1824

The presidential election was turned over to the U.S. House of Representatives after none of the candidates (John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Crawford and Henry Clay) won more than 50% of the electoral vote.

1955

Rosa Parks, a Black seamstress, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus; the incident sparked a yearlong boycott of the buses and helped fuel the U.S. civil rights movement.

1965

The first “Freedom Flight” from Cuba to the United States landed in Miami. Over the ensuing eight years, the twice-daily flights allowed more than 250,000 Cuban refugees to migrate to the United States through a joint U.S.-Cuban agreement.

1991

Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union.

2009

President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops into the war in Afghanistan.

Birthdays

World Golf Hall of Famer Lee Trevino is 85. Rock musician John Densmore (The Doors) is 80. Actor-singer Bette Midler is 79. Model-actor Carol Alt is 64. Actor Jeremy Northam is 63. Baseball Hall of Famer Larry Walker is 58. Actor Néstor Carbonell is 57. Actor-comedian Sarah Silverman is 54. Actor Riz Ahmed is 42.