In Montgomery, Ala., Rosa Parks was arrested and jailed on Dec. 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, a violation of the city's racial segregation laws. Parks' defiance sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and the civil rights movement.

A media sensation was created on Dec. 1, 1952, when the New York Daily News carried a front-page story (under the headline "Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty") announcing that in Denmark Jorgensen had become the recipient of the first "sex change" surgery. This clip is from her press conference upon her arrival in New York.