The Montgomery, Alabama, bus in which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, December 1, 1955

On this day in history —

• The US Presidential election is thrown into the House of Representatives for the first and only time because no candidate received a majority of electoral college votes, resulting in John Quincy Adams becoming president even though Andrew Jackson had more electoral votes (1824)
• The soft drink Dr. Pepper goes on sale (1885)
• Ford introduces the first moving assembly line (1913)
• Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus and is arrested (1955)
• Paul McCartney and Pete Best are arrested (and are later deported) from Germany after accusations of attempted arson (1960)
• Benazir Bhutto is appointed prime minister of Pakistan (1988)

It’s the birthday of —

• Marie Tussaud, wax sculptor (1761)
• Nikolai Lobachevsky, mathematician (1792)
• Rex Stout, mystery writer (1886)
• Georgy Zhukov, Soviet general (1896)
• Mary Martin, actress (1913)
• Lou Rawls, singer-songwriter (1933)
• Woody Allen, filmmaker and comedian (1935)
• Lee Travino, golfer (1939)
• Richard Pryor, comedian (1940)
• Bette Midler, singer-songwriter and actress (1945)
• Gilbert O’Sullivan, singer-songwriter (1946)
• Pablo Escobar, drug lord (1949)
• Treat Williams, actor (1951)
• Annette Haven, porn star (1954)
• Candace Bushnell, journalist (1958)
• Charlene Tilton, actress (1958)
• Carol Alt, model (1960)
• Nestor Carbonell, actor (1967)

• Sarah Silverman, comedienne (1970)

• Matthew Shepard, murder victim (1976)

Deaths —

• George Everest, surveyor and mountain namesake (1866)
• Alfred Thayer Mahan, naval strategist (1914)
• Aleister Crowley, occultist (1947)
• J. B. S. Haldane, geneticist (1964)
• David Ben-Gurion, Israeli prime minister (1973)
• Russ Manning, comic artist (1981)
• James Baldwin, poet and author (1987)
• Alvin Ailey, choreographer (1989)
• Stéphane Grappelli, jazz violinist (1997)

Holidays and Celebrations —