1. In 1963, civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama for participating in a protest against segregation. Abernathy co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr. and was a key figure in the civil rights movement.

2. In 1949, Alabama's first television station, WBRC-TV, began broadcasting in Birmingham. The station was owned by the Birmingham News newspaper and was one of the first television stations in the southern United States.

3. In 1820, the University of Alabama was chartered in Tuscaloosa. It is now the oldest and largest public university in the state, with over 38,000 students enrolled.

4. In 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood led his troops against Union forces in the Battle of Decatur. The battle was part of Hood's campaign to retake control of northern Alabama, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

5. In 1998, John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, visited Huntsville, Alabama to tour NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Huntsville has a long history of aerospace innovation and is home to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, which features exhibits on space exploration and technology.