1919

1919 was the 48th year after the founding of the city of Birmingham and the 100th anniversary of Alabama's statehood.

Events

• January 1: The City of Fairfield was incorporated.
• January 2: A rare snowfall brought 5.5 inches to Birmingham.
• February 28: The USS Osmond Ingram was launched at Quincy, Massachusetts.
• April 29: 22 miners were killed in the 1919 Majestic Mine explosion.
• May 10: A huge parade was held to welcome the returning veterans of World War I's Rainbow Division recently arrived in Birmingham.
• August 1: The Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta opened in the Jefferson County Bank Building.
• October: Engine No. 4018 was built at the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio
• The City of Fairfield was incorporated.
• The Kiwanis Club of Birmingham hosted a national Kiwanis convention at the Tutwiler Hotel.
• James Meissner founded the Birmingham Flying Club at Roberts Field.
• Unity of Birmingham was founded as a prayer group led by Elsie Carr.
• Birmingham City Schools began using the platoon system at South Highland School.
• Alley School was closed for three years.

Business

• March: The Preston Motors Corporation was reorganized.
• July 11: Britling Cafeteria held a grand opening at its flagship 1st Avenue North location.
• Dixie Field opened as Birmingham's first airport.
• Marx Brothers coconut distributor was founded.
• The Trussville Furnace closed in the spring.
• The United Mine Workers of Alabama led a strike in Wylam
• Joy Young opened on 20th Street.
• George and Annie Covollos closed the Wylam Cafe and moved downtown.
• ACIPCO acquired the Beggs Pipe Foundry.
• Gail Joyce opened the Gail Joyce Motor Company on 3rd Avenue North.

Sports

• The Birmingham Black Barons defeated the Atlanta Cubs for the Colored Southern Championship.

Individuals

• Ottokar Cadek joined the New York String Quartet.
• Cliff Hare served as interim mayor of Auburn.
• J. Chris Hartsfield succeeded Thomas Batson as Jefferson County Sheriff.
• Thomas Kilby succeeded Charles Henderson as Governor of Alabama.
• Lonnie Noojin resigned as athletic director and baseball coach at the University of Alabama to join his brother's hardware business.
• Wallace Rayfield began teaching at Industrial High School.
• Charles B. Williams succeeded James M. Shelborne as President of Howard College.

Births

• January 15: Tod Griffin, actor
• February 21: Louis Oberdorfer, attorney
• March 2: Alpha Robertson, educator
• March 17: Nat King Cole, entertainer
• March 18: Joe Domnanovich, football player
• April 1: Willie Patterson, Birmingham Black Barons player
• April 25: Don Cummings, Tuskegee Airman
• June 24: Nora Ezell, quilter
• June 29: Happy Wilson, country singer
• August 14: Carl Salter, artist
• August 25: George Wallace, Governor of Alabama
• August 28: Marvin Bass, football coach
• September 5: Joseph Campbell, Birmingham News editor
• September 5: Eason Balch, attorney
• September 21: Marvin Harper, preservationist
• September 23: Clettus Atkinson, newspaper columnist
• September 24: Samuel Burr, attorney
• October 4: A. E. Burgess, highway contractor
• October 7: Bob Wood, sporting goods dealer
• November 2: Sloan Bashinsky Sr, business executive
• November 6: Benny Marshall, sports columnist
• December 22: Aaron Aronov, real estate developer
• Willie Clark, railroad worker and civic volunteer
• Troy Ingram, Klan leader and bomb maker
• Harry Lipson Jr, University of Alabama marketing professor
• George M. Murray, Episcopal Bishop of Alabama
• E. C. Overton, optometrist and Birmingham City Council member

Marriages

• April 30: Elizabeth Price Jones to John Pearson.

Deaths

• William Brown, merchant
• January 2: John Hearst Miller, Judge
• March 6: Hilary Herbert, Secretary of the Navy
• March 26: Agnes Nicholson, last person buried at Elyton Cemetery
• April 7: Margaret Ward, called the "Mother of Birmingham"
• April 29: 22 miners were killed in the 1919 Majestic Mine explosion.
• April 29: Lizzie Molton
• April 30: Henry Gray, former Lieutenant Governor
• July 22: Edwin Taliaferro, attorney
• September 30: Jean Galatoire, chef and restaurateur

Works

Books

• City Plan of Birmingham, Warren Manning & Associates

Buildings

• Birmingham Sash & Door
• William Given residence
• Premocar Factory on Vanderbilt Road
• Rainbow Viaduct over the Railroad Reservation at 21st Street.
• TCI Employee's Hospital in Fairfield

Context

1919 marked the end of World War I and saw the founding of the League of Nations. It was the year of the first Miss America pageant. Atatürk began the Turkish war of independence in 1919. The 18th amendment (Prohibition) was ratified and the 19th amendment (Women's suffrage) passed the legislature. The American Communist Party was established. The Cincinnati Reds were handed the World Series championship in the "Black Sox" scandal.

Notable births in 1919 included novelist J. D. Salinger, actor Robert Stack, journalist Andy Rooney, comedian Ernie Kovacs, musician Ross Bagdasarian Sr, actor Red Buttons, actress Eva Gabor, musician Tennessee Ernie Ford, actor Jack Palance, musician Pete Seeger, singer Liberace, actress and dancer Betty Garrett, inventor Ed Yost, mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, economist James M. Buchanan, writer Frederik Pohl, and chemist William Lipscomb. Notable deaths included former president Theodore Roosevelt, businessman Frank Winfield Woolworth, author L. Frank Baum, businessman Henry J. Heinz, businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, and painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

1910s

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