1929

1929 was the 58th year after the founding of the city of Birmingham.

Events

• May 27: Ten miners were killed in the 1929 Connelsville Mine explosion.
• October 14: The town of Hollywood was annexed into Homewood.
• December 22: A rare snowfall brought 5.5 inches to Birmingham.
• Birmingham American Legion Post No. 1 mounted bronze plaques listing Alabamans killed in World War I to the limestone towers supporting Legion Field's flagpoles.
• Donald Beatty successfully landed a plane with snapped rudder cable after radioman Robert Snapp climbed out the tail to manually straighten the rudder.
• The BYPU Specials gospel quartet formed.
• Robert Jemison began developing Mountain Brook.
• Lincoln Normal School became State Teachers College.
• Louis Pizitz began an annual tradition of providing Thanksgiving dinners to thousands of hungry families at his stores.
• Saint Bernard College was established in Cullman.
• The Wattsville post office was established.

Business

• March 24: WAPI-AM became an NBC affiliate.
• December 31: WAPI-AM began broadcasting from studios on the 14th floor of the Protective Life Building.
• The Federal Trade Commission stripped Pan-American of the rights to the Grapico name.
• The Homewood Herald began publication.
• The Shades Valley Times ceased publication.
• Henry Stockmar was awarded a patent for a process for the manufacture of porous brick which utilized waste material from coal washeries as both fuel and material.
• Lewis J. Dinkler of Atlanta began operating the Tutwiler Hotel after United Hotels Company dropped the lease.
• The United States Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Company simplified its name to the United States Pipe and Foundry Company.

Religion

• Harry Berlin became president of Temple Beth-El.
• John C. Fletcher began his ministry in Birmingham.
• Paul Hardin was ordained Deacon.
• L. F. Stansel became pastor of Avondale United Methodist Church.
• Leo Steiner became president of Temple Emanu-El.

Satchel Paige

Sports

• June 29: Stuffy Stewart made his last Major League appearance.
• Ivy Andrews began playing for the Mobile Bay Bears.
• Eddie McLane became head football coach of the Howard College Bulldogs.
• Satchel Paige set the Negro League single season strikeout record.

Works

The Thomas Jefferson Hotel in 1949. Photo by A. C. Keily. courtesy BPL Archives

Buildings

• Bryant-Denny Stadium
• Ellard-Thomas House
• First United Methodist Church of Bessemer
• Hassinger Castle
• Ideal Building
• James Revis residence
• Lake Purdy Dam
• McElwain Baptist Church
• Mountain Brook Estates building
• Ramsay-McCormack building
• Sibyl Temple
• Thomas Jefferson Hotel
• Washington K-8 School additions
• Woodlawn High School athletic stadium

Individuals

• December 31: Attorney Douglas Arant married Letitia Tyler McNeil.
• R. Hugh Daniel graduated from The Citadel as valedictorian.
• Nurse Ida Moffett married Howard D. Moffett.
• Helen Walpole moved to New York City with her family.
• Evelyn Williams moved to Birmingham.
• Knox E. Wooley became Shelby County Sheriff.

Births

"Cousin Cliff" Holman

• January 8: Harold Long, pastor
• January 15: Martin Luther King, Jr
• February 5: Al Worthington, baseball player
• February 13: Joel Smith, newspaper publisher
• April 29: Ruby Kile, pastor
• June 10: E. O. Wilson, biologist
• June 19: Howell Heflin, U.S. Senator
• July 27: William Poole, architect
• June 29: Cliff Holman, kid's television host
• July 26: Willie Scoggins, high school basketball coach
• October 5: Autherine Lucy, first black student to attend the University of Alabama
• October 11: Jack Nelson, journalist
• November 8: Bobby Bowden, college football coach
• November 11: Larry Striplin, Jr, businessman
• November 14: Jimmy Piersall, baseball player
• November 26: Matthew Leonard, Vietnam War hero
• Tex Ellison, restaurant owner
• Joe Kelley, Korean War veteran
• William Powell, banker

Deaths

• January 25: Oscar Underwood, U.S. Representative and Senator
• June 9: LeRoy Pratt Percy, attorney

Context

In 1929, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre occurred in Chicago. The Museum of Modern Art opened in New York City. In October, stocks on Wall Street crashed, beginning the Great Depression. In the Soviet Union, General Secretary Joseph Stalin expelled Leon Trotsky and adopted a policy of collectivization. The BBC broadcasted a television transmission for the first time.

Wings won Best Picture at the first Academy Awards while Gold Diggers of Broadway, Sunnyside Up, The Cock-Eyed World, Welcome Danger, and The Desert Song were the top-grossing films. Warner Baxter and George Arliss took the Best Actor awards and Mary Pickford was Best Actress. Books published in 1929 included The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen, and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.

Notable births in 1929 included Jerry Goldsmith, Audrey Hepburn, Anne Frank, Imelda Marcos, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Yasser Arafat, Bob Newhart, Arnold Palmer, Barbara Walters, Grace Kelly, and Dick Clark. Notable deaths included Wyatt Earp, William Russell, Briton Hadden, Asa Griggs Candler, Karl Benz, William D. Boyce, Edward Carpenter, Robert Henri, Gustav Stresemann, Harry Crosby, and Blind Lemon Jefferson.

1920s

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