1) On August 9th, 1965, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This landmark piece of legislation aimed to eliminate discriminatory voting practices, particularly in the South, and protect the voting rights of African Americans.

2) The first historic marker commemorating the civil rights movement was erected in Montgomery, Alabama on August 9th, 1955. The marker was placed at the corner of Holt Street and Mobile Road, the site where the Montgomery Bus Boycott began.

3) On August 9th, 1995, the city of Birmingham, Alabama elected its first African American mayor, Richard Arrington Jr. He served as mayor for twenty years, and his administration oversaw significant progress in the areas of economic development and race relations.

4) One of the most devastating industrial accidents in Alabama history occurred on August 9th, 1916 in the town of Sylacauga. A dynamite explosion at a quarry killed 19 workers and injured dozens more.

5) On August 9th, 1956, civil rights activists including Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after leading a boycott of bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama. This event sparked a larger, more organized boycott of the city's buses, which lasted for over a year and played a key role in the civil rights movement.