Timeline of Huntsville, Alabama

Timeline of the history of Huntsville, Alabama

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Huntsville, Alabama, USA.

Prior to 20th century

History of Alabama
By year Pre-statehood U.S. Civil War Since 1900 Topics: African-Americans - Cities - Politics
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1809 - Town of Twickenham incorporated in U.S. Mississippi Territory.^[1]
1811 - Twickenham renamed "Huntsville".^[1]
1812 - Green Academy established.^[1]
1817
- Town becomes part of U.S. Alabama Territory.
- Huntsville Republican newspaper in publication.^[2]
1818 - Huntsville social library active.^[3]
1819
- Alabama Territory constitutional convention held in Huntsville.^[4]
- Town becomes part of new U.S. state of Alabama.
- Newly formed Alabama Legislature convenes in Huntsville.^[1]
1820 - Alabama state capital relocated from Huntsville to Cahaba.^[1]
1822 - Maple Hill Cemetery in use (approximate date).
1825 - Southern Advocate and Huntsville Advertiser newspaper in publication.^[2]
1835 - A large fire near the Courthouse Square destroys about a dozen buildings.^[5]
1840 - Population: 2,496.
1844 - Huntsville was chartered as a city.^[6]
1855 - Memphis and Charleston Railroad begins operating.
1860 - Huntsville Depot built.
1862 - Huntsville occupied by Union forces during the American Civil War.^[7]^[6]
1870 - Population: 4,907.
1888 - Old Federal Square U.S. Post Office and Courts built on corner of Randolph St and Green St
1888 - Monte Sano Railroad Workers' House built.
1896 - Oakwood College founded.^[8]
1898 - B’nai Israel Synagogue built.^[9]
1900 - Population: 8,068.^[6]

20th century

1904 - An angry mob sets fire to the city jail during the lead up to the Lynching of Horace Maples.^[10]
1910 - Huntsville Daily Times newspaper begins publication.^[2]
1912 - Lyric Theatre in business.^[11]
1916 - Carnegie Public Library building opens.^[12]
1932 - United States Courthouse and Post Office built.
1935 - Monte Sano State Park established near city.^[8]
1937 - WBHP radio begins broadcasting.^[13]
1938 - Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge established in vicinity of Huntsville.^[8]
1941 - U.S. military Redstone Arsenal begins operating.^[8]
1943 - (August) Community Chest, later to become United Way of Madison County, founded by community leaders
1947 - Keller (automobile) production begins.
1950
- Area of city: 4 square miles.^[14]
- Population: 16,437.
1951 - Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society formed.^[15]
1955
- Huntsville Symphony Orchestra formed.
- Memorial Parkway is constructed as a bypass around downtown.
1957 - Lee High School built.
1959 - WAFG-TV (television) begins broadcasting.^[16]
1960
- U.S. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center established.^[8]
- Area of city: 51 square miles.^[14]
- Population: 72,365.
1962 - Arts Council formed.
1964 - Huntsville News begins publication.^[17]
1968 - Joe W. Davis becomes mayor.
1969 - Virgil I. Grissom High School established.
1970 - Population: 139,282.
1974 - Oakwood Adventist Academy established.
1975
- Von Braun Civic Center (convention centre) opens.
- Madison County Nature Trail established.
1976 - Huntsville Depot museum established.^[18]
1982
- Panoply Arts Festival begins.
- Alabama Constitution Village museum established.^[18]
1984 - Madison Square Mall in business.^[14]
1986 - Interstate 565 highway construction starts.^[14]
1988 - Steve Hettinger becomes mayor.
1989 - November 1989 tornado outbreak.^[8]
1990 - Population: 159,880.^[14]
1993 - Big Spring Jam (music festival) begins.
1995 - May 18: Anderson Hills tornado.
1996
- Loretta Spencer becomes mayor.
- Huntsville News ceases publication.^[17]
1997 - United States Army Aviation and Missile Command headquartered in Huntsville.^[14]

21st century

2006 - November 20: 2006 Huntsville bus crash.
2008 - Tommy Battle becomes mayor.
2010
- February 12: 2010 University of Alabama in Huntsville shooting.
- Population: 180,105.^[19]
2014
- Area of city: 210 square miles.^[14]
- Twickenham Square shopping/residential complex built.^[20]
- Restore our Roads initiative created to fund a large amount of infrastructure projects to handle projected growth.^[21]
2018 - A Huntsville police officer, William Darby, shoots and kills a suicidal man seconds after arriving at the scene.^[22]^[23] The city council votes to pay the officer's legal defense. Cleared of wrong-doing by the police review board,^[24] Darby is convicted of murder.^[25] The mayor and police chief continued to support the officer after the guilt verdict.^[26]^[27]
2020
- Construction begins on the next segment of the Northern Bypass, connecting Interstate 565 to US 231/431.
- A George Floyd protest on June 3, 2020, was ended by Huntsville Police along with SWAT and Incident Response Team^[28] using tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets.^[29]^[30]^[31]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Greg Schmidt. "Huntsville". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
^ ^a ^b ^c "US Newspaper Directory". Chronicling America. Washington DC: Library of Congress. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
^ Davies Project. "American Libraries before 1876". Princeton University. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
^ Federal Writers' Project 1941.
^ "Fire on Square - copy, 1835". UAH Archives and Special Collections. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c Britannica 1910.
^ Brown 1998.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Hellmann 2006.
^ "Huntsville, Alabama". Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities. Jackson, Mississippi: Goldring / Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
^ "Alabama Mob Hangs Nergo" (PDF). The New York Times. No. Page 1. 8 September 1904. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
^ "Movie Theaters in Huntsville, AL". CinemaTreasures.org. Los Angeles: Cinema Treasures LLC. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
^ "Alabama". American Library Annual, 1917-1918. New York: R.R. Bowker Co. 1918. pp. 7 v. hdl:2027/mdp.39015013751220.
^ Jack Alicoate, ed. (1939), "Alabama", Radio Annual, New York: Radio Daily, OCLC 2459636
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g City of Huntsville 2016City and Context
^ "Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society". Retrieved March 3, 2017.
^ Charles A. Alicoate, ed. (1960), "Television Stations: Alabama", Radio Annual and Television Year Book, New York: Radio Daily Corp., OCLC 10512206
^ ^a ^b "Goodbye to the Huntsville News", Congressional Record, Washington DC, March 6, 1996
^ ^a ^b American Association for State and Local History (2002). "Alabama: Huntsville". Directory of Historical Organizations in the United States and Canada (15th ed.). Rowman Altamira. pp. 18–19. ISBN 0759100020.
^ "Huntsville city, Alabama". QuickFacts. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
^ Discover Huntsville, Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County, 2015
^ "Restore Our Roads". City of Huntsville. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
^ Beachum, Lateshia (8 May 2021). "Alabama police officer convicted of murder for shooting suicidal man in 2018". The Washington Post. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
^ "Huntsville Police Officer William Darby found guilty of murder". Nexstar Media Inc. WHNT News 19. 7 May 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
^ "Jury convicts Alabama officer of murder in 2018 shooting". FOX News. 7 May 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
^ "Officer convicted of murder still gets paid in Alabama". The Associated Press. 11 May 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
^ "Police Chief, Mayor release statements on Murder conviction of Officer Darby". WHNT News 19. 7 May 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
^ Remkus, Ashley (7 May 2021). "Huntsville police officer William Ben Darby convicted of murder for shooting Jeffery Parker". AL.com. The Huntsville Times. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
^ Lightfoot, Franklin & White, LLC (22 April 2021). "Report by Independent Counsel to The Huntsville Police Citizens Advisory Council" (PDF): 50 of 248. Retrieved 29 August 2021. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Klapp, Caroline (23 April 2021). "Breakdown of 248 page report on Huntsville Police response to June 2020 protests". WAFF 48 News. Gray Media Group, Inc. Station. NBC. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
^ Remkus, Ashley (23 April 2021). "Protest review finds 'unprofessional' behavior, policy violations by Huntsville police". The Huntsville Times. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
^ "UPDATED: Downtown Huntsville protest ends with riot gas, arrests". WAFF 48 News. Gray Media Group, Inc. NBC. 4 June 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2021.

Bibliography

John P. Campbell, ed. (1854). "Alabama: Huntsville". Southern Business Directory. Charleston, SC: Press of Walker & James.
R.H. Long (1863), "Huntsville", Hunt's Gazetteer of the Border and Southern States, Pittsburgh, Pa.: John P. Hunt
Saffold Berney (1878), "Huntsville", Handbook of Alabama, Mobile: Mobile Register print.
"Huntsville", Northern Alabama, Birmingham, Ala: Smith & De Land, 1888, OCLC 4215188 – via Internet Archive
"Huntsville" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). 1910. p. 955.
Edward Chambers Betts (1916). Early History of Huntsville, Alabama, 1804-1870. Brown Printing Company.
Thomas McAdory Owen (1921). "Huntsville". History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography. Vol. 1. S. J. Clarke Publishing Company. hdl:2027/mdp.39015078279430.
Federal Writers' Project (1941), "Huntsville", Alabama; a Guide to the Deep South, American Guide Series, New York: Hastings House, hdl:2027/uc1.b4469723 – via HathiTrust{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
Huntsville Historical Review, Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society, ISSN 1048-3152 1971-
Sarah Huff Fisk (1997). Civilization Comes to Big Spring: Huntsville, Alabama 1823. Pinhook.
Lynda Brown; et al. (1998). "Chronology". Alabama History: an Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-28223-2.
Trimble (2004). "Early Aviation in Rocket City, U.S.A.". Alabama Review. 57. ISSN 0002-4341.
Christine Dee (2005). "Trying James Hickman: The Politics of Loyalty in a Civil War Community". Alabama Review. 58.
Ranee G. Pruitt, ed. (2005), Eden of the South: A Chronology of Huntsville, Alabama 1805-2005, Huntsville-Madison County Public Library
Paul T. Hellmann (2006). "Alabama: Huntsville". Historical Gazetteer of the United States. Taylor & Francis. p. 13. ISBN 1-135-94859-3.
Whitney Adrienne Snow (2010). "Cotton Mill City: The Huntsville Textile Industry, 1880-1989". Alabama Review. 63.
Deane K. Dayton (ed.). "Huntsville History Collection". 2011- (Local wiki)
Huntsville. Images of America. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia. 2013. ISBN 978-0-73859-891-8.
The Big Picture, City of Huntsville, 2016. (City plan)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Huntsville, Alabama.

"Genealogy, History and Archives". Research Guides. Huntsville-Madison County Public Library.
Items related to Huntsville, various dates (via Digital Public Library of America)
"Selected Resources for Alabama Counties: Madison County". Birmingham Public Library.
Kelly Hamlin (ed.). "Education Resources". Huntsville History Collection. (Annotated list of links)
"Digital Collections". Montgomery: Alabama Department of Archives and History. (Materials related to Huntsville, Ala.)
"(Huntsville)". Alabama Mosaic. Alabama Commission on Higher Education, Network of Alabama Academic Libraries.
"(City: Huntsville)". Alabama Repositories Directory. Alabama Department of Archives & History. A listing of public entities and private organizations holding historical records, artifacts, and other cultural heritage materials