In 1956 The United States Supreme Court ruled that race separation on buses in Alabama is unconstitutional
On the 1st of December 1955 Mrs Parks was on a bus situated in the section for African-Americans when the driver noticed that white passengers were standing. As the seats reserved for white passengers were full the bus driver, James Blake, moved the sign marking the “colored” section backwards and ordered the four African-Americans sitting in the seats to move. Mrs Parks refused to give up her seat and was subsequently arrested.
Mrs Parks’ court case took place on the 5th of December 1955 and Civil rights leader Martin Luther King arranged for a bus boycott in Alabama that would last from the day of the trial until the 20th of December 1956. Mrs Parks lost her case and was fined $10 (£6) for disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance. Mrs Parks challenged the verdict and her case was used as a test case against segregation. Martin Luther King was also convicted of starting an illegal bus boycott in Alabama on the 22nd of March 1956. He was fined $500 (£178) and ordered to pay court costs of the same value. Kings lawyer gave notice of their intention to appeal and the sentenced was changed from a fine to a 386 day prison sentence which would be suspended until the appeal hearing. The boycott lasted 382 days, ending in December 1956 after the bus companies were forced by a US Supreme court ruling made on the 13th of November 1956 that made racial segregation on transport illegal.
In 1971 the United States Mariner 9 spacecraft became the first man-made object to orbit another planet
The unmanned probe was launched on the 30th of May 1971 with the mission of mapping the Martian surface. A little before midnight on the 13th of November the spacecraft began its orbit of the Red Planet becoming the first craft to orbit another planet. It was set to orbit the planet twice a day for a month but all did not go to plan.
As the probe approached Mars it sent its first images of the Mars but due to a storm the camera couldn’t take images of the surface. This presented a problem but NASA’s engineers quickly solved it. They reprogrammed the probe to delay taking images until the storm had passed allowing a clear map of the planet to be produced. After a month the storm finally passed and patient earthlings finally got to see clear images of the surface. The huge volcanoes and gigantic ravines much larger than found on Earth showed the first clear evidence of the incredible seismic activity that the planet had experienced. Mariner 9 continued its orbit sending back images until contact with the probe ended on the 27th of October 1972.
The Soviets had also sent two probes, Mars 2 and Mars 3, coinciding with the US mission. Mars 2 arrived before Mariner 9 but crashed in the storm while Mars 3 landed but malfunctioned shortly after.
The United States launched Mariner 10 one year later on the 3rd of November 1973 which arrived at its destination of Mercury and became the first probe to perform a successful fly-by of the planet on the 29th of March 1974 and mapping 35% of its surface.
On the 20th of August 1975 NASA launched Viking 1 which became the first spacecraft to successfully land on the Martian surface on the 20th of July 1976. The very successful mission continued for almost five years finally ending on the 17th of August 1980 after 1,775 Martian days (1,824 Earth days).
