Tag Archives: bhamwiki

Knowledge abundant in The Magic City

Birmingham was recently included in a Forbes Magazine list of the nation’s biggest brain magnets – it’s on the list at number six.

While that result shocked some (maybe some of the same folks still in shock about UAB’s NCAA tournament selection) visitors to BhamWiki really weren’t. The volunteer-built virtual archive of the city’s history (whose creator John Morse is still an occasional contributor to this site) is celebrating its fifth anniversary today.

mental floss logoAnother reason to not necessarily doubt the ranking is the success of mental_floss magazine. Yesterday’s announcement of its sale to magazine publisher Felix Dennis was the first time many learned (or realized) that the magazine is based in The Magic City (their offices are on Southside) or that one of the founders, Will Pearson, is from Hoover.

Neither one of these fine establishments are going anywhere anytime soon, but that’s no reason to not go ahead and check them out.

Happy Alabama Day!

Flag of the State of Alabama (United States of America) (1895-present). Vibracobra23/FlickrYes, 191 years ago today, Alabama became the 22nd state in the Union.

Now we’ll freely admit that we aren’t that good to remember. Luckily we’ve got the Encyclopedia of Alabama to remind us. The site officially launched in September 2008 (though it had been up since that February as was posted here).

They’ve since added a fan page on Facebook where they share bits of the state’s history daily and hope that today’s a good reason for more folks to start following it.

Something else to keep in mind is the fact that Birmingham turns 139 years old this coming Sunday. BhamWiki continues to crank out additional information about The Magic City and added a Twitter account several months ago to its information-sharing arsenal.

Image: Flag of the State of Alabama (United States of America) (1895-present). Vibracobra23/Flickr

Birthdays everywhere

Octagon Clock. Pam Morgan/FlickrIt’s been a fairly busy past few days so far as birthdays or anniversaries go.

Birmingham’s newspaper of record, The Birmingham News, celebrated 122 years of existence yesterday. The Birmingham Genealogical Society turns 51 today while BhamWiki marks four years of documenting the Birmingham district today (they decided to celebrate on Saturday).

Oh yeah… this site, The Terminal, turned three yesterday. We haven’t celebrated yet, though we’re looking for help to figure out how. I figured the best way to honor that yesterday was to write a post over on the site that led to its creation, Dre’s Ramblings (the new one) as opposed to the old one that still needs to come down (it has the same stuff after all)- and say thanks.

Photo: Octagon Clock. Pam Morgan/Flickr

RIP – Rev. Abraham Woods

Birmingham is mourning the loss of a local civil rights legend as ABC 33/40 is reporting that the Rev. Abraham Woods died a short while ago at Princeton Baptist Medical Center. He was 80 years old.

A look back: August 19

1937:

Hugo Black was sworn in as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

2004:

The University of Alabama announced that they had played their last home game at Legion Field.

Courtesy: Bhamwiki.com logo

Bhamwiki’s now on Twitter

A lot of folks love the nuggets made available on our site weekeday mornings courtesy of BhamWiki. Now they’ve made it so you can get information from them even more often.

They’ve recently created their own BhamWiki Twitter profile, we think in part to expose people to everything that’s on it. We also think it’s a great way to maybe get some more folks interested in getting involved with the project. We’re definitely planning to use the wiki more often as our site begins to morph yet again.

A look back: August 18

1910:

Rickwood Field opened with a 3:30 PM game. The Birmingham Barons defeated the Montgomery Climbers 3-2.

2005:

Singer Bo Bice underwent emergency surgery for a blocked intestine.

Courtesy: Bhamwiki.com logo