Alabama Day is December 14th
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Did you know?
Alabama has had six constitutions.
The Alabama Territory was established on March 3, 1817 by the act that also created the state of Mississippi.
The only territorial governor was William Wyatt Bibb who later went on to become Alabama’s first governor.
Sixty thousand people were needed to become a state; Alabama recognized 67,594 people.
The first Constitutional Convention met in Huntsville, Alabama in July, 1819 in Walker Allen’s Cabinet Shop.
Written on 26 sheets of parchment, the constitution was attached by grosgrain silk ribbon and sealing wax.
The original was kept by the Secretary of State until it was turned over to the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
The signers of the Alabama Constitution were eighteen lawyers, four doctors, four planters, two ministers, one merchant, and one surveyor. From this group of men came one United States vice president, six United States senators, six Alabama supreme court justices, and six Alabama governors.
On December 14, 1819 Alabama became the 22nd state in the Union. James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, signed into law a resolution which admitted Alabama into the union. The first state constitution served Alabama for 42 years. After that the Alabama Consitution was changed in 1861, 1865, 1868, 1875 and 1901.
The current Alabama Constitution (1901) is one of the longest in the United States, having over 100,000 words and more than 700 amendments.
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Updated: November 18, 2009
http://www.archives.alabama.gov/alday/didyouknow.html