Timeline of Mobile, Alabama

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

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Prior to 19th century

• 1702 - Fort Louis de la Mobile founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville of Montreal.
• 1703 - Mardi Gras begins.[1]
• 1722 - French Louisiana capital relocated from Mobile to New Orleans.[2]
• 1723 - Fort Conde built.
• 1763 - Mobile becomes part of British West Florida per Treaty of Paris (1763).
• 1780 - March: Battle of Fort Charlotte; Spanish in power.
• 1783 - Mobile becomes part of Spanish West Florida per Treaty of Paris (1783).

19th century

See also: Mobile, Alabama in the American Civil War

• 1810 - Mobile becomes part of the independent Republic of West Florida.
• 1813
  • Spanish West Florida annexed to the United States.
  • Mobile Gazette newspaper begins publication.[3]
• 1814 - Town of Mobile incorporated.
• 1819 - City of Mobile incorporated.
• 1821 - Mobile Commercial Register begins publication.
• 1827 - Fire.[4]
• 1829 - Mobile Female Benevolent Society founded.[5]
• 1830
  • Spring Hill College and City Hospital[5] established.
  • Population: 3,194.[6]
• 1835 - Franklin Society Reading Room and Library founded.[7][8]
• 1839 - October 2: Fire.[9]
• 1840
  • St. Francis Street Methodist Church founded.[5]
  • Population: 12,672.[6]
• 1844 - Shaarai Shomayim congregation formed.[10]
• 1850
  • Mobile Evening News begins publication.[3]
  • Population: 20,515.[6]
  • Bienville Square (city park) established.
• 1852 - Public schooling begins in Barton Academy building.[11]
• 1854 - Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce chartered.[5]
• 1855 - Publisher S.H. Goetzel in business (approximate date).[12]
• 1857 - City Hall built.
• 1860 - Population: 29,258.
• 1861 - City becomes part of the Confederate States of America.
• 1864 - Wilmer Hall established.[5]
• 1865 - State colored convention held in city.[13]
• 1868 - Africatown established near Mobile.[14]
• 1869 - Mobile Bar Association[5] and Mobile Law Library founded.[7]
• 1871 - Mobile Cotton Exchange established.
• 1872 - Mobile Carnival Association established.[1]
• 1883
  • Fidelia Club formed.[15]
  • Drago Band (musical group) active (approximate date).[16]
• 1889 - Mobile County Courthouse built.
• 1890 - Mobile Camera Club founded.[17]
• 1894 - Clara Schumann Club (music group) formed.[5]

20th century

• 1902 - Mobile Public Library established.
• 1907 - Union Depot built.
• 1910 - Population: 51,521.[2]
• 1914 - Rotary Club of Mobile organized.[5]
• 1918 - Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company in business.[18]
• 1925 - Lincoln Theatre built.[19]
• 1927 - Saenger Theatre built.[19]
• 1929
  • Mobile Press newspaper begins publication.[3]
  • Woman's Clubhouse Association founded.[5]
• 1930 - WALA radio begins broadcasting.[20]
• 1936 - American Association of University Women of Mobile organized.[5]
• 1937
  • Foreign trade zone established.[21][22][23]
  • Aluminum Ore Company refining plant constructed.[5]
• 1940 - Population: 78,720.
• 1950 - Population: 129,009.
• 1953
  • WALA-TV (television) begins broadcasting.[24]
  • Consular Corps of Mobile organized (approximate date).[5]
• 1955 - WKRG-TV (television) begins broadcasting.[24]
• 1960
  • Sister city agreement established with Puerto Barrios, Guatemala.[25]
  • Population: 202,779.
• 1962 - Mobile Genealogical Society founded.[26]
• 1964 - Mobile British Women's Club active (approximate date).[5]
• 1965 - Sister city agreement established with Málaga, Spain.[25]
• 1966 - Neighborhood Organized Workers established.[5]
• 1974
  • Azalea City News begins publication.[18]
  • Sister city agreement established with Pau, France.[25]
• 1975 - Springhill Medical Center (then called Springhill Memorial Hospital) opens.
• 1976 - City twins with Worms, Germany.[27]
• 1980
  • U.S. Supreme Court decides Mobile v. Bolden redistricting-related lawsuit.[28]
  • Sister city agreement established with Kaohsiung, Taiwan.[25]
• 1982 - Sister city agreement established with Zakynthos, Greece (approximate date).[29]
• 1983 - Mobile Municipal Archives founded.[30]
• 1985 - U.S. Naval Station Mobile opens.
• 1988 - Sister city agreement established with Rostov on Don, Russia.[25]
• 1989
  • Sister city agreement established with Pyeongtaek, South Korea.[25]
  • Mike Dow becomes mayor.[31]
• 1990 - Sister city agreement established with Katowice, Poland.[25]
• 1992 - Sister city agreement established with Košice, Slovakia.[25]
• 1993
  • September 22: 1993 Big Bayou Canot train wreck.
  • Sister city agreement established with Havana, Cuba,[27] and Ichihara, Japan.[25]
• 1995
  • City website online (approximate date).[32]
  • Bayfest (Mobile) (music festival) begins.
• 1998 - Sammy’s v. City of Mobile strip club-related lawsuit decided.[28]

21st century

• 2002 - Tricentennial of founding of Mobile.[5]
• 2005
  • Sam Jones becomes first African-American in city elected mayor.[33]
  • City twins with Cockburn, Australia,[27] and establishes sister city agreement with Bolinao, Philippines.[34]
• 2010 - Population: 195,111.[35]
• 2012 - Christmas tornado outbreak.
• 2015 - Bayfest is cancelled.

See also

• History of Mobile, Alabama
• List of mayors of Mobile, Alabama
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Mobile, Alabama
• Timeline of Alabama[36]
• Timelines of other cities in Alabama: Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa

References

1. "Mardi Gras Isn't Just in New Orleans", New York Times, March 1, 2017
2. Owen 1921.
3. "US Newspaper Directory". Chronicling America. Washington DC: Library of Congress. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
4. Goodrich 1839.
5. McCall Library. "Collections". University of South Alabama. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
6. Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990, U.S. Census Bureau, 1998
7. Davies Project. "American Libraries before 1876". Princeton University. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
8. Charles Coffin Jewett (1851), "Alabama", Notices of public libraries in the United States of America, Washington, D.C: U.S. House of Representatives, OCLC 18394449
9. "Hazard's United States Commercial and Statistical Register". 1. Philadelphia. November 1839. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
10. "Mobile, Alabama". Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities. Jackson, Mississippi: Goldring / Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
11. Clark 1889.
12. "Hathi Trust". Retrieved June 25, 2013.
13. "Conventions by Year". Colored Conventions. P. Gabrielle Foreman, director. University of Delaware, Library. Retrieved June 30, 2015.CS1 maint: others (link)
14. Toyin Falola and Amanda Warnock, ed. (2007). "Chronology". Encyclopedia of the Middle Passage. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-33480-1.
15. Tom McGehee (January 2012). "The Former Higgins Mortuary". Mobile Bay. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
16. McCall Library. "Online Exhibits". University of South Alabama. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
17. "American and Western Photographic Societies", International Annual of Anthony's Photographic Bulletin, New York: E. & H. T. Anthony & Company, 1890
18. "Guide to Printed Material at The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library". University of South Alabama. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
19. "Historic Theatre Inventory". Maryland, USA: League of Historic American Theatres. Archived from the original on July 21, 2013. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
20. Jack Alicoate, ed. (1939), "Alabama", Radio Annual, New York: Radio Daily, OCLC 2459636
21. "U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones Board Order Summary". Washington DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
22. Susan Tiefenbrun (2012), Tax Free Trade Zones Of The World And In The United States, Edward Elgar, p. 360, ISBN 978-1-84980-243-7
23. "FTZ Activity by State, 2015: Alabama", Annual Report of the Foreign-Trade Zones Board to the Congress of the United States, 2016
24. Charles A. Alicoate, ed. (1960), "Television Stations: Alabama", Radio Annual and Television Year Book, New York: Radio Daily Corp., OCLC 10512206
25. "Sister Cities: Program Links Mobile with its International Counterparts", Mobile Register, September 1, 1993
26. "Mobile Genealogical Society". Retrieved June 25, 2013.
27. "Mobile's Sister Cities". City of Mobile. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
28. M.F. Mikula; et al., eds. (1999), Great American Court Cases, Gale
29. "Mobile's Sister Cities", Mobile Press Register, December 19, 1982
30. "Municipal Archives". City of Mobile. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
31. "Mayor". City of Mobile. Archived from the original on August 3, 2001.
32. "City of Mobile Home Page". Archived from the original on December 1996 – via Internet Archive, Wayback Machine.
33. "Meet the Mayors". Washington, DC: United States Conference of Mayors. Archived from the original on June 27, 2008. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
34. "Sister City", Mobile Register, November 3, 2005
35. "Mobile city, Alabama". State & County QuickFacts. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
36. Federal Writers' Project (1941), "Chronology", Alabama; a Guide to the Deep South, American Guide Series, New York: Hastings House, hdl:2027/uc1.b4469723 – via Hathi Trust

Bibliography

Published in the 19th century

• Jedidiah Morse; Richard C. Morse (1823), "Mobile", A New Universal Gazetteer (4th ed.), New Haven: S. Converse
• Alabama (1824), "An Act to alter and amend the Charter of Incorporation of the City of Mobile", Acts of Alabama
• Mobile Directory, Mobile, Alabama: H.M. McGuire and T.C. Fay, 1837, OL 22886873M
• "Mobile", The North American Tourist, New York: A.T. Goodrich, 1839
• John P. Campbell, ed. (1854). "Alabama: Mobile". Southern Business Directory. Charleston, SC: Press of Walker & James.
• "Mobile, Alabama". Ballou's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion. Boston. 12. June 27, 1857.
• "Alabama River: Mobile". James' River Guide ... Mississippi Valley. Cincinnati: U.P. James. 1860. hdl:2027/nyp.33433081817672.
• Edward H. Hall (1866), "Mobile", Appletons' Hand-book of American Travel: the Southern Tour, New York: D. Appleton & Company
• Edward King Edward; J. Wells Champney (1875), "Mobile, the Chief City of Alabama", The Great South, Hartford, Conn: American Pub. Co.
• Saffold Berney (1878), "Mobile", Handbook of Alabama, Mobile: Mobile Register print., OL 24232267M
• Land, John E. (1884). Mobile: Her Trade, Commerce and Industries, 1883-4. J.E. Land.
• Mobile: seaport and trade center; her relations to the New South. USA: Metropolitan and Star. 1888.
• ), Mobile (Ala (1889), Charter and code of ordinances of the city of Mobile, Mobile, AlaCS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Willis G. Clark (1889). "Public School System of Mobile". History of Education in Alabama. U.S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.
• Mobile in Photo-gravure. NY. 1892.
• Peter J. Hamilton (1897), Colonial Mobile, Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, OCLC 3580977, OL 271548M
• "Mobile", Rand, McNally & Co.'s Handy Guide to the Southeastern States, Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co., 1899 – via Internet Archive

Published in the 20th century

• "Mobile", The United States (4th ed.), Leipzig: K. Baedeker, 1909, OCLC 02338437
• "Mobile", Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.), New York: Encyclopædia Britannica Co., 1910, OCLC 14782424
• Peter J. Hamilton (1912), Bicentennial Celebration ... of the Founding of Mobile, Mobile: Commercial Printing Company, OL 23365574M
• Erwin Craighead (1914), The literary history of Mobile, OCLC 5058844, OL 6576822M
• "Mobile". Automobile Blue Book. USA. 1919. Map
• Thomas McAdory Owen (1921), "Mobile", History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Chicago: S.J. Clarke, OCLC 1872130
• Federal Writers' Project (1941), "Mobile", Alabama; a Guide to the Deep South, American Guide Series, New York: Hastings House, hdl:2027/uc1.b4469723
• "Mobile, Alabama's City in Motion", National Geographic Magazine, Washington DC, 133, 1968
• Harriet Elizabeth Amos (1978). "All-Absorbing Topics: Food and Clothing in Confederate Mobile". Atlanta Historical Society Journal (22).
• Ory Mazar Nergal, ed. (1980), "Mobile, AL", Encyclopedia of American Cities, New York: E.P. Dutton, OL 4120668M
• Harriet Elizabeth Amos (1981). "City Belles: Images and Realities of Lives of White Women in Antebellum Mobile". Alabama Review. 34.
• Harriet Elizabeth Amos (1985). Cotton City: Urban Development in Antebellum Mobile. University of Alabama Press.
• Don Harrison Doyle (1990), New Men, New Cities, New South: Atlanta, Nashville, Charleston, Mobile, 1860-1910, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 0807818836
• Bergeron, Arthur W. Confederate Mobile. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991.
• Higganbotham, Jay. Old Mobile: Fort Louis de la Louisiane, 1702-1711. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1991.
• Bruce Nelson (1993). "Organized Labor and the Struggle for Black Equality in Mobile during World War II". Journal of American History. 80 (3): 952–988. doi:10.2307/2080410. JSTOR 2080410.
• George Thomas Kurian (1994), "Mobile, Alabama", World Encyclopedia of Cities, 1: North America, Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO – via Internet Archive (fulltext)
• "The South: Alabama: Mobile", USA, Let's Go, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999, OL 24937240M

Published in the 21st century

• Michael Thomason (2001), Mobile: The New History of Alabama's First City, University Alabama Press, ISBN 9780817310653
• Fitzgerald, Michael W. Urban Emancipation: Popular Politics in Reconstruction Mobile, 1860-1890. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002.
• Pride, Richard. The Political Use of Racial Narratives: School Desegregation in Mobile, Alabama, 1954-1997. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
• Gregory A. Waselkov (2002). "French Colonial Archaeology at Old Mobile: An Introduction". Historical Archaeology. 36.

External links

• Scotty E. Kirkland. "Mobile". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation.
• "Carnival/Mobile Mardi Gras Timeline". History Museum of Mobile.
• "Selected Resources for Alabama Counties: Mobile County". Birmingham Public Library.
• "(City: Mobile)". 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
• "ADAH Digital Collections". Alabama Department of Archives and History.. Materials related to Mobile, Ala.
• Items related to Mobile, Alabama, various dates (via Digital Public Library of America)
• Map of Mobile, 1815
• Materials related to Mobile, Alabama, various dates (via US Library of Congress, Prints & Photos Division)
• Materials related to Mobile, Alabama, various dates (via New York Public Library, Digital Collections)