1. On September 12, 1846, Elizabeth Jennings Graham, a young Black woman, refused to give up her seat on a New York City streetcar, leading to a landmark legal victory that helped desegregate public transportation in the city.

2. In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the first civil rights law since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which established a federal commission on civil rights and gave the U.S. Attorney General new powers to prosecute civil rights violations.

3. On September 12, 1992, Hurricane Iniki, one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit Hawaii in modern history, devastated the island of Kauai, causing more than $1.8 billion in damage and killing six people.

4. In 1962, the first dial telephone system in the District of Columbia went into operation, replacing an outdated manual switchboard system that had been in use since the early 1900s.

5. On September 12, 2008, the newly built Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., hosted its first baseball game, featuring the Washington Nationals against the Atlanta Braves. The stadium, which was completed at a cost of $611 million, has a seating capacity of more than 41,000 and has been home to the Nationals ever since.