1909

Birmingham Terminal Station, constructed in 1909

1909 was the 38th year after the founding of the city of Birmingham.

Events

• February 2: 18 miners were killed in the 1909 Short Creek Mine explosion.
• February 15: Citizens of East Birmingham and Kingston met at Dunston's Hall to discuss incorporation.
• April 6: A day of festivities marked the opening of the Birmingham Terminal Station.
• October 11–20: The 1909 Alabama State Fair was held at the Alabama State Fairgrounds.
• October 13: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Pawnee Bill’s Far East paraded through downtown Birmingham and put on shows at Smith's Park.
• November 2–3: President William Taft visited Birmingham.
• December 18: 2.3 inches of snow fell in Birmingham.
• East Lake School was renamed Barrett Elementary School in honor of Nathaniel Barrett.
• Graymont Colored School was founded.
• The incorporation of Leeds was reinstated.
• John Lewis Morris and E. W. Chaney constructed the first airplane built in Birmingham.
• Frank O'Brien was elected Mayor of Birmingham.
• Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company began developing Bayview.
• K. Yosaline was arrested for disorderly conduct. He was the first Japanese person arrested by the Birmingham Police Department.
• George Smith Lodge No. 417 moved from Toadvine to Short Creek.

Business

• July 15: The Birmingham & Edgewood Electric Railway was incorporated.
• William Hassinger became president of the Southern Iron and Steel Company.
• The National Dope Company began bottling soft drinks in Birmingham.
• Thomas Walker organized the Afro-American Land, Improvement and Investment Company.
• Raymond Rochell and partner, Duren, began bottling soda water in Ensley.
• The Empire Fuel & Iron Company was organized.

Religion

• August: Pelham First Baptist Church was organized.
• The Reverend James Coyle founded Catholic Monthly.
• R. L. Duren became pastor of Huffman Baptist Church.
• Sterling Foster, pastor of South Highland Presbyterian Church, was accused of heresy and relived of pastoral duties. John T. Plunker became the new pastor.
• J. T. Loeb became rabbi of Knesseth Israel Congregation.
• I. R. Rubenstein became president of Levite Jewish Community Center.
• First Methodist Church began serving communion wine in individual cups as a hedge against disease.
• March 14: Highlands United Methodist Church held their first service in their new building on Five Points South.

Sports

• March 25: Motorcycle racer Bob Stubbs set a one-mile speed record of 43 seconds at the Daytona Beach Speed Trails in Ormond Beach, Florida.
• September 17: Ewart Walker began pitching for the Washington Senators.
• John Longwell became head football coach of the Howard College Bulldogs for the first time.
• Rick Woodward purchased a majority share of the Birmingham Coal Barons baseball team from William McQueen.

Works

Buildings

• Alston Building in downtown Tuscaloosa
• Arthur Adams residence
• Avondale Lodge No. 476
• Bessemer Post Office
• Bibb County Junior High School
• Birmingham Terminal Station
• Lincoln Life Building
• Empire Building
• Farley Building
• Happy Hollow District Bridge
• Highlands United Methodist Church
• Otto Marx residence
• Robinson Elementary School
• Royal Cup building on 1st Avenue North (Downtown)
• South Highland School renovations
• Ullman School expansion
• Lake Purdy Dam (impounding Lake Purdy)

Individuals

• February: Victor and Weenona Hanson moved to Birmingham.
• August 31: Pitcher Eddie Dent debuted for the Brooklyn Superbas.
• October 9: Herbert Tutwiler married Mary Eastbourne Addison.
• Henry M. Norris became Shelby County Sheriff.
• William Oliver became dean of the University of Alabama School of Law.
• J. L. Parker became president of the Birmingham Board of Education.
• Wallace Rayfield won a competition to serve a four-year term as official architect of the national African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
• S. P. Spurgeon became president of the Birmingham Athletic Club.
• Edwin, Mary, and Ruth Stephenson moved to Birmingham.
• J. M. Gray was hired as superintendent of the Empire Mine.

Births

• February 6: Wyatt Blassingame, writer
• February 13: Anne Woodward
• February 18: Tom Bradford, food broker and civic leader
• April 3: Minnie Gaston, director of Booker T. Washington Business College
• May: Claude Gray, police dispatcher, radio announcer, and Birmingham Zoo Express conductor
• May 27: Mike "Pinky" Higgins, baseball player and manager
• June 1: Fant Thornley, Birmingham Public Library director
• August 6: Al Veach, baseball player
• September 19: Hersh Martin, baseball player
• September 25: Ben Carraway, surgeon and hospital administrator
• November 24: Lee Roberson, evangelist and author
• December 22: Sidney McDyles
• Jess Lanier, Mayor of Bessemer
• Ulysses Mason Jr, physician
• Fant Thornley, director of the Birmingham Public Library

Graduations

• A. Clinton Decker, from Cornell University

Deaths

• February 1: Robert Kerr Attorney and former Alderman
• April 9: Educator William Councill
• May 15: Banker John Henley
• November 11: T. G. Bush, president of the Shelby Iron Company
• E. B. Norton, owner of Norton's Drug Store

Context

In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded. Joan of Arc was beatified. The U.S. Navy founded a navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Montreal Canadiens Hockey Club was founded. The Manhattan Bridge opened.

Notable births in 1909 included those of Barry Goldwater, Victor Borge, Carmen Miranda, James Mason, Benny Goodman, Burl Ives, Errol Flynn, Colonel Tom Parker, Al Capp, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Notable deaths included those of Geronimo, Sarah Orne Jewett, William Stanley, William Powell Frith, Red Cloud, and Frederic Remington.

The co-winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics were Guglielmo Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun for the development of wireless telegraphy (radio).

1900s

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