1976

1976 was the 105th year after the founding of the City of Birmingham and the U.S. Bicentennial.

Events

• Special lighting depicted the American flag on the First National-Southern Natural Building the entire year.
• Glenn Messer formed the Southern Museum of Flight Foundation.
• E. O. Wilson won the U.S. National Medal of Science.
• April: A Moon Tree was planted at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
• May 3: President Gerald Ford delivered a campaign speech at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center.
• May 27-31: The American Freedom Train stopped in Birmingham and changed locomotives.
• July 4: Trieu Duong and his family arrived in the United States from Viet Nam.
• July 6: Vulcan was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• July 16: Black Creek Bridge in Fultondale was placed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.
• October 4: Jack Grace was sworn in as Mayor of Vestavia Hills.
• December 29: Elvis Presley performed his only concert in Birmingham.

Business

• A. G. Gaston bought WENN-FM.
• The Burly Earl opened on 7th Avenue South.
• Motion Industries was bought by the Genuine Parts Company of Atlanta, Georgia

Sports

• The Birmingham Bulls played their first season of hockey.
• Elbert Jemison won the Alabama State Senior Amateur golf title.
• Dude Hennessey left the coaching staff of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team.

Works

• Cosmos, album by Sun Ra
• Backwater, album by Backwater

Books

• Century Plus: A Bicentennial Portrait of Birmingham, Alabama 1976, published by the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce
• "Twenty Pages and Twenty Minutes – Effective Advocacy on Appeal" by John Godbold first appeared in the Southwestern Law Journal

Buildings

• Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center
• BTNB BJCC branch
• Birmingham Parking Authority Deck 2
• Birmingham Parking Authority Deck 3
• Protective Life building (1976)
• Regions Plaza
• Sibyl Temple was moved from George Ward's Vestavia estate to its current location on Shades Mountain.
• Valspar Coatings

Films and TV

• Stay Hungry film, based on the novel
• Polly Holliday began her part as Flo on Alice

Individuals

• Ralph Cook was elected a district court judge.
• Edward Partridge joined the UAB faculty as an instructor.
• Cecil and Linda Whitmire moved to Birmingham from Tennessee.

Births

• Kellie Camp, schoolteacher
• Clayton Colvin, artist
• Earnest Lumpkin, bank manager
• Maria Taylor, singer/songwriter
• Amy Vickers, environmentalist
• January Philip Davis, Pelham Police Department, killed in the line of duty
• June: Robert Davis III, mountain climber
• June 18: Jeremy Harper, million counter
• July 25: Ronald Presley, singer and guitarist
• August 6: Camille Spratling, Railroad Park director
• October 4: Audra Bean, publicist
• October 6: Taylor Hicks, singer/songwriter
• October 19: Jason Barnette, baseball player
• October 27: Eric Lathan, security guard
• December 31: Glenny Brock, newspaper editor

Graduations

• Dale Benos completed his Ph.D in physiology and pharmacology at Duke University.
• Annetta Verin earned a bachelor's in business administration at Howard University.

Deaths

• April 22: Joe David Brown, novelist
• May 2: Dan Bankhead, first black Major League pitcher
• December 20: Quenette Shehane, Birmingham-Southern College student
• Georges Bridges, sculptor

See also List of Birmingham homicides in 1976

See Also

• 1976 UAB Blazers
• 1976 Iron Bowl

1970s

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