Tuscaloosa, Alabama
The city has received many quality-of-life accolades. It was named one of the "50 Best Places to Launch a Small Business" in 2009 by Fortune Small Business, and one of the "100 Best Communities for Young People" by America’s Promise Alliance. It was named "The Most Liveable City in America" in 2011 by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Tuscaloosa has been traditionally known as the "Druid City" because of the numerous water oaks planted in its downtown streets since the 1840s. City leaders adopted the moniker "The City of Champions" after the Alabama Crimson Tide football team won the BCS National Championship game in 2010.
Native American
Nearly 12,000 years ago Native Americans or Paleo-Indians arrived in what today is referred to as the Deep South. Paleo-Indians in the South were hunter-gatherers who pursued the megafauna that became extinct following the end of the Pleistocene age. After thousands of years, the Paleo-Indians developed a rich and complex agricultural society. Archaeologists called these people the Mississippians of the Mississippian culture; they were Mound Builders. Their large earthworks, built for political and religious rituals and expressing their cosmology, still stand throughout the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, as well as their tributaries in the Southeast.
Descendant Native American tribes include the Creek. Also among the historical tribes living in the area of present-day Alabama at the time of European contact were the Iroquoian-speaking Cherokee, and the Muskogean-speaking Alabama (Alibamu), Chickasaw, Choctaw, Koasati, and Mobile.
In 1829, Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States. He had gained popularity when he defeated the Creek
at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, following victories in the War of 1812. He long proposed Indian removal to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi, to make land available for European-American setlement.[13] Jackson abandoned the policy of his predecessors of treating different Indian groups as separate nations.[13] Instead, he aggressively pursued plans to move all Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi River.[13] Following the Indian Removal Act, in 1832 the Creek National Council signed the Treaty of Cusseta, ceding their remaining lands east of the Mississippi River|Mississippi to the U.S., and accepting relocation to the Indian Territory. Most Muscogee-speaking peoples were removed to Indian Territory during the Trail of Tears in 1834, although some remained behind. Some Muscogee in Alabama live near Poarch Creek Reservation in Atmore (northeast of Mobile).
Statehood
The pace of white settlement in the Southeast increased greatly after the War of 1812. A small assortment of log cabins soon arose near the large Creek village at the fall line of the river, which the new settlers named in honor of the legendary Chief Tuskaloosa of a Muskogean-speaking tribe. In 1817, Alabama became a territory, and on December 13, 1819, the territorial legislature incorporated the town of Tuscaloosa, one day before Congress admitted Alabama to the Union as a state.
From 1826 to 1846, Tuscaloosa was the capital of Alabama. During this period, in 1831, the University of Alabama was established. The town's population and economy grew rapidly until the departure of the capital to Montgomery caused a 
rapid decline in population. Establishment of the Bryce State Hospital for the Insane in Tuscaloosa in the 1850s helped restore the city's fortunes.
Civil War
During the Civil War following Alabama's secession from the Union, several thousand men from Tuscaloosa fought in the Confederate armies. During the last weeks of the War, a brigade of Union troops raiding the city burned the campus of the university. The larger town was also damaged in the battle and shared fully in the South's economic sufferings which followed the defeat.
In the 1890s the construction of a system of locks and dams on the Black Warrior River by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened up an inexpensive link to the Gulf seaport of Mobile, stimulating especially the mining and metallurgical industries of the region. By the advent of the 20th century, the growth of the University of Alabama and the mental health-care facilities in the city, along with a strong national economy fueled a steady growth in Tuscaloosa which continued unabated for 100 years.
2011 Tornado
On April 27, 2011, Tuscaloosa was hit by a 1.5 mi (2.4 km) wide EF4 tornado that resulted in 47 deaths, over 1000 injuries, and massive devastation. Its top winds were estimated by the US National Weather Service at 190 mph (310 km/h). Officials at DCH Regional Medical alone reported treating more than 1000 injured people in the tornado aftermath. Officials reported
dozens of unaccompanied minors being admitted for treatment at the hospital, raising questions about the possible loss of their parents. Several were to pediatric trauma wards, indicating serious injuries. Referring to the extent and severity of the damage, Mayor Walter Maddox stated that "we have neighborhoods that have been basically removed from the map."
The tornado was part of the larger April 25–28, 2011 tornado outbreak with effect most parts of the eastern United States.
In the immediate aftermath of the tornado, thousands of rescue workers dug through the wreckage looking for survivors and recovering bodies. More than 450 were originally listed as missing in the post disaster chaos, leading to fears that the death toll could sky rocket to the hundreds and skepticism about the relatively slow fatality figures with respects to the number of casualties. Rumors abounded about refrigerated trucks being brought to store unidentified remains and countless bodies at the bottom of area bodies of water. However, the fatality figure did not increase (in fact, it decreased) and most missing persons were later found to have survived. During this period, The Tuscaloosa News posted an online people finder to aid loved ones and 
friends in finding one another and to determine who was still missing.
Two days after the storm, US president Barack Obama and Alabama governor Robert Bentley, and their spouses, Michelle Obama and Diane Bentley, respectively accompanied Maddox on tour of the damage and recovery efforts, along with FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate and several Congressional dignitaries. Remarking about the scale and severity of the damage, Obama stated, "I've never seen devastation like this, it's heartbreaking" after touring the damaged areas. Obama pledged the full resources of the federal government towards aiding the recovery efforst Bentley—himself a Tuscaloosa native—pledged additional national guard troops.
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox announced that he was requesting 500 additional National Guard Troops as well as calling for more volunteer aid workers and also cadaver teams for the recovery of bodies in order to prevent the spread of disease.
The New York Yankees organization contributed $500,000 to the American Red Cross and Salvation Army to aid in recovery efforts as well as the Atlanta Braves organization donating $100,000. Actor Charlie Sheen visited the city to pay his respects 
on May 2 and donated supplies for relief efforts, along with several other actors, musicians and athletes.
Due to the disaster, on August 6th, 2011, the University of Alabama held a delayed graduation ceremony for the class of 2011 and awarded 6 students who died in the tornado posthumous degrees. The cable channel ESPN has also filmed a tribute in memory of the devastation.