudad Compañera" pact with Cobán, Guatemala.
1963: Loveman's department store was targeted by a tear gas bomb.
1948: Trackless trolleys took over for streetcars on the No. 7 Wylam-Bush Hills streetcar line.
1944: Rita Rizzo (Mother Angelica) joined the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in Cleveland, Ohio.
1936: The 1936 Central Park plane crash killed two people.
1926: The Ritz Theatre opened downtown.
1923: Lake Neely Henry on the Coosa River was created by the Henry Neely Dam.
1923: The Birmingham City Commission was reduced from 5 members to 3 by a newly-passed state law.

James Powers, born August 15, 1851

Births

1975: U.S. Representative Elaine Luria was born in Birmingham.
1944: Soul singer and producer Frederick Knight was born in Bessemer.
1941: Baseball player Tommie Reynolds was born.
1916: Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop Joseph Raya was born in Zahlé, Lebanon.
1851: University of Alabama president James Powers was born in Lauderdale County.
1869: ACIPCO president and McWane Inc. founder James McWane was born in Wytheville, Virginia.
1841: Educator and reformer Julia S. Tutwiler was born in Tuscaloosa.

2016: Founding Mervyn H. Sterne Library director Paul Spence died.
2016: World War II aviator and librarian Mary Helen Foster died at The Woodlands, Texas.
1985: Real estate tycoon Sidney Smyer died.
1953: Mining engineer, inventor and philanthropist Erskine Ramsay died in Birmingham.
1936: Fred McQueen and Frank Hamlin died in the 1936 Central Park plane crash.
1930: Baseball player Guy Tutwiler died in Birmingham.
1927: Former governor B. B. Comer died in Birmingham.
1913: University of Alabama president James Powers died in Florence.