On Dec. 1, 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 year-long boycott of the buses by blacks.

Ten years ago

A roadside bomb killed 10 U.S. Marines near Fallujah, Iraq. South Africa’s highest court ruled in favor of gay marriage. A jury in Sarasota, Florida, recommended the death sentence for Joseph Smith, the killer of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia. A dog and its owner found the bodies of Sarah and Philip Gehring, two children who’d been fatally shot by their father and buried in rural Ohio. (Manuel Gehring had confessed to the slayings but strangled himself in prison before he could be tried.)

Five years ago

President Barack Obama’s bipartisan deficit commission unveiled its recommendations including lower income taxes, fewer tax breaks and higher age for retirement benefits (however, the panel failed to advance the package to Congress two days later by a vote of 11 in favor, 7 against, falling short of the 14 votes needed). LPGA players meeting in Orlando, Florida, voted to allow transgender players to compete on tour.

One year ago

President Barack Obama, after meeting with mayors, civil rights leaders and law enforcement officials at the White House, asked federal agencies for concrete recommendations to ensure the U.S. wasn’t building a “militarized culture” within police departments.

— By The Associated Press