The night sky on the night of Rosa Parks's arrest — 1 December 1955

On the evening of 1 December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery city bus and was arrested. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, led by a young Martin Luther King Jr., which lasted 381 days. In 1956 the US Supreme Court upheld a ruling that bus segregation was unconstitutional.

The sky over Court Square, Montgomery, Alabama, USA

This is the real sky above Court Square, Montgomery, Alabama, USA (32.38°N, 86.31°W) on 1 December 1955 at 22:00 CST (UTC−6) that night (1955-12-02 04:00 UTC). The Sun was 67° below the horizon: it was full night. The Moon (waning gibbous, 91% lit) was 35° up in the east. No bright planet was above the horizon. Brightest named stars up: Sirius, Capella, Rigel, Procyon and Betelgeuse.

Star map of the sky over Court Square, Montgomery, Alabama, USA on 1 December 1955 at 22:00 Moon SiriusCapellaRigelProcyonBetelgeuseAldebaranPolluxFomalhaut NSEW
783 stars brighter than magnitude 5 above the horizon, with the constellation figures. Look up: north at the top, east on the left.

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