1879
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1879 was the eighth year after the founding of the City of Birmingham.
Events
- January 15: The Alabama State Bar Association was founded with Governor Thomas Watts presiding.
- February 5: The City of Anniston was incorporated.
- The first telephone call from Birmingham was made by F. H. Britton to a South and North Railroad shop in Decatur.
- Moody's first school was built.
- The Howard College chapter of Sigma Nu was chartered.
Business
- February: The first coal from the Pratt Coal and Coke Company was delivered to the Linn Iron Works, fueling a boom in the as-yet-unrealized prospects of Birmingham as an industrial giant.
- The Birmingham Gas Company was chartered.
- The Birmingham Rolling Mills was created.
- Joseph Riley Smith built a horse racing track at "Smith's Park".
- Richmond and Danville Construction was organized by John T. Milner.
Government
- G. H. Pond succeeded L. M. Teal as Birmingham Police Chief.
- William Samford succeeded Jeremiah Williams as representative of the 3rd Congressional District of Alabama.
- Burwell Lewis succeeded Goldsmith Hewitt as representative of the 6th Congressional District of Alabama.
- William Lowe succeeded William Garth as representative of the 7th Congressional District of Alabama.
Works
Individuals
- Rufus Cobb served as Grand Master of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Alabama.
- Giuseppe Moretti became apprenticed to a Dalmatian sculptor in Zagreb, Croatia.
- Thomas Duke Parke earned his medical certificate in New York.
- Julia Tutwiler became co-principal of the Livingston Female Academy.
- Samuel Ullman lost his re-election bid to the Natchez Board of Health following a yellow fever outbreak.
Births
Graduations
- James Weatherly earned his LL.B. at the University of Alabama School of Law.
Marriages
Deaths
- September: John D. Phelan, former Alabama Supreme Court justice
- November 23: Alburto Martin, attorney and legislator
Context
1879 saw the beginning of the Anglo-Zulu War. Frank Woolworth opened his first Woolworth's store. Saccharin was discovered. Thomas Edison demonstrated his first practical electric lightbulb. Notable 1879 births include E. M. Forster, Albert Einstein, Nancy Astor, Ethel Barrymore, Wallace Stevens, Will Rogers, Leon Trotsky, Charles Goddard, and Paul Klee. Deaths in 1879 included those of Honoré Daumier and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.
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