1954

Bill Haley and His Comets recorded “Rock Around the Clock,” a song often cited as bringing rock ‘n’ roll music into the mainstream when it was popularized in the film “The Blackboard Jungle” the following year.

1961

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, orbiting the earth once before landing safely via parachute after a planned ejection from his space capsule.

1963

Civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, charged with contempt of court and parading without a permit. (During his time behind bars, King wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”)