1. In 1961, Ruby Bridges, an African American student, arrived in New Orleans to attend William Frantz Elementary School, which had been integrated with the help of federal marshals. Bridges became an icon of the civil rights movement and her bravery paved the way for countless other students to attend desegregated schools.

2. On July 21, 1861, the Battle of First Manassas (also known as the Battle of Bull Run) took place in Virginia, which was one of the first major battles of the American Civil War. Many Alabama soldiers fought in the battle on behalf of the Confederacy.

3. In 1993, Alabama Governor Guy Hunt was removed from office following a conviction for misuse of campaign funds. He was the first governor in Alabama history to be removed from office by impeachment.

4. On July 21, 1937, the notorious gangster John Dillinger was shot and killed by FBI agents outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago. Dillinger had previously taken refuge in Alabama and his criminal exploits had captured the public's attention during the Great Depression.

5. In 1897, the first ironclad warship to be built in the United States, the USS Alabama, was launched in Camden, New Jersey. The ship served in both the Spanish-American War and World War I before it was decommissioned and turned into a museum in Mobile, Alabama in 1964.