1929

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

The city received 81.82 inches of rainfall during the year, a record which still stands.

Events

• April 5: McAdory High School was destroyed by fire.
• May 27: Ten miners were killed in the 1929 Connelsville Mine explosion.
• October 14: The town of Hollywood was annexed into Homewood.
• November 19: Pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff performed a recital in Birmingham.
• 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 Jr began developing Mountain Brook.
• Louis Pizitz began an annual tradition of providing Thanksgiving dinners to thousands of hungry families at his stores.
• The Wattsville post office was established.
• Tom Johnson and Harry Jackson opened a Birmingham office for the Communist Party USA at 2117½ 2nd Avenue North.

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.
• Lee Styslinger founded the Alabama Truck Equipment Company.
• The Woodlawn Theatre opened.
• Bruno Mancha began selling tamales from a push-cart.
• Percy, Benners & Burr became Benners, Burr, McKamy & Forman.
• C. A. Wilmore & Associates engineers became B. S. Merrill & Co.

Education

• Lincoln Normal School became State Teachers College.
• Lewis Elementary School opened.
• Saint Bernard College was established in Cullman.

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

• Skinner 2-manual, 9-rank pipe organ (Opus 772) at McCoy United Methodist Church

Buildings

• 3205-3211 2nd Avenue South in Lakeview
• Bryant-Denny Stadium on the campus of the University of Alabama
• Curry Elementary School in North East Lake
• Denny Chimes on the campus of the University of Alabama
• The Ellard-Thomas House
• First United Methodist Church of Bessemer
• The Hassinger Castle
• The Ideal Building
• The Letchworth Apartments on 21st Street South
• McElwain Baptist Church
• The Mountain Brook Estates building
• Mountain Brook Elementary School
• The J. F. Oates Building in Midtown
• The Ramsay-McCormack building
• The James Revis residence
• Sibyl Temple at the Vestavia estate
• The Thomas Jefferson Hotel
• Washington K-8 School additions
• Woodlawn High School athletic stadium
• The Lake Purdy Dam was raised 20 feet.

Individuals

• October 9: Future City Council president M. E. Wiggins married Lelia Katherine Harper.
• 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.
• Hugh Tulley and his family moved to Birmingham.
• Knox E. Wooley became Shelby County Sheriff.
• Birmingham-Southern College senior Evelyn Armstrong was crowned "Basketball Queen of America" at the AAU basketball tournament in Wichita, Kansas.

Births

"Cousin Cliff" Holman

• January 2: Constance Shen Pittman, UAB endocrinologist
• January 8: Harold Long, pastor
• January 15: Martin Luther King Jr
• February 5: Al Worthington, baseball player
• February 6: Bud Coleman, businessman and real estate developer
• February 13: Joel P. Smith, newspaper publisher
• February 17: Jim Mitchell, architect
• February 20: Amanda Blake, actress and cheetah breeder
• February 27: James Nelson, ASFA director and arts critic
• April 14: Inez Andrews, gospel singer
• April 16: Emil Menzel, behavioral psychologist
• April 16: Nick Erben, restaurateur
• April 22: Glen Sonmor, Birmingham Bulls coach
• April 23: William Rushton III, CEO of Protective Life
• April 29: Ruby Kile, pastor
• May 21: Donald Kahn, heart surgeon and real estate investor
• June 6: Bill Steltemeier, attorney and EWTN CEO.
• June 10: E. O. Wilson, biologist
• June 19: Howell Heflin, U.S. Senator
• July 2: Hugh Bailey, historian and college president
• July 13: Ozilene Cartee, elementary school principal
• July 27: William Poole, architect
• June 29: Cliff Holman, kid's television host
• July 26: Willie Scoggins, high school basketball coach
• September 11: Bill Matthews, SONAT president and Mayor of Mountain Brook
• September 23: Marion Bradford, architect
• September 25: Winston Boutwell, fire chief
• October 5: Autherine Lucy, first black student to attend the University of Alabama
• October 11: Jack Nelson, journalist
• October 15: Lee Smith, minister
• November 8: Bobby Bowden, college football coach
• November 11: Larry Striplin Jr, businessman
• November 14: Jack Gotta, Birmingham Americans coach
• November 14: Jimmy Piersall, baseball player
• November 17: Norm Zauchin, baseball player
• November 26: Matthew Leonard, Vietnam War hero
• December 23: Dude Hennessey, college football coach
• Yolande Betbeze, Miss America 1950
• Bob Burton, CEO of Hoar Construction
• Rex Hollis, restaurant owner
• Joe Kelley, Korean War veteran
• Linda Kimbrough (artist), illustrator and artist
• Gus Koutroulakis, owner of Pete's Famous Hot Dogs
• William Powell, banker
• Tommy Stagg, U.S. Army paratrooper
• Bill Tant, dive instructor and promoter
• Fritz Woehle, architect and owner of The Garages

Deaths

• January 16: Mary Echols, Birmingham City Commissioner
• January 25: Oscar Underwood, U.S. Representative and Senator
• March 15: Pinetop Smith, boogie-woogie pianist
• May 4: Moses Joseph, partner in Loveman, Joseph & Loeb department store
• June 9: LeRoy Pratt Percy, attorney
• Lawrence Buck, architect
• John J. Connolly, trainmaster

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 broadcast 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 composer Jerry Goldsmith, actress Audrey Hepburn, child diarist Anne Frank, First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, comedian Bob Newhart, golfer Arnold Palmer, journalist Barbara Walters, actress and Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly, and television entertainer Dick Clark. Notable deaths included gunfighter Wyatt Earp, actor William Russell, Time Magazine co-founder Briton Hadden, businessman and politician Asa Griggs Candler, automotive pioneer Karl Benz, Boy Scouts of America founder William D. Boyce, poet Edward Carpenter, painter Robert Henri, Chancellor of Germany Gustav Stresemann, publisher Harry Crosby, and blues musician Blind Lemon Jefferson.

1920s

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