1. In 1818, the Mississippi territorial legislature passed a law prohibiting the teaching of enslaved Black people to read or write, in order to prevent them from gaining knowledge that could be used to challenge the system of slavery.

2. In 1854, the first successful use of anesthetic in Mississippi occurred when Dr. Marion Sims used ether to perform surgery on a patient in Macon.

3. In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at a rally in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, TN. King was assassinated just four days later in Memphis, setting off a wave of unrest across the country.

4. In 1994, the Mississippi legislature passed a bill making it illegal for public schools to teach students about homosexuality or portray same-sex relationships in a positive light. The law was eventually struck down as unconstitutional.

5. In 2018, Mississippi enacted a law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, the most restrictive abortion law in the country at the time. The law was immediately challenged in court and was blocked from going into effect by a federal judge.