1.
Birmingham, Alabama
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Birmingham is the most populous city in the U. S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Jefferson County. The citys population was 212,237 in the 2010 United States Census, the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of about 1,128,047 according to the 2010 Census, which is approximately one quarter of Alabamas population. Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period and it was named for Birmingham, England, one of the UKs major industrial cities. The Alabama city annexed smaller neighbors and developed as an industrial and railroad center, based on mining, the new iron and steel industry. Most of the settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry. From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham was an industrial center of the southern United States. Its growth from 1881 through 1920 earned its nicknames as The Magic City and its major industries were iron and steel production, plus a major component of the railroading industry. Rails and railroad cars were manufactured in Birmingham. The two primary hubs of railroading in the Deep South have been nearby Atlanta and Birmingham, since the 1860s, the economy has diversified since industrial restructuring in the latter half of the 20th century. Banking, telecommunications, transportation, electrical transmission, medical care, college education. Except for coal mining, the industry has declined in the Birmingham area, Birmingham ranks as one of the most important business centers in the Southeastern United States and as one of the largest banking centers in the nation. In higher education, Birmingham has been the location of the University of Alabama School of Medicine, since that time it has also gained the University of Alabama at Birmingham, one of three main campuses of the University of Alabama System. It is also home to three institutions, Samford University, Birmingham-Southern College, and Miles College. In total, the Birmingham area has major colleges of medicine, dentistry, optometry, physical therapy, pharmacy, law, engineering, the city has three of the states five law schools, Cumberland School of Law, Birmingham School of Law, and Miles Law School. Birmingham is also the headquarters of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and Southeastern Conference, Birmingham was founded on June 1,1871, by the Elyton Land Company, whose investors included cotton planters, bankers and railroad entrepreneurs. It sold lots near the crossing of the Alabama & Chattanooga and South & North Alabama railroads. The first business at that crossroads was the trading post and country store operated by Marre, the site of the railroad crossing was notable for its proximity to nearby deposits of iron ore, coal, and limestone – the three main raw materials used in making steel. Birmingham is the only place worldwide where significant amounts of all three minerals can be found in close proximity, from the start the new city was planned as a center of industry
2.
Seating capacity
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Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats hundreds of thousands of people. The International Fire Code, portions of which have adopted by many jurisdictions, is directed more towards the use of a facility than the construction. It specifies, For areas having fixed seating without dividing arms and it also requires that every public venue submit a detailed site plan to the local fire code official, including details of the means of egress, seating capacity, arrangement of the seating. Once safety considerations have been satisfied, determinations of seating capacity turn on the size of the venue. For sports venues, the decision on maximum seating capacity is determined by several factors, chief among these are the primary sports program and the size of the market area. Seating capacity of venues also plays a role in what media they are able to provide, in contracting to permit performers to use a theatre or other performing space, the seating capacity of the performance facility must be disclosed. Seating capacity may influence the kind of contract to be used, the seating capacity must also be disclosed to the copyright owner in seeking a license for the copyrighted work to be performed in that venue. Venues that may be leased for private functions such as ballrooms and auditoriums generally advertise their seating capacity, seating capacity is also an important consideration in the construction and use of sports venues such as stadiums and arenas. The seating capacity for restaurants is reported as covers, a restaurant that can seat 99 is said to have 99 covers, seating capacity differs from total capacity, which describes the total number of people who can fit in a venue or in a vehicle either sitting or standing. Use of the term public capacity indicates that a venue is allowed to more people than it can actually seat. Again, the total number of people can refer to either the physical space available or limitations set by law
3.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
4.
Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage
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These properties, which may be of national, state, and local significance, are designated by the Alabama Historical Commission. The designation is honorary and carries no direct restrictions or incentives, there are approximately 1421 properties and districts listed on the Alabama Register. Of these, approximately 196 are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places and 5 are designated as National Historic Landmarks, the Alabama Register was created by the Alabama Historical Commission to provide the public with a fast and easy way to bring recognition to historic properties. People interested in historic recognition in Alabama are encouraged to begin with the Alabama Register of Landmarks, nominations may be submitted by anyone to the Alabama Historical Commission. A staff review committee then determines if the property meets the established selection criteria. Property nominations for the Alabama Register also help the Alabama Historical Commission determine whether or not a property is eligible for listing in the National Register and it should also possess integrity of location and construction and convey a feeling for the time and place of construction. Structures that have moved from their original locations, reconstructed historic buildings
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Birmingham Black Barons
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The Birmingham Black Barons played professional baseball for Birmingham, Alabama, in the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1960 when the Major Leagues successfully integrated. They alternated home stands with the Birmingham Barons in Birminghams Rickwood Field, usually drawing larger crowds and they played in that league for three years before making the leap to the larger Negro National League, which operated as a major league. They were unable to keep their position due to irregularities with the team finances and their return to the National League in 1927 was marked by the emergence of star pitcher Satchel Paige, who led the Black Barons to the second half pennant. They lost the Negro National League title to the Chicago American Giants in four straight games, for the next decade or so they alternated leagues before being bought by Memphis, Tennessee, funeral home director Tom Hayes and joined the Negro American League in 1940. Early in the decade the team was again to Abraham Saperstein who also owned the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. In 1943 and 1944 they won back-to-back pennants, starting in 1945, they became full members of the Negro American League and continued their success, winning a third pennant in 1948 with the help of teenage outfielder Willie Mays. They ended up losing three Negro World Series to the Homestead Grays that decade, forging a notable rivalry, as the Major Leagues started signing talented African American players, the Black Barons tried to form a new Negro Southern League with three other Southern teams. The franchise was owned by William Bridgeforth from 1952 to 1955, dr. Anderson Ross purchased the franchise in 1956 and renamed the team the Birmingham Giants. The Black Barons played their last game in 1960, the 1999 Rickwood Classic honored the Black Barons, with the Birmingham Barons and Huntsville Stars wearing throwback uniforms. Some 35 former Negro Leagues players, including former Black Baron Charley Pride attended, on February 26,2006, ESPN Classic broadcast a throwback game from Rickwood Field featuring amateur players in the uniforms of the Birmingham Black Barons and fictitious Bristol Barnstormers. The style of play, the equipment and the umpires all reflected the 1940s game, Willie Mays and Charley Pride were both in attendance. The Black Barons rallied to break an eighth inning tie and win the game, in addition to Satchel Paige, Willie Mays also played as center fielder during both the 1948 and 1949 seasons. Mule Suttles was a member of the Black Barons in 1924 and 1925 seasons, Suttles was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Other players, like Artie Wilson, Bill Greason, and Jay Heard also saw limited time in the Major Leagues, every Other Sunday, The Story of the Birmingham Black Barons. Birmingham Black Barons at the Birmingham-Pittsburgh Traveler page - accessed April 3,2006 Still in the Game Southern Living, birminghamProSports. com ESPN Classic Vintage Live Negro League Baseball press kit with team rosters
7.
Philadelphia Phillies
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The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball franchise based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, the Phillies compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the National League East division. Since 2004, the home has been Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies have won two World Series championships and seven National League pennants, the first of which came in 1915, the franchise has also experienced long periods of struggle. The 77 season drought is the fourth longest World Series drought in Major League Baseball history, the longevity of the franchise and its history of adversity have earned it the dubious distinction of having lost the most games of any team in the history of American professional sports. Despite the teams lack of success historically, they are one of the more successful franchises since the start of the Divisional Era in Major League Baseball. The Phillies have won their division 11 times, which ranks 6th among all teams and 4th in the National League, the franchise was founded in Philadelphia in 1883, replacing the team from Worcester, Massachusetts in the National League. The teams spring training facilities are located in Clearwater, Florida and its Double-A affiliate is the Reading Fightin Phils, which plays in Reading, Pennsylvania, and its Triple-A affiliate is the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, which plays in Allentown, Pennsylvania. After being founded in 1883 as the Quakers, the changed its name to the Philadelphias. This was soon shortened to Phillies, Quakers continued to be used interchangeably with Phillies from 1883 until 1890, when the team officially became known as the Phillies. Player defections to the newly formed American League, especially to the cross-town Philadelphia Athletics, poor fiscal management after their appearance in the 1915 World Series, however, doomed the Phillies to sink back into relative obscurity, from 1918 to 1948 they only had one winning season. Though Chuck Klein won the Most Valuable Player Award in 1932 and the National League Triple Crown in 1933, after lumber baron William B. Cox purchased the team in 1943, the Phillies rose out of the standings cellar for the first time in five years. As a result, the fan base and attendance at home games increased, but it soon became clear that not all was right in Coxs front office. Eventually Cox revealed that he had been betting on the Phillies, the new owner, Bob Carpenter, Jr. scion of the Delaware-based DuPont family, tried to polish the teams image by unofficially changing its name to the Bluejays. However, the new moniker did not take, and it was dropped by 1949. This led to the advent of the Whiz Kids, led by a lineup of players developed by the Phillies farm system that included future Hall of Famers Richie Ashburn. In contrast, the Philadelphia Athletics finished last in 1950 and long-time manager Connie Mack retired, the team struggled on for four more years with only one winning season before abandoning Philadelphia under the Johnson brothers, who bought out Mack. They began play in Kansas City in 1955, as part of the deal selling that team to the Johnson brothers, the Phillies bought Shibe Park, where both teams had played since 1938
8.
Pittsburgh Pirates
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The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the National League Central division. Founded on October 15,1881 as Allegheny, the franchise has won five World Series championships, the Pirates are also often referred to as the Bucs or the Buccos. They also won the 1971 World Series, led by the talent of Roberto Clemente, overall, the Pirates have won five World Series and lost two. They would then advance to the NL Division Series round, where they lost in 5 games to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Pirates would continue their success and make the playoffs in both 2014 and 2015, losing in the Wild Card Game both times. Professional baseball has been played in the Pittsburgh area since 1876, the teams of the era were independents, barnstorming throughout the region and not affiliated with any organized league, though they did have salaries and were run as business organizations. On October 15,1881, the strongest team in the joined the American Association as a founding member to begin play in 1882. Their various home fields in the 19th century were in a city called Allegheny City. After five mediocre seasons in the A. A, Pittsburgh became the first A. A. team to switch to the older National League in 1887. At this time, the team renamed itself the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, at that time, owner-manager Horace Phillips sold the team to Dennis McKnight, Phillips stayed on as manager. Before the 1890 season, nearly all of the Alleghenys best players bolted to the Players Leagues Pittsburgh Burghers, the Players League collapsed after the season, and the players were allowed to go back to their old clubs. However, the Alleghenys also scooped up highly regarded second baseman Lou Bierbauer, although the Athletics had failed to include Bierbauer on their reserve list, they loudly protested the Alleghenys move. In an official complaint, an AA official claimed the Alleghenys signing of Bierbauer was piratical and this incident quickly accelerated into a schism between the leagues that contributed to the demise of the A. A. Although the Alleghenys were never found guilty of wrongdoing, they made sport of being denounced for being piratical by renaming themselves the Pirates for the 1891 season, the nickname was first acknowledged on the teams uniforms in 1912. The Pirates were a team in the early 1900s, winning National League pennants from 1901–1903. They again won the NL in 1925 and 1927 and the World Series in 1925, after a slow period, they returned to dominance and won the 1960 World Series,1971 World Series and 1979 World Series. They won Eastern Division titles from 1990–1992 but did not return to the post-season after that until 2013, on Opening Day 2015 the Pirates loss to the Cincinnati Reds represented its 10, 000th franchise loss since moving to the NL. This made the Pirates the fourth MLB team to achieve distinction, following the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves
9.
Baseball
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Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases, Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the team who reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases during teammates turns batting. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning with the team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, and the team with the number of runs at the end of the game wins. Baseball has no clock, although almost all games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century and this game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the sport of the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, in the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions, East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series, the top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision, a French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, consensus once held that todays baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England, recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of other. It has long believed that cricket also descended from such games. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, David Block discovered that the first recorded game of Bass-Ball took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford and this early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants
10.
Allen Harvey Woodward
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Allan Harvey Rick Woodward was an American businessman and baseball team owner. Woodward began serving as the superintendent of the Woodward Iron Company in 1899. Following his fathers death, he became the president in 1918. Woodward also served on the board of other companies in the southern United States. During World War I, Woodward served on the Pig Iron, Iron Ore, following his college baseball career at the University of the South, Woodward managed the Woodward Iron Companys baseball team. In 1909, he bought the Birmingham Barons, a local team in Birmingham. His first initiative as owner was the construction of Rickwood Field in 1910 and it was the first stadium constructed from steel and concrete in the southern United States and the first of its kind constructed for a minor league team. Woodward was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, on September 16,1876 to Joseph Hersey Woodward, in 1881, his father and uncle founded the Woodward Iron Company, based in Bessemer, Alabama. He attended the University of the South from 1892 to 1895 and his father made him leave the school when his grades began to fall due to his focus on baseball. Woodward then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1896 to 1899 and he also gained much business training by working with his father at the Woodward Iron Company. Woodward served in every capacity connected with Woodward Iron Company. Woodward became general superintendent of the company in 1899, and president in 1918, during the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway strike in 1921, to show that he had not forgotten his early training, he ran a locomotive on the companys rail for several days. His was the first train moved over the entire line after the strike was declared. During World War I, Woodward Iron Company was important to the war effort, during the war, Woodward served on the Pig Iron, Iron Ore, and Lake Transportation subcommittee of the War Industries Board. Woodward was a baseball player, though he was unable to make a career out of this passion. After his college career, he managed the Woodward Iron Company baseball team. He bought the Birmingham Barons, the local team, in late 1909. His first initiative as owner was the construction of Rickwood Field in 1910 and it was the first stadium constructed from steel and concrete in the southern United States or for any minor league team
11.
Negro league baseball
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The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. In 1885 the Cuban Giants formed the first black baseball team. The first league, the National Colored Base Ball League, was organized strictly as a minor league, because blacks were not being accepted into the major and minor baseball leagues, they formed their own teams and had made professional teams by the 1880s. The first known game between two black teams was held on November 15,1859, in New York City. The Henson Base Ball Club of Jamaica, Queens, defeated the Unknowns of Weeksville, immediately after the end of the American Civil War in 1865 and during the Reconstruction period that followed, a black baseball scene formed in the East and Mid-Atlantic states. By the end of the 1860s, the black baseball mecca was Philadelphia, two former cricket players, James H. Francis and Francis Wood, formed the Pythian Base Ball Club. They played in Camden, New Jersey, at the landing of the Federal Street Ferry, at the end of the 1867 season the National Association of Baseball Players voted to exclude any club with a black player. In some ways Blackball thrived under segregation, with the few black teams of the day playing not only each other, Black teams earned the bulk of their income playing white independent semipro clubs. Baseball featuring African American players became professionalized by the 1870s, moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother, Welday Wilberforce Walker, were the first two black players in the major leagues. They both played for the 1884 Toledo Blue Stockings in the American Association, then in 1886 second baseman Frank Grant joined the Buffalo Bisons of the International League, the strongest minor league, and hit.340, third highest in the league. C. Merged to form the Cuban Giants, the success of the Cubans led to the creation of the first recognized Negro league in 1887 – the National Colored Base Ball League. Two more joined before the season but never played a game, the league, led by Walter S. Brown of Pittsburgh, applied for and was granted official minor league status and thus protection under the major league-led National Agreement. This move prevented any team in organized baseball from signing any of the NCBBL players, the reserve clause would have tied the players to their clubs from season to season but the NCBBL failed. One month into the season, the Resolutes folded, a week later, only three teams were left. Beginning in 1899 several Cuban baseball teams played in North America, including the All Cubans, the Cuban Stars, the Cuban Stars, some of them included white Cuban players and some were Negro Leagues members. The few players on the minor league teams were constantly dodging verbal and physical abuse from both competitors and fans. Then the Compromise of 1877 removed the remaining obstacles from the Souths enacting the Jim Crow laws, after Anson marched his team onto the field, military style as was his custom, he demanded that the blacks not play. Newark capitulated, and later that day, league owners voted to refuse future contracts to blacks
12.
Regions Field
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Regions Field is the name of a minor league baseball park in the Southside community of Birmingham, Alabama, USA. It is the field for the Birmingham Barons of the Southern League. It also serves as the home field along with Jerry D. Young Memorial Field for the UAB Blazers, Regions Field is located adjacent to the Railroad Park, just south of downtown Birmingham. Baseball in Birmingham traces its history to 1885 with the establishment of the original Barons, in 1988, the Barons moved to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, leaving the city of Birmingham without professional baseball. In 2009, a proposal surfaced to build a stadium to bring baseball back to Birmingham. Groundbreaking ceremonies were held for the new facility on February 2,2012, the history of professional baseball in Birmingham began with the establishment of the Barons as one of the charter members of the original Southern League in 1885. In 1910, the Barons moved into Rickwood Field, and professional baseball in Birmingham was played exclusively at Rickwood through 1987, the following season, the Barons moved into the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in the suburb of Hoover. From 1988-2013, the professional baseball played in Birmingham was the annual Rickwood Classic. After two decades without baseball in Birmingham, in 2009 Corporate Realty Development brought forward a proposal to build a new stadium for the Barons adjacent to the Railroad Park. In April 2010, a funded, $40,000 feasibility study was commissioned. The study indicated the construction of a stadium could potentially result in over $500 million in direct and indirect spending in the city. In October 2010, the Birmingham City Council approved an ordinance by a vote of 8-1 to increase the citys lodging tax by 3. 5% to finance the construction of the stadium, at the time of its approval, the tax was expected to generate $5 million annually. Additionally, a provision in the called for a repeal of the tax by January 2012 if the Barons were unable to relocate or a primary tenant for the facility could not be found. On November 4, an agreement was reached between the City of Birmingham and Barons ownership to relocate the team as the tenant of the stadium upon its completion. In July 2011, the location for the stadium was unveiled as being along First Avenue South, the majority of the properties involved were acquired through a land swap with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the remaining were purchased from private landholders. In September, the team for the stadium was released with 61% being minority-owned firms. The official groundbreaking ceremony was held for the estimated $60 million stadium on February 2,2012, at that time, the name of the stadium as Regions Field was unveiled, with the naming rights purchased by Birmingham-based Regions Financial Corporation
13.
Museum
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Most large museums are located in major cities throughout the world and more local ones exist in smaller cities, towns and even the countryside. Museums have varying aims, ranging from serving researchers and specialists to serving the general public, the goal of serving researchers is increasingly shifting to serving the general public. There are many types of museums, including art museums, natural history museums, science museums, war museums, the city with the largest number of museums is Mexico City with over 128 museums. According to The World Museum Community, there are more than 55,000 museums in 202 countries, the English museum comes from the Latin word, and is pluralized as museums. The first museum/library is considered to be the one of Plato in Athens, however, Pausanias gives another place called Museum, namely a small hill in Classical Athens opposite to the Akropolis. The hill was called Mouseion after Mousaious, a man who used to sing on the hill, the purpose of modern museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display items of artistic, cultural, or scientific significance for the education of the public. The purpose can also depend on ones point of view, to a family looking for entertainment on a Sunday afternoon, a trip to a local history museum or large city art museum could be a fun, and enlightening way to spend the day. To city leaders, a healthy museum community can be seen as a gauge of the health of a city. To a museum professional, a museum might be seen as a way to educate the public about the museums mission, Museums are, above all, storehouses of knowledge. In 1829, James Smithsons bequest, that would fund the Smithsonian Institution, stated he wanted to establish an institution for the increase, Museums of natural history in the late 19th century exemplified the Victorian desire for consumption and for order. Gathering all examples of classification of a field of knowledge for research. As American colleges grew in the 19th century, they developed their own natural history collections for the use of their students, while many large museums, such as the Smithsonian Institution, are still respected as research centers, research is no longer a main purpose of most museums. While there is a debate about the purposes of interpretation of a museums collection, there has been a consistent mission to protect. Much care, expertise, and expense is invested in efforts to retard decomposition in aging documents, artifacts, artworks. All museums display objects that are important to a culture, as historian Steven Conn writes, To see the thing itself, with ones own eyes and in a public place, surrounded by other people having some version of the same experience can be enchanting. Museum purposes vary from institution to institution, some favor education over conservation, or vice versa. For example, in the 1970s, the Canada Science and Technology Museum favored education over preservation of their objects and they displayed objects as well as their functions. One exhibit featured a printing press that a staff member used for visitors to create museum memorabilia
14.
Connie Mack
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Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy, better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball player, manager, and team owner. The longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history, he records for wins, losses. Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for the clubs first 50 seasons of play, starting in 1901, before retiring at age 87 following the 1950 season, however, constant financial struggles forced repeated rebuilding of the roster, and Macks teams also finished in last place 17 times. Mack was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, Mack was born Cornelius McGillicuddy in East Brookfield, Massachusetts on December 22,1862. As with many Irish immigrants whose names began with Mc, the McGullicuddys were often referred to as Mack and his parents, Michael McGillicuddy and Mary McKillop, were both immigrants from Ireland. Michael McGillicuddys father was named Cornelius McGillicuddy, and by tradition, Connie is a common nickname for Cornelius, so Cornelius McGillicuddy was called Connie Mack from an early age. Connie Mack never legally changed his name, on the occasion of his marriage at age 48. His nickname on the field was Slats, for his height of 6 feet 2 inches. During the American Civil War, he served with the 51st Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Michael McGillicuddy suffered from several ailments as the result of his military service, he was able to work only infrequently, and drew a disability pension. Mack was educated in East Brookfield, and began working summers in local cotton mills at age 9 to help support his family. He quit school after completing the eighth grade at age 14, intending to work full-time to contribute to the familys support and he clerked at a store, worked on local farms, and worked on the production lines of the shoe factories in nearby towns. Mack was also an athlete, and frequently played baseball. In 1879 his skills landed him a place on East Brookfields town team, though younger than his teammates by several years, Mack was the teams catcher and de facto captain. Beginning in 1886, Mack played 10 seasons in the National League and one in the Players League, for a total of 11 seasons in the major leagues, almost entirely as a catcher. Beginning in 1884, he played on minor league teams in the Connecticut cities of Meriden, in the winter of 1889, he jumped to the Buffalo team of the new Players League, the Bisons, investing his entire life savings of $500 in shares in that club. But the Players League went out of business only a year. In December 1890 Mack signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League, as a player, Mack was a light-hitting catcher with a reputation as a smart player, but didnt do anything particularly well as a player. Mack was one of the first catchers to position himself directly behind home plate instead of in front of the backstop, according to Wilbert Robinson, Mack never was mean
15.
Shibe Park
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Shibe Park, known later as Connie Mack Stadium, was a baseball park located in Philadelphia. It was the home of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League, when it opened April 12,1909, it became baseballs first steel-and-concrete stadium. In different eras it was home to The $100,000 Infield, The Whiz Kids, Shibe Park stood on the block bounded by Lehigh Avenue, 20th Street, Somerset Street and 21st Street. It was five blocks west, corner-to-corner, from the Baker Bowl, the stadium hosted eight World Series and two MLB All-Star Games, in 1943 and 1952, with the latter game holding the distinction of being the only All-Star contest shortened by rain. In May 1939, it was the site of the first night game played in the American League, Phillies Hall-of-Fame centerfielder and longtime broadcaster Richie Ashburn remembered Shibe Park, It looked like a ballpark. It had a feeling and a heartbeat, a personality that was all baseball, when as many as 28,000 showed up to fill the 9,500 wooden bleacher seats, Shibe and partner Connie Mack decided the As needed a new place to play. He searched for a site for his new park and found one on Lehigh Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets, five blocks west of Baker Bowl, straddling the neighborhoods known as Swampoodle and Goosetown. It was still primitive at the time, an area of high bluffs, rain-washed gullies, quagmires, open fields, even ponds where chickens pecked. Although a grid of streets was planned for the area, few actually existed, without the hospital, the areas stigma would eventually dissipate, but at the time, the land was still a bargain. He spent a total of $67,500 on seven land packages totaling 5.75 acres, for the design and its execution, Shibe hired William Steele and Sons. Their engineering staff had worked with the new technology of steel-reinforced concrete, and designed and built the citys first skyscraper, the Steele design for the Shibe façade was in the ornate French Renaissance style, including arches, vaultings, and Ionic pilasters. The souvenir program on Opening Day called it a combination of color. Gabled dormer windows on the upper decks copper-trimmed green-slate mansard roof looked out over the streets below, presiding over all were terra cotta busts of Shibe and Mack above the main entrances on Lehigh and 21st. The signature feature of the design was the octangular tower on the southwest corner. On the ground floor was an entrance lobby. Bobby Shantz, pitcher for the As in their last years at Shibe, Shibe was proud of the egalitarianism of the design, he said it was for the masses as well as the classes. In April 1908, design in hand, the Shibes and the Steeles broke ground, with the resources of the Steele firm, construction was speedy, efficient and completed in time to open the 1909 season. The city was excited about its new ballpark – the Philadelphia Public Ledger called it a palace for fans, American League president Ban Johnson pronounced that Shibe Park is the greatest place of its character in the world
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Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
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Forbes Field
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Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to June 28,1970. It was the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball team, and the first home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The stadium also served as the football field for the University of Pittsburgh Pitt Panthers from 1909 to 1924. The stadium was named after British general John Forbes, who fought in the French and Indian War, the US$1 million project was initiated by Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss, with the goal of replacing his franchises then-current home, Exposition Park. The stadium was made of concrete and steel in order to increase its lifespan, the Pirates opened Forbes Field on June 30,1909, against the Chicago Cubs, and would play the final game that was also against the Cubs on June 28,1970. The field itself featured a playing surface, with the batting cage placed in the deepest part of center field during games. Seating was altered multiple times throughout the life, at times fans were permitted to sit on the grass in the outfield during overflow crowds. The Pirates won three World Series while at Forbes Field and the original tenant, the Pittsburgh Panthers football team had five undefeated seasons before moving in 1924. Some remnants of the ballpark still stand, surrounded by the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, in 1903, Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss began to look for ground to build a larger capacity replacement for the teams then-current home, Exposition Park. Dreyfuss purchased seven acres of land near the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, adjacent to Schenley Park, with assistance from his friend, the low-priced land was selected so Dreyfuss could spend more on the stadium itself. Dreyfuss signed a contract that he would make the ballpark, of a design that would harmonize with the other structures in the Schenley Park district. The site was initially labeled Dreyfusss Folly due to its long distance—a 10-minute trolley ride—from downtown Pittsburgh, official Pirates records show that Forbes Field cost US$1 million for site acquisition and construction, however some estimates place the cost at twice that amount. Charles Wellford Leavitt, Jr. was contracted to design the stadiums grandstand, a civil engineer, Leavitt had founded an engineering and landscape architecture firm in 1897. He had gained experience in steel and concrete constructs while designing the Belmont, based on Dreyfuss architectural requirements, Leavitt presented a plan for Forbes Field—the only ballpark he would design. Initial work on the land began on January 1,1909, nicola Building Company built the stadium in 122 days and play began less than four months after ground was broken, on June 30. The facade of the stadium featured buff-colored terra cotta spelling out PAC for the Pittsburgh Athletic Company, the light green steelwork contrasted with the red slate of the roof. Some members of the press urged Dreyfuss to name the stadium after himself, however, the owner decided on Forbes Field, in honor of General John Forbes, who captured Fort Duquesne from the French in 1758 and rebuilt a new Fort Pitt at the site. In 1935, after Dreyfuss death, there was renewed media interest in renaming the stadium Dreyfuss Field, however, a monument to Dreyfuss was placed in center field just in front of the wall
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Pittsburgh
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Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States, and is the county seat of Allegheny County. The city proper has a population of 304,391. The metropolitan population of 2,353,045 is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 26th-largest in the U. S. The city features 30 skyscrapers, two inclines, a fortification and the Point State Park at the confluence of the rivers. Aside from steel, Pittsburgh has led in manufacturing of aluminum, glass, shipbuilding, petroleum, foods, sports, transportation, computing, autos, and electronics. For part of the 20th century, Pittsburgh was behind only New York and Chicago in corporate headquarters employment, Americas 1980s deindustrialization laid off area blue-collar workers and thousands of downtown white-collar workers when the longtime Pittsburgh-based world headquarters moved out. The area has served also as the federal agency headquarters for cyber defense, software engineering, robotics, energy research. The area is home to 68 colleges and universities, including research and development leaders Carnegie Mellon University, the region is a hub for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, sustainable energy, and energy extraction. Pittsburgh was named in 1758 by General John Forbes, in honor of British statesman William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. The current pronunciation, which is unusual in English speaking countries, is almost certainly a result of a printing error in some copies of the City Charter of March 18,1816. The error was repeated commonly enough throughout the rest of the 19th century that the pronunciation was lost. After a public campaign the original spelling was restored by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1911. The area of the Ohio headwaters was long inhabited by the Shawnee, the first known European to enter the region was the French explorer/trader Robert de La Salle from Quebec during his 1669 expedition down the Ohio River. European pioneers, primarily Dutch, followed in the early 18th century, Michael Bezallion was the first to describe the forks of the Ohio in a 1717 manuscript, and later that year European fur traders established area posts and settlements. In 1749, French soldiers from Quebec launched an expedition to the forks to unite Canada with French Louisiana via the rivers, during 1753–54, the British hastily built Fort Prince George before a larger French force drove them off. The French built Fort Duquesne based on LaSalles 1669 claims, the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years War, began with the future Pittsburgh as its center. British General Edward Braddock was dispatched with Major George Washington as his aide to take Fort Duquesne, the British and colonial force were defeated at Braddocks Field. General John Forbes finally took the forks in 1758, Forbes began construction on Fort Pitt, named after William Pitt the Elder while the settlement was named Pittsborough
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Acre
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The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is defined as the area of 1 chain by 1 furlong, lucia, St. Helena, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Turks and Caicos, the United Kingdom, the United States and the US Virgin Islands. The international symbol of the acre is ac, the most commonly used acre today is the international acre. In the United States both the international acre and the US survey acre are in use, but differ by two parts per million, see below. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land, one international acre is defined as exactly 4,046.8564224 square metres. An acre was defined in the Middle Ages, being the amount of land that could be ploughed in one day with a yoke of oxen. One acre equals 0.0015625 square miles,4,840 square yards,43,560 square feet or about 4,047 square metres. While all modern variants of the acre contain 4,840 square yards, there are definitions of a yard. A square enclosing one acre is approximately 69.57 yards, as a unit of measure, an acre has no prescribed shape, any area of 43,560 square feet is an acre. In the international yard and pound agreement of 1959 the United States, consequently, the international acre is exactly 4,046.8564224 square metres. The US survey acre is about 4,046.872609874252 square metres, its value is based on an inch defined by 1 metre =39.37 inches exactly. Surveyors in the United States use both international and survey feet, and consequently, both varieties of acre. Since the difference between the US survey acre and international acre is only about a quarter of the size of an A4 sheet of paper, areas are seldom measured with sufficient accuracy for the different definitions to be detectable. In India, residential plots are measured in cents or decimal, in Sri Lanka the division of an acre into 160 perches or 4 roods is common. To be more exact, one acre is 90.75 percent of a 100 yards long by 53.33 yards wide American football field, the full field, including the end zones, covers approximately 1.32 acres. For residents of countries, the acre might be envisaged as approximately half of a 105 metres long by 68 metres wide association football pitch. It may also be remembered as 44,000 square feet, in English it was historically spelled aker. The acre was approximately the amount of land tillable by a yoke of oxen in one day and this explains one definition as the area of a rectangle with sides of length one chain and one furlong
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B. B. Comer
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Braxton Bragg Comer was a planter, businessman, slave owner, and an American Democratic politician who was the 33rd Governor of Alabama from 1907 to 1911, and a United States Senator in 1920. As governor, he achieved railroad reform, lowering rates for businesses in Alabama to make more competitive with other states. He increased funding for the school system, resulting in more rural schools and high schools in each county for white students. In addition to interests in the Comer familys 30, 000-acre plantation, devoted to corn and cotton production, Comer was born in 1848 at old Spring Hill, Barbour County, Alabama, the fourth son of John Fletcher and Catherine Comer. As planters, Comers parents had built their wealth based on slave labor for their cotton plantation, B. B. Comer began his education at the age of ten under the tutelage of E. N. Brown. In 1864 Comer went to the University of Alabama, but in April 1865 was forced to leave when General John T. Croxtons troops burned the university and he enrolled at the University of Georgia in Athens, where he joined the Phi Kappa Literary Society. He transferred to Emory and Henry College in Virginia, where he graduated in 1869 with AB, following graduation, Comer returned to Spring Hill and helped to manage the family plantation. He primarily grew corn and cotton on what became a 30 and he continued to operate his Barbour County plantation, with his brother John managing it, after he moved his family to Anniston in east central Alabama in 1885. Although a powerful, successful businessman, Comer always advocated for the primacy of importance to be placed on the people of that state, in 1872 Comer married Eva Jane Harris of Cuthbert, Georgia. He built a house for them at Comer Station, Barbour County. He and his wife remained married until her passing on March 6,1920, Comers brother, J. W. Comer, operated the familys plantation in Barbour County. An important source of wealth for John Comer, B. B, Comers brother, was the development of the Eureka Mines. Another of Comers enterprises was the Avondale Mills, which, with his sons help, the Trainer family, who had a textile business in Chester, Pennsylvania, planned to expand its business into the South by way of the new and growing industrial city of Birmingham. It offered stock to business leaders, such as Frederick Mitchell Jackson, accepting the businessmens pledges of financial participation, the Trainers sought a local investor to assume presidency of the mill. In 1897, they approached Braxton Bragg Comer, the future governor accepted the offer, and invested $10,000 in the enterprise. From 1897 until his death in 1927, he served as president of Avondale Mills, in 1897 Comer built the first mill in Avondale, an area that would become part of Birmingham. During the first year of its operation, Avondale Mills used 4,000 bales of cotton, by 1898, Avondale Mills employed 436 laborers and generated $15,000 in profit. By the time B. B. Comer became governor of Alabama in 1907, Avondale Mills declared $55,000 in profit, by the turn of the century, Avondale Mills had set the course for future development
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The Birmingham News
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The Birmingham News is the principal newspaper for Birmingham, Alabama, United States, and the largest newspaper in Alabama. The paper is owned by Advance Publications, and was a newspaper from its founding through September 30,2012. The next day, the News and its two sister Alabama newspapers, the Press-Register in Mobile and The Huntsville Times, moved to a thrice-weekly print-edition publication schedule, the Times-Picayune of New Orleans, also an Advance newspaper, also went to thrice-weekly on the same day. The Birmingham News was launched on March 14,1888 by Rufus N. Rhodes as The Evening News, newspapers joined with industrial tycoons, academics and real-estate speculators in relentless boosterism of the new city. Rhodes was working as editor of the Daily Herald when he found his campaign for a viaduct spanning the Railroad Reservation dividing Birminghams north and south opposed by his publisher. He determined to out on his own and launched the News with the slogan Great is Birmingham. The News Bridge was dedicated on July 4,1891, deemed by his paper the grandest of all municipal achievements of great and glorious Birmingham. The News circulation grew from 628 in 1888 to over 7000 in 1891, the name was changed from The Evening News to The Daily News and then, in 1895, The Birmingham News. The newspaper continued to grow, reaching a circulation of 17,000 in 1909, staunchly progressive in its political stance, the News supported a straight-ticket Democrat platform in election seasons and championed progressive causes such as prohibition. The News led the drumbeat for the Greater Birmingham movement to annex suburban communities. The successful campaign caused the population of the City of Birmingham to grow from 40,000 in 1900 to 138,685 in 1910 and that same year, Rhodes died and was succeeded by his vice-president and general manager, Victor H. Hanson. Hanson, only 33 years old, was already an accomplished newspaperman, having at age 11 founded the City Item in Macon, Georgia, in direct competition with the morning Age-Herald, the News began a Sunday edition in 1912. In 1917 the News moved to a new six-story Jacobean-style office building on the corner of 4th Avenue North and 22nd Street. At the time of the move, the News published this opinion, The News is proud of its new home, publishers from other cities have been kind enough to say that nowhere in the land was there a more adequate, convenient and efficient newspaper plant. Many thousands of dollars have been expended with that end in view, a year later the paper made good use of its new space by purchasing the rival Birmingham Ledger, increasing the size of its staff to 748 and its circulation to 60,000. In 1927 the Birmingham Age-Herald was sold to Hanson, who continued publishing both papers, the News press printed both papers and handled advertising and subscriptions sales while the editorial and reporting staffs remained independent. The agreement lasted until the Post-Herald ceased publication in September 2005, leaving the News as Birminghams only daily newspaper. In 1956, the Hanson family sold the News to S. I. Newhouse Sr. s Advance Publications in New York for $18 million, the largest sum that had been paid at the time for a daily newspaper
