1. In 1861, Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation calling for an additional 50,000 troops from the state of Alabama to join the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.

2. In 1933, the Alabama State Capitol Building in Montgomery was dedicated. The building served as the state's capitol until 1985 when the current capitol building was completed.

3. On April 18, 1955, Rosa Parks filed a lawsuit against the Montgomery, Alabama transit system challenging racial segregation on city buses. This lawsuit became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement and led to the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott.

4. In 1968, James Earl Ray, the man convicted of assassinating Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was captured in a small town in Alabama after a nationwide manhunt.

5. On April 18, 1981, the first Space Shuttle mission, STS-1, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with Alabama native and astronaut Robert Crippen on board as the pilot. This mission marked the beginning of NASA's Space Shuttle program.