We are going to visit Montgomery, the capital city of Alabama.

The photos are: 1) a panorama view of the Montgomery skyline: 2) the Alabama State Capitol Building; 3) the Carolyn Blount Theater, home to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival; 4) the Alabama River that runs near Montgomery; 5) the Civil Rights Memorial; 6) the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was Pastor; 7) the Rosa Parks Museum; 8) a park in Old Alabama Town; and 9) the First White House of the Confederacy, where Jefferson Davis lived while the Confederate Capitol was in Montgomery.

Montgomery is the capital, second most populous city, and the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the Southern U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. The city population was 201,568 as of the 2000 census. Montgomery is the primary city of the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2000 population of 346,528.
The city was incorporated in 1819, as a merger of two towns situated along the Alabama River. It became the state capital in 1846. In February 1861, Montgomery was selected as the first capital of the Confederate States of America, until the seat of government moved to Richmond, Virginia in May of that year. During the mid-20th century, Mongtomery was a primary site in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Selma to Montgomery marches.
Today, in addition to housing many Alabama government agencies, Montgomery has a large military presence due to Maxwell Air Force Base, public universities Alabama State University and Auburn University-Montgomery, high-tech manufacturing including Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, and cultural attractions like the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.

The Montgomery area was originally heavily populated by the Alibamu tribe of Native Americans (after which the state is named). By 1800 the Native Americans had been mostly driven out, and white settlers began to permanently occupy the area. From 1800 to 1813, settlers continued to move in, but in 1814 two competing businessmen who would lay the foundation of the capital city arrived. Each seeking his fortune on the fertile lands near the river, they constructed separate towns, East Alabama and New Philadelphia, along the Alabama River. Each town was a success, and their proximity to each other quickly caused them to merge. Incorporated in 1819 when Alabama was admitted to the Union, the new city was named for General Richard Montgomery, who died in the American Revolutionary War attempting to capture Quebec City, Canada. Montgomery County, Alabama, was named in memory of Major Lemuel P. Montgomery of Virginia, who fell at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814. He was struck in the head by a Redstick musketball, becoming the first man to die in the battle. A statue of Major Montgomery graces the entrance of the Montgomery County Courthouse.
Montgomery was not the first capital of Alabama; it was actually the fifth. The territorial capital of Alabama was St. Stephens, on the Tombigbee River. The state capital was temporarily located in Huntsville after the state's creation in 1819, but was transferred to Cahawba in 1820. Cahawba was considered a less-than-ideal location because of periodic flooding and was abandoned by 1826. The state capital then was moved to Tuscaloosa. In 1846, the capital was permanently located at Montgomery, the legislature likely finding it an ideal location from which to run the state, due to adequate amenities and travel. It has been said that New Philadelphia's founder, Andrew Dexter—the more prominent of the two businessmen whose cities eventually merged into Montgomery—believed so strongly that his town would one day become capital of a new state that he actually reserved a spot for a capitol building. Once the capital was moved to Montgomery, his spot was purchased for that very purpose. From then, Montgomery continued to increase in prosperity and prominence. When Alabama seceded during the Civil War, Montgomery served as the first capital of the Confederate States of America; Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president on the steps of the Capitol.
During the Civil War, Montgomery was left virtually physically undamaged, thanks in part to the Confederate capital having been moved to Richmond, Virginia, early in the war in an effort to keep the war in the north. Alabama's infrastructure, however, was damaged with much the rest of the South. Once the railways had been rebuilt, the city moved its focus toward industrial growth in textiles and agriculture. On March 19, 1910, Montgomery became the winter home of the Wright brothers' Wright Flying School. The men frequented Montgomery and founded several airfields, one of which developed into the Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base after the Wrights began working with the government to produce planes for military use. Montomery flourished in the years leading up to the Great Depression, having experienced steady population growth. World War II revitalized the city after the Depression, but the city continued to weather some economic hardships. During this time, however, there were some noticeable highlights; Montgomery became the first city in the world to install electric street cars.

Rev. Dr. Martin L. King Jr. gained national attention for civil rights issues during his tenure (1954 to 1960) as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, two blocks from the State Capitol Building. A civil rights memorial has been erected near the still-active church. On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks became a civil rights heroine in the city by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. The reaction to this arrest led to the 382-day Montgomery Bus Boycott, which forced the city to desegregate its transit system on December 21, 1956. In 1965, Dr. King's nationally publicized march for justice was conducted from Selma to Montgomery.

On February 7, 1967, a devastating fire broke out at Dale's Penthouse, a restaurant and lounge on the top floor of the Walter Bragg Smith apartment building (now called Capital Towers) at 7 Clayton Street downtown. The fire was reported to have started in the cloakroom, and early efforts to extinguish it by the staff failed. Twenty-five people lost their lives, mainly because the only emergency stair exit, which was next to the cloakroom, was blocked by the fire and because the restaurant was not evacuated promptly. Many prominent local citizens and some visiting teamsters in town for a convention perished. As a result of the national exposure of the tragedy, a nationwide effort to revamp fire code standards was launched.

In more recent history, Montgomery has begun to recover from its economic problems of the 20th century. Montgomery is now home to Hyundai Motor Company's first assembly plant in the United States. A revitalization effort has brought a baseball stadium and a riverfront walk to downtown as well as numerous parks and historical attractions. Montgomery public schools were among the first in the nation to receive city-wide Internet access, and the Alabama school system was the first to wire all districts and schools via fiber-optics. In 1994, the 22-floor RSA Tower was constructed, which now houses many prominent tenants, including Raycom Media, the Capital City Club, and Morgan Keegan & Company. Montgomery is also expanding rapidly with plans to build a second bypass system and construction of large residential and commercial developments throughout the city. Montgomery is home to a federal minimum-security prison and to some of the military's most valuable and critical computer systems and is a major supply hub for the military. The city also houses one of the military's key air war colleges. Recently, Montgomery has been focusing on further improving local schools. Also, Montgomery is home to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Fine Arts Museum, the fifth largest museum in the world.

Today's Jumble (11/13/08):

ENCEP = PENCE; SQUAH = QUASH; PHOSUT = UPSHOT; STEEWF = FEWEST

CIRCLED LETTERS = PNCASHUSOEET

When the doorman was arrested, the detective had an

"OPEN (AND) SHUT CASE"

Today is World Kindness Day. It is also Indian Pudding Day (a day to enjoy puddings created by Native American Indians).

Finally, it is Sadie Hawkins Day (at least according to one source). It all began in Al Capp's "Lil Abner Cartoon in the 1930's. In the cartoon series, the mayor of Dogpatch was desperate to marry off his ugly daughter. So he created Sadie Hawkin's Day. On this day, a race is held and all the single men were given a short head start. If a woman catches her man, he had to marry her.

Other things on this day in history:

1002 - English king Ethelred orders the killing of all Danes in England, known today as the St. Brice's Day massacre.
1160 - Marriage of Louis VII of France with Adele of Champagne.
1642 - At the Battle of Turnham Green of the First English Civil War the Royalist forces withdraw in face of the Parliamentarian army and fail to take London.
1775 - American Revolutionary War: Patriot revolutionary forces under Col. Ethan Allen attack Montreal, Quebec defended by British General Guy Carleton.
1841 - James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism, which leads to his study of the subject he eventually calls hypnosis.
1851 - The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what would become Seattle, Washington.
1864 - The new Constitution of Greece is adopted.
1887 - Bloody Sunday clashes in central London.
1901 - The 1901 Caister Lifeboat Disaster.
1909 - Collier's magazine accuses U.S. Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger of questionable dealings in Alaskan coal fields.
1916 - Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes is expelled from the Labor Party over his support for conscription.
1918 - Allied troops occupy Constantinople the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
1927 - The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicular tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.
1941 - World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed by U 81, sinking the next day.
1942 - World War II: Naval Battle of Guadalcanal - U.S. and Japanese ships engage in an intense, close-quarters surface naval engagement during the Battle of Guadalcanal.
1950 - General Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, President of Venezuela, is assassinated in Caracas.
1954 - Great Britain defeats France to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators.
1956 - United States Supreme Court declares Alabama and Montgomery, Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal; thus ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1961 - Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny succeeds Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin as head of the KGB.
1965 - The SS Yarmouth Castle burns and sinks 60 miles off Nassau with the loss of 90 lives.
1969 - Vietnam War: Anti-war protesters in Washington, DC stage a symbolic March Against Death.
1970 - Bhola cyclone: A 150-mph tropical cyclone hits the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people in one night. This is regarded as the 20th century's worst natural disaster.
1971 - The American space probe, Mariner 9, becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet successfully, swinging into its planned trajectory around Mars.
1982 - A boxing match held in Las Vegas, Nevada ends when Ray Mancini defeats Duk Koo Kim. Kim's death on November 17 led to significant changes in the sport.
1982 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans.
1985 - The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts and melts a glacier, causing a lahar (volcanic mudslide) that buries Armero, Colombia, killing approximately 23,000 people.
1985 - Xavier Suarez is sworn in as Miami, Florida's first Cuban-born mayor.
1990 - The World Wide Web first began.
1990 - In Aramoana, New Zealand, Resident David Gray shot dead 13 people, in what became known as the Aramoana Massacre.
1994 - Voters in Sweden decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
1995 - A truck-bomb explodes outside of a US-operated Saudi Arabian National Guard training center in Riyadh, killing five Americans and two Indians. A group called the Islamic Movement for Change claims responsibility.
2000 - Philippine House Speaker Manuel B. Villar, Jr. passes the articles of impeachment against Philippine President Joseph Estrada.
2001 - Doha Round: The World Trade Organization ends a four-day ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar.
2001 - War on Terrorism: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.
2002 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq agrees to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441.
2002 - The oil tanker Prestige sinks off the Galician coast and causes a huge oil spill.
2007 - An explosion hits the south wing of the House of Representatives of the Philippines in Quezon City, killing four people, including Congressman Wahab Akbar, and wounding six.