October 24

October 24 in the history of the Birmingham District:

• 2014: The Dalai Lama began a four-day visit to Birmingham.
• 2014: Carbon Hill mayor James Richardson resigned following criminal charges of sexual abuse of city jail inmates.
• 2009: University of Alabama professors Stuart Rachels and Heather Elliott married.
• 2005: SouthTrust Bank was acquired by Wachovia.
• 1996: President Bill Clinton delivered a campaign speech at Birmingham-Southern College.
• 1962: Shades Mountain Baptist Church broke ground for a new 1,500-seat sanctuary.
• 1961: Judge Harlan Grooms ruled that Birmingham's parks must be integrated.
• 1957: Leland Shopping Center in Alberta City opened as Tuscaloosa's first modern shopping center.
• 1950: Residents of Vestavia Hills voted 88 to 8 in favor of incorporating.
• 1944: The USS Birmingham lost 229 crewmen during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in World War II.
• 1941: Pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff performed the last of five recitals in Birmingham.
• 1921: Celebrations for the Semicentennial of Birmingham began at Woodrow Wilson Park.
• 1915: Henry Edmonds founded the Independent Presbyterian Church.
• 1905: President Theodore Roosevelt gave an address at Capitol Park after visiting Tuskegee Institute and Montgomery.
• 1900: Andrew Beard applied for his first "Automatic car-coupling" patent.

Births

• 1963: Painter Joe DeCamillis was born.
• 1924: Billy Pappas was born in Zakynthos, Greece.

Deaths

• 2014: Concert pianist and Miss Alabama 1961 Delores Hodgens Howard died in Birmingham.
• 2013: Newspaper photographer Tommy Langston died.
• 2013: Pediatrician and state legislator Dewey White died in Mountain Brook.
• 2012: Planner Robert Juster died in Auburn.
• 1982: Singer and actress Lottice Howell died at Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa.

Sports

• 2014: Hewitt-Trussville Stadium opened with Hoover Bucs defeating Hewitt-Trussville Huskies 38-24.
• 1999: Pelham Prowlers 3 - Orlando Fury 1 at the Pelham Civic Complex.