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Way back when: Today in history
12.01

Two students embrace after a shooting in the lobby of a Paducah, Ky., high school.

By GENE CURTIS
Published: 12/1/2009 2:20 AM
Last Modified: 12/1/2009 6:31 AM

1955

Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man aboard a Montgomery, Ala., city bus and was arrested, sparking a year-long boycott of the buses by blacks. Her action helped start the Civil Rights movement in which she worked with several leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr.

1959

Representatives of 12 countries, including the United States, signed a treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity. The treaty banned war bases, nuclear explosions and missile silos forever from the polar region covering 5 million square miles.

1965

The first 75 of thousands of refugees from Communist Cuba arrived in Miami in the most massive airlift in history. The freedom flight was the first under an agreement with Cuban Premier Fidel Castro to evacuate 100,000 Cubans.

1997

Three students were killed and five were wounded when a 14-year-old student inserted ear plugs, drew a gun from a back pack and opened fire on a morning prayer group at a high school in West Paducah, Ky. The boy, who had warned a week earlier that "something big's going to happen," surrendered to the leader of the prayer circle. He had carried into school a .22-caliber handgun, two rifles and two shotguns, and he told curious classmates they were props for a science project.

To purchase "Only in Oklahoma," a book of collected columns by Gene Curtis, visit, tulsaworld.com/OnlyinOklahoma

Gene Curtis, 581-8304
gene.curtis@tulsaworld.com

By GENE CURTIS

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