Aerospace companies across Alabama are seeing strong demand for their products around the world, with the value of the state’s aerospace exports topping $1.4 billion last year, an increase of more than 65 percent from the previous year. Continue reading →

Manuel Quesada puffs on one of his creations – a funky-looking thing called a Q D’etat – as he tells a story about the Cubans getting under his skin. It was at a dinner last year in Germany, when Cigar Journal honored him with a lifetime achievement award. Everyone rose for a standing ovation, except the people at the Cubatabaco table, the representatives of the state-run monopoly. Continue reading →

July 18, 1867 – The Lincoln School in Perry County was incorporated as one of the state’s first institutions for the education of African-Americans after the Civil War. Continue reading →

Birmingham’s Sloss Furnaces have a history of bringing the heat in order to create something special. Continue reading →

July 17, 1948 – The Dixiecrats, formally known as the States’ Rights Democratic Party, held their first and only convention at Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham. The Dixiecrats emerged in 1948 in opposition to President Harry Truman’s widespread civil rights program, which included racial integration, repealing poll taxes and making lynching a federal crime. Continue reading →

Anthony Tavis Folk Art, Helena – His first booth wasn’t fancy – but folks still came by to buy.“I’d just graduated from the University of Alabama in 2010, and they were having the Druid City Arts Festival on campus,” Anthony Tavis remembers. “I’d never participated in anything like that, but the entry fee was only $10, so I thought I’d give it a shot.” Continue reading →