1888
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1888 was the 17th year after the founding of the City of Birmingham.
Events
- B. A. Thompson succeeds Judge A. O. Lane as Mayor of Birmingham.
- Benjamin Franklin Riley accepts the presidency of Howard College.
- Bethel A.M.E. Church was founded in Rosedale.
- March 14: Rufus N. Rhodes publishes the first edition of the Birmingham Evening News.
- July 19: Death of Liza Montgomery, 19, the first person to be buried in Red Mountain Cemetery.
- September 1: Joseph Smith succeeds Samuel Truss as Jefferson County sheriff.
- November: President Grover Cleveland visits Birmingham.
- November 8: The Daily Birmingham Age and Daily Herald merge to form the Birmingham Age-Herald.
- December 4: The body of May Hawes is found floating in East Lake by two boaters.
Buildings
- First Watts Building (demolished 1927)
- Thomas Furnace and Bessemer Furnaces go into blast.
Context
1888 was a leap year. It was the year of the invention of the ball-point pen and typewriter ribbon and the founding of the National Geographic Society. Jack the Ripper terrorized London. A March blizzard was blamed for more than 400 deaths on the Atlantic seaboard. The Washington Monument opened in October and Benjamin Harrison took the electoral college to defeat popular vote leader Grover Cleveland in the presidential election.