Sherrie Hamil

(334) 353-4712

Immediately

ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY

CELEBRATES "ALABAMA DAY," ALABAMA'S 187^th BIRTHDAY

Amid the season’s numerous holidays is one other important event Alabamians have reason to celebrate – the State’s 187th birthday. On December 14, 1819, President James Monroe signed Alabama into statehood making it the 22nd state to enter the Union. The growing region to be known as Alabama was declared a territory in 1817, separate from the old Mississippi Territory. Two years later, the U.S. Congress passed an act allowing the inhabitants to create a state constitution. Delegates to the Alabama Constitutional Convention met in the temporary capitol of Huntsville in the summer of 1819 to draft a constitution. That November, Territorial Governor William W. Bibb, newly elected as the state’s first Governor, took the oath of office and, on December 14th of that year, Alabama officially became a state. This date, known as “Alabama Day,” was first celebrated statewide in 1903 and adopted by resolution of the Alabama Legislature in 1923. The original 1819 Constitution and the official records of Gov. Bibb are now part of the collections at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. For more information on Alabama Day check out the Alabama Archives web site at www.archives.state.al.us/alabamaday.html.

The Alabama Department of Archives and History was created in 1901, the first department of its kind in the country, and it served as a model for other states. The department’s mandate is to preserve historic documents and artifacts of Alabama and to provide educational programs about Alabama history.

For more information call (334) 353-4712.