December 1, 1955 - Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
The birth of the modern civil rights movement occurred when Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man as was required by law. Others had been arrested for the 'crime' before, but when Parks was arrested and fined, the African American community decided to unite. The Montgomery Improvement Association was formed and a young pastor, Martin Luther King, Jr., was elected its president. On Dec. 5 the Montgomery bus boycott began as 40,000 Black bus riders - the majority of the city's passengers - stopped riding the municipal buses. The boycott continued until Dec. 20, 1956, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregated seating on buses violated the 14th Amendment. (Images found on Flickr: Rosa Parks, bus, Parks arrested)
Learn more about Rosa Parks:
Adults:
- Our Auntie Rosa: The Family of Rosa Parks Remembers Her Life and Lessons by Sheila McCauley Keys
- The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis
Children:
- A Girl Named Rosa: The True Story of Rosa Parks by Denise Lewis Patrick
- I am Rosa Parks by Rosa Parks
- Rosa Parks by Kitson Jazynka
- Rosa Parks & Claudette Colvin: Civil Rights Heroes by Tracey Baptiste
Learn more about the Montgomery Bus Boycott:
Adults:
- Alabama v. King: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Criminal Trial that Launched the Civil Rights Movement by Dan Abrams
- Daughter of the Boycott: Carrying on a Montgomery Family's Civil Rights Legacy by Karen Gray Houston
- Julian Bond's Time to Teach: A History of the Southern Civil Rights Movement by Julian Bond
Children:
- Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman
- Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Mara Rockliff
- Who Sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott?: Rosa Parks by Insha Fitzpatrick
December 7, 1941 - Pearl Harbor attacked
The United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was attacked by nearly 200 Japanese planes early on a Sunday morning. Twenty ships and over 300 planes were destroyed. The USS Arizona was sunk trapping more than 1,000 sailors inside. The raid lasted just over an hour and killed almost 2,500 Americans. The next day, President Roosevelt addressed Congress in his "a date which will live in infamy" speech. The United States declared war on Japan and shortly thereafter on Germany and Italy. In response to the attack, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which forcibly moved those of Japanese descent into internment camps. The majority of the 120,000 people affected by this order were United States citizens. Their assets and belongings were seized and they were forced to live in deplorable conditions behind barbed wire. The last of the relocation centers were closed in 1946. (Arizona Relocation Camp image from Flickr)
Learn more about Pearl Harbor:
Adults:
- Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack by Steve Twomey
- Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, a Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor by Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll
- Hilter’s American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and Germany’s March to Global War by Brendan Simms
- Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor by Steve Kemper
Children:
- A Date Which Will Live in Infamy: Attack on Pearl Harbor by Virginia Loh-Hagan
- Remember Pearl Harbor: American and Japanese Survivors Tell Their Stories by Thomas B. Allen
Learn more about the impact and repercussions:
Adults:
- Bridge to the Sun: The Secret Role of the Japanese Americans Who Fought in the Pacific in World War II by Bruce B. Henderson
- Dead Reckoning: The Story of How Johnny Mitchell and His Fighter Pilots Took on Admiral Yamamoto and Avenged Pearl Harbor by Dick Lehr
- The Eagles of Heart Mountain: A True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II American by Bradford Pearson
- Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II by Daniel James Brown
Children:
- Desert Diary: Japanese American Kids Behind Barbed Wire by Michael O. Tunnell
- Japanese American Internment Camps by Laura Hamilton Waxman
- Thirty Minutes Over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot's World War II Story by Marc Taylor Nobleman
- Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience during WWII by Albert Marrin
December 14, 1911 - Roald Amundsen first to the South Pole
Norwegian Roald Amundsen spent his life exploring the frozen wonders of this world and trying to be the first to get there. Amundsen was the first mate on the Belgica in 1897, which was the first ship to winter in Antarctica. In 1903, aboard the Gjöa, he was the first to navigate through the Northwest Passage and around the Canadian coast. In 1911, he and Robert Scott were both headed for the South Pole. Amundsen got his ship 60 miles closer to the South Pole, making his journey with sled dogs shorter. Unfortunately, Scott used motor sledges, which broke down. His team eventually made it on foot to the South Pole but didn't survive the journey back to their base camp.
Learn more about Arctic explorations:
Adults:
- Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk by Buddy Levy
- Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Andrea Pitzer
- Into the Great Emptiness: Peril and Survival on the Greenland Ice Cap by David Roberts
- Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition by Buddy Levy
- N-4 Down: The Hunt for the Arctic Airship Italia by Mark Piesing
Children:
- The Disastrous Wrangel Island Expedition by Katrina M. Phillips
- Locked in Ice: Nansen’s Daring Quest for the North Pole by Peter Lourie
- Trapped in Terror Bay: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Franklin Expedition by Sigmund Brouwer
Learn more about Antarctic explorations:
Adults:
- Antarctic Pioneer: The Trailblazing Life of Jackie Ronne by Joanna Kafarowski
- Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton
- The Stowaway: A Young Man's Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
Children:
- Antarctic Expedition by Katy Lennon
- The Indestructible Tom Crean: Heroic Explorer of the Antarctic by Jennifer Thermes
- Lost in the Antarctic: The Doomed Voyage of the Endurance by Tod Olson
- Surviving Antarctica: Ernest Shackleton by Matt Doeden
December 17, 1903 - Wright Brothers' first airplane flight
Wilbur Wright was always bright, but an accident while playing ice hockey led to him not finishing high school or going on to Yale University as planned. Instead, he stayed home and read. Always interested in mechanics and keeping up with scientific research, he and his kid brother Orville opened a bike shop, fixing and designing bicycles. When German aviator Otto Lilienthal died in a glider crash, the brothers decided to start their own experiments with flight. After three years of experimentation, Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the first powered, sustained, and controlled airplane flights. They made four flights near Kitty Hawk, N.C. The longest lasted 59 seconds and covered 852 feet. Many didn't believe the brothers and so they headed to Europe where they made several public flights. The brothers became famous and started selling airplanes in Europe and then back in the United States.
Learn more about the Wright brothers:
Adults:
- Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies by Lawrence Goldstone
- The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
Children:
- Airborne: A Photobiography of Wilbur and Orville Wright by Mary Collins
- Flying Machines: How the Wright Brothers Soared by Alison Wilgus
- The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving into History by Erik Slader
Learn more about the history of aviation:
Adults:
- Flight: The Complete History of Aviation by R.G. Grant
- Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O'Brien
- The Great Air Race: Glory, Tragedy, and the Dawn of American Aviation by John Lancaster
- His Majesty’s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World’s Largest Flying Machine by S.C. Gwynne
Children:
- Bessie Coleman: Bold Pilot Who Gave Women Wings by Martha London
- The Flying Man: Otto Lilienthal, The World’s First Pilot by Mike Downs
- Race Through the Skies: The Week the World Learned to Fly by Martin W. Sandler
- Who Invented the Airplane?: Wright Brothers vs. Whitehead by Karen Latchana Kenney
Factual information adapted from: The Henry Ford Museum, the National Park Service, World Book, and History