1876
1876 was the fifth year after the founding of the city of Birmingham.
Events
- John Cullmann called the area of the future Garden City, "the garden center of the world".
- Abner Killough sold his 1,640-acre property covering most of what is now Avondale and Forest Park to Peyton King.
- Stillman College began holding classes.
- George Smith Lodge No. 417 was chartered in Toadvine.
Business
- February 28: Oxmoor Furnace became the first in the Birmingham District to produce iron from locally-obtained ore and coke.
- Thomas O'Connor purchased the Tennessee Coal and Rail Company.
- James Sloss and James Thomas leased the Oxmoor Furnace.
- H. M. Swope founded the Southern Pacific Tea Company.
Religion
- Chalybeate Baptist Church was founded.
- First Christian Church was organized.
- St John African Methodist Episcopal Church relocated to 3rd Avenue North and 25th Street.
Individuals
- Rufus Cobb was elected to the Alabama Senate.
- A. C. Oxford exhibited his photos of the Birmingham District at the Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- James Van Hoose was ordained at St John's Episcopal Church in Mobile by Reverend T. J. Beard.
Births
- January 12: Laura Burton, physician
- January 16: Victor Hanson, newspaper publisher
- February 15: Carlton Molesworth, Birmingham Barons Hall of Fame player/manager
- February 20: Phil Finch, clerk and Jefferson County Militia
- March 19: Alice Mason, wife of Ulysses Mason
- April 6: Joens Fries, engineer and mycologist
- June 10: Lottie Blake, physician
- June 14: Mike Donahue, Auburn Tigers coach
- July 4: Charles DeBardeleben, coal operator
- August 6: Miller Reese Hutchison, inventor
- September 29: Hannah Elliott, educator and artist
- December 1: Ethel Armes, journalist, historian and social activist
- Weenona Hanson, music club founder
- Franklin Rushton, president of the Birmingham Ice & Cold Storage Co.
- Rick Woodward, businessman and Birmingham Barons owner
Graduations
- William Jelks from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
- Benjamin Franklin Riley from Crozer Theological Seminary.
- Benjamin Wyman from the University of Alabama with a master of arts degree.
Marriages
- February 15: Merchant Charles Hooper to the former Carrie Lee Harrell.
- June 21: Minister Benjamin Franklin Riley to the former Emma Shaw of Belleville.
- Medical student Russell Cunningham to the former Sue Moore of Franklin County.
- Merchant Joseph Riley Smith to Mary Smithers Kilpatrick.
- Banker John Henley to widow Annie Linn Matthews.
Deaths
Works
- "Entrée d'un gave" by Gustave Courbet (acquired in 1999 by the Birmingham Museum of Art)
Buildings
- Chalybeate Baptist Church
- McDonald Chapel Cemetery was established.
- St John African Methodist Episcopal Church
Context
In 1876, The Third Carlist War ended in Spain. Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the telephone. Balochistan was annexed into British India and Queen Victoria took the title "Empress of India". The Battle of the Little Bighorn saw 300 men under Lieutenant Colonel George Custer wiped out by 5,000 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. The United States celebrated its centennial. Colorado was admitted as the 38th state. Texas A&M University opened for classes. Rutherford B. Hayes was elected President. Heinz Tomato Ketchup first went on sale. Johns Hopkins University was founded in Baltimore, Maryland.
Notable books published in 1876 included The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll, Daniel Deronda by George Eliot, Clarel by Herman Melville, Robert's Rules of Order by Henry Martyn Robert, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Notable music composed in 1876 included Symphony No. 1 by Johannes Brahms and Siegfried & Götterdämmerung by Richard Wagner.
Notable births in 1876 included author Jack London, the 13th Dalai Lama, Pope Pius XII, composer Carl Ruggles, exotic dancer and spy Mata Hari, baseball player Rube Waddell, architect Walter Burley Griffin, and cellist Pablo Casals. Notable deaths included former first lady Eliza McCardle Johnson; actress Charlotte Saunders Cushman; Josephine of Leuchtenberg, Queen of Sweden and Norway; gunfighter and entertainer Wild Bill Hickok; Confederate general Braxton Bragg; and visionary Catherine Labouré.
| 1870s |
| << 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 >> |
| Births - Deaths - Establishments - Events - Works |