The city of Huntsville, Alabama was once known as Twickenham; it was renamed Huntsville in 1812 to honor its first settler, John Hunt. Huntsville became Alabama’s first incorporated city in 1811, though the tiny settlement had been in existence since 1805. The city grew due to the railroad industry and cotton farming.

In 1819, Huntsville hosted a forty-four delegate constitutional convention in Walker Allen’s cabinetmaking shop. Following the convention, Alabama had a constitution and Huntsville became its first capital. This was a temporary measure only until Alabama could attain statehood in the Union, then the capital was relocated to a second temporary location, Cahawba, Alabama.

Montgomery finally became the capital. During the Civil War, Huntsville opposed succession. However, it had troops, members of the Alabama 4th Infantry regiment, who fought in the first battle of the war and stood beside their leader for the surrender. A total of eight generals of the Civil War were from the Huntsville area, four fought for each side!

At the onset of World War II, Huntsville was chosen to be the home of the Redstone Arsenal. Following the war, the need for the arsenal no longer existed and it was almost closed completely in 1949. But, as fate would have it, Huntsville was chosen to be the home of the missile research program, thanks to General H.N. Toftoy and Senator John Sparkman. General Toftoy convinced Wernher Von Braun and his associates to relocate to Huntsville. They accepted and started research and development of what would one day become the US space program. On September8, 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicated the Marshall Space Flight Center. Today Huntsville is known as “rocket city.”

In addition to the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville is the location of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM).