Oct. 27, 1913

President Woodrow Wilson visited Mobile for six hours to present a speech on U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. The president toured Mobile’s waterfront on the steamboat Winona, stayed at the Battle House Hotel and rode in a motorcade down Government Street before he addressed a crowd at the Lyric Theatre. Wilson’s historic speech outlined what became known as the “Wilson Doctrine,” a reversal on the traditionally imperialistic attitude of the United States. During the speech, Wilson declared “that the United States will never again seek one additional foot of territory by conquest.”

Read more at The American Presidency Project.

Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States and president of the American Red Cross, 1919. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

President Woodrow Wilson and his cabinet, c. 1917. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.