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This Day at Law
On March 11, 1861, seven former US states adopted the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, which closely followed the language, if not necessarily the purport, of the original US Constitution.
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This Day at Law
On March 11, 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, following the death of Konstantin Chernenko. He soon announced that he would hold arms-reduction negotiations in Geneva with the United States. Gorbachev also used his tenure to liberalize the economy and social structure of the USSR, eventually leading to the abatement of the Soviet Union. In 1990,
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This Day at Law
On March 10, 1969, James Earl Ray was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the murder of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.. Ray died in 1998, still seeking a retrial of his case. On December 9th, 1999, a Memphis jury handed down a verdict agreeing with the King family that the 1968 assassination of the civil rights leader was a conspiracy rather than the act of a lone gunman. Learn
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On March 10, 1922, Mahatma Gandhi was arrested and charged with sedition for leading a campaign of mass civil disobedience against the British in India. He was then convicted and sentenced to six years in prison. After his release, Gandhi continued to build Indian unity and use civil disobedience and non-cooperation to oppose British rule in his country, culminating in the Salt March of 1930 and
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This Day at Law
On March 9, 1841, the US Supreme Court ruled in The Amistad case that a group of slaves who took over their ship were free. Learn more about The Amistad in JURIST's Famous Trials series.
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This Day at Law
On March 9, 1973, residents of Northern Ireland voted to remain part of the United Kingdom. 98% voted in favor of the referendum, but only 57% of the population participated. Catholic voters overwhelmingly boycotted the vote and civil war, known as "The Troubles", continued in Northern Ireland until the Good Friday Agreement, which provides for recognition of Northern Ireland's union with the
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This Day at Law
March 8 is International Women's Rights and International Peace day, better known as International Women's Day [UN factsheet].US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was born on March 8, 1841. Learn more about Justice Holmes and pay a virtual visit to his gravesite at Arlington National Cemetary. Listen to a rare recording of Justice Holmes speaking on NBC Radio on the occasion of his
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This Day at Law
On March 8, 1917, the U.S. Senate adopted the cloture rule to limit filibusters. Under Rule 22, two-thirds of Senators could vote to close debate on a given bill, thereby ending an ongoing filibuster. In 1975, that number was lowered to three-fifths of the Senate, which amounts to sixty Senators.Read a history of filibuster and cloture from the archives of the U.S. Senate.
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This Day at Law
On March 7, 1965, 525 civil rights activists began a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Just outside Selma, heavily armed police and deputies broke up the march with billy clubs and tear gas, injuring sixty-five people and hospitalizing 17 in a melee that became known as "Bloody Sunday." After federal court protection had been secured, 3200 marchers started out again on March 21; by the
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On March 7, 2007, the Britain's lower house of Parliament, the House of Commons, voted to change the upper chamber, the House of Lords, to an elected body. Previously, appointments to the House of Lords were based on noble birth.Read a history of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the body's official website.
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This Day at Law
On March 6, 1857, the US Supreme Court announced its landmark decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford, holding that blacks - slaves as well as free - were not and could never become citizens of the United States, and that the 1820 Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.Learn more about the Dred Scott case from Washington University in St. Louis (the city where Dred Scott initially filed his suit for
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This Day at Law
On March 4, 1834, the town of York in the British colony of Canada was incorporated as the City of Toronto.Learn the history of Toronto from the city's official website.
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This Day at Law
On March 5, 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a nativity scene built on public land by the City of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Court in Lynch v. Donnelly held that the creche did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from passing any "law respecting an establishment of religion".
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This Day at Law
On March 5, 1970, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty took effect after ratification by 43 countries.Read a brief history of the NPT.
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This Day at Law
On March 4, 1982, Bertha Wilson became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada.
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This Day at Law
On March 4, 1909, the Copyright Act of 1909 became law, making infringement of a copyright a federal crime for the first time. Review a brief history of copyright in the United States.
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This Day at Law
On March 3, 1879, Belva Lockwood became the first woman admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.Learn more about women at the Supreme Court bar from the Supreme Court Historical Society.
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This Day at Law
On March 3, 1918, the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire) signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the communist government of Russia, ending Russian involvement in World War I. The treaty furthermore opened independence for Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.Read the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and other documents related to the Peace of
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This Day at Law
Lord Mansfield (William Murray), Chief Justice of King's Bench and developer of English commercial law, was born in Scone, Scotland, on March 2, 1702.Learn more about Lord Mansfield from the Biddle Law Library, University of Pennsylvania Law School.
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This Day at Law
On March 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act, granting Puerto Rico status a United State territory and granting all of its residents U.S. citizenship. The Bill furthermore constructed a government and bill of rights for the island and allowed its residents to serve in the U.S. military.In 1952, the rights of Puerto Rico and its residents were further extended when the
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This Day at Law
On March 1, 1875, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 became law. It declared:all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by
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This Day at Law
On March 1, 1950, German-British atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs was sentenced to 14 years in prison by a UK court for passing British and American nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union.Read a biography of Fuchs and his confession from PBS.
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On February 28, 1877, the US Congress ratified the Manypenny Agreement with the Lakota Sioux, under which the United States took control of 900,000 acres of the Black Hills. Read the ratification act, which includes the terms of the Agreement. The Lakota argue to this day that the Agreement is illegal, was obtained by coercion associated with starvation, and that the Black Hills should be
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This Day at Law
On February 28, 1933, German President Paul von Hindenburg issued the Presidential Decree for the Protection of People and State in response the burning of the Reichstag (the German Parliament building) on the previous day. More commonly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, the law suspended many key civil liberties, such as free press, habeas corpus, and warrant requirements. Blaming Communists
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This Day at Law
On February 27, 1999, Nigerians elected Olusegun Obasanjo as the country's President, ending 15 years of military rule under a series of dictators.
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This Day at Law
On February 27, 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, prohibiting a President from being elected to more than two terms in office. Watch Term Limits and American Government, a CATO Institute Policy Forum recorded on the 50th anniversary of the 22nd Amendment in 2001.
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This Day at Law
On February 26, 1924, Adolf Hitler and several others were put on trial for treason in Munich in connection with an attempted putsch. Learn more about the Munich (or "Beer Hall") Putsch and the subsequent trial of Hitler and his associates.
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This Day at Law
On February 26, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the National Banking Act into law, creating the American banking charter system. The Act furthermore created the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) within the Treasury Department. The law was furthermore intended to help raise money for the Civil War by pressing banks to buy federal as opposed to state bonds. The law was not a
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This Day at Law
On February 25, 1913, the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, creating the Income Tax.Read more from FindLaw on the history and purpose of the 16th Amendment.
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This Day at Law
On February 25, 1982, In Campbell & Cosans v. The United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that parents can prevent teachers in the United Kingdom from striking their schoolchildren. At the time of the court's decision, the UK was the only western European nation that permitted corporal punishment in schools.
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This Day at Law
On February 24, 1803, Chief Justice John Marshall of the US Supreme Court ruled in Marbury v. Madison that any act of Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is null and void, thereby establishing the doctrine of judicial review. Watch an explanatory video featuring Professor Joel Grossman, a constitutional scholar in the Johns Hopkins University Political Science Department. Learn more
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This Day at Law
On February 24, 1976, the Republic of Cuba promulgated the Socialist Constitution of Cuba. The document solidified the socialist system in Cuba. It was the fifth Cuban constitution since the country's independence in 1901 and the first since the Cuban revolution in 1959. The Socialist Constitution was subsequently amended in 1992 and 2002.
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This Day at Law
W.E.B. DuBois, founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was born on February 23, 1868. Review the W.E.B. DuBois Papers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and released FBI files on DuBois kept because of his affiliation with "communist front groups."
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This Day at Law
On February 23, 1903, Cuba leased Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity" as part of the Cuban-American Treaty. The United States subsequently used the lease to establish a Naval Base at Guantánamo. With the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, an internationally controversial military prison was built at Guantánamo to house prisoners of war and terrorism suspects captured by
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This Day at Law
On February 22, 1965, US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter died in Washington, DC. Learn more about Felix Frankfurter from the Oyez Supreme Court multimedia project at Northwestern University.
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This Day at Law
On February 22, 1979, Saint Lucia gained independence from the United Kingdom, becoming a sovereign nation.Read the Constitution of Saint Lucia.
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This Day at Law
On February 21, 1975, former US Attorney General John Mitchell, Nixon Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman and domestic adviser John Ehrlichman were sentenced to prison terms of 2 1/2 to 8 years for obstructing justice in the Watergate affair. Learn more about John Mitchell from the Washington Post.
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On February 21, 1971, the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances was signed in Vienna, Austria. The Convention was promulgated to regulate psychotropic drugs, extending the 1961 U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which applied to cannabis-, cocoa-, and opium-based drugs. In 1988, the U.N. Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances was
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This Day at Law
On February 20, 1809, US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in United States v. Peters that the legal power of the federal judiciary is greater than that of any individual state: "If the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution itself becomes a solemn
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This Day at Law
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 9066, authorizing the wartime internment of Japanese Americans. Learn more about the internment of Japanese Americans from Vernillia Randall at the University of Dayton School of Law and read the first chapter of Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters of World War II, by
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This Day at Law
On February 19, 1861, Czar Alexander II promulgated the Emancipation Manifesto, which abolished the serfdom in Russia after over two hundred years of the practice. Read the Emancipation Manifesto.
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This Day at Law
On February 18, 1970, the jury rendered its verdicts in the trial of the Chicago Seven, charged in connection with violence that had erupted at the 1968 Democratic Convention. The jury acquitted all defendants on conspiracy, while finding five guilty of intent to incite a riot while crossing state lines. Learn more on JURIST about the trial of the Chicago Seven from Douglas Linder of the
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This Day at Law
On February 18, 1943, the Nazi government of Germany arrested the two leaders of the White Rose movement, brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl. The White Rose was a German group, primarily comprised of students, that advocated non-violent resistance to the Nazi government in Germany. After the Scholls were arrested, the remaining members of the White Rose were captured by the end of 1943.
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This Day at Law
On February 17, 1964, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Wesberry v. Sanders that congressional districts within each state had to be roughly equal in population.Learn more about Congressional redistricting from the Center for Voting and Democracy.
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On February 17, 2008 the Assembly of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. While Serbia denounced the declaration as illegal, the international community has remained divided on this issue. Several nations including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Taiwan, and Turkey have recognized Kosovar independence, but others such as Russia maintain that the declaration violates international
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This Day at Law
On February 16, 1916, feminist and anarchist Emma Goldman was arrested in New York City for advocating birth control. Learn more about Emma Goldman and her defense of reproductive rights from the University of California, Berkeley.
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On February 16, 1987, accused Nazi war criminal, John Demjanjuk, went on trial in Jerusalem, Israel. The prosecution claimed that Demjanjuk was a notorious prison guard known as "Ivan the Terrible" at the Treblinka extermination camp during World War II. On this basis, Demjanjuk was convicted by the Israeli court of crimes against humanity. However, in August 1993, the conviction overturned by
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This Day at Law
On February 15, 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes signed legislation allowing women to be admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. Belva Lockwood became the first woman admitted to practice under the new law on March 3, 1879.Learn more about Belva Lockwood.
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This Day at Law
On February 15, 1906, the British Labour Party was organized. By the 1920's, Labour had surpassed the Liberal Party to become the primary opposition to the Conservative Party in Great Britain. Today, the government is controlled by Labour, headed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.Read the Labour Party Rule Book.
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This Day at Law
On February 14, 1899, Congress approved the use of voting machines in federal elections. Listen to a brief history of voting machines from the University of Houston College of Engineering.
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On February 14, 1949, Israel's parliament, the Knesset, convened for the first time, and Joseph Shprinzak was elected as its first Speaker.Read a history of the First Knesset from the Knesset archives.
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This Day at Law
David Dudley Field, a champion of legal codification in the United States, was born in Haddam, Connecticut, on February 13, 1805. Learn more about the life and career of David Dudley Field.
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This Day at Law
On February 13, 2007, Ma Ying-jeou, the chairman of Taiwan's opposition party was indicted on embezzlement charges from his time as Mayor of Taipei. That same day, Ma stepped down as leader of the Kuomintang Party and proceeded to announce his candidacy for the Presidency of Taiwan. In the indictment, Ma was accused by the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office of embezzlement. He was ultimately
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This Day at Law
On February 12, 1793, the US Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law prohibiting anyone from assisting a runaway slave.
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This Day at Law
On February 12, 2002, the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the former President of Yugoslavia, began at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the The Hague, The Netherlands. Milosevic was indicted on sixty-six counts of war crimes allegedly perpetrated during the Balkan civil wars of the 1990's, including allegations of genocide and crimes against humanity. The trial
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This Day at Law
On February 11, 1812, Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed an electoral redistricting law that favored his party - the practice became known as "gerrymandering" in reference to Gerry and the unusual, allegedly salamander-like district that resulted. See the original 1812 political cartoon of The Gerry-mander in the Boston Gazette.
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On February 11, 1889, the Meiji Constitution of Japan was promulgated by Emperor Meiji. Officially titled, the "Constitution of the Empire of Japan", the Meiji Constitution went into effect on November 29, 1890 and served as the country's fundamental law through the rise of Japanese Empire until the end of World War II. On May 2, 1947, the Meiji Constitution was replaced by the Constitution of
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This Day at Law
On February 10, 1967, the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, pertaining to Presidential disability and succession, took effect. Learn more about Presidential succession from the AEI/Brookings Continuity of Government Commission.
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On February 10, 1947, the Honourable Louise Arbour was born in Montreal, Canada. Ms. Arbour has since become a distinguished Canadian and International Jurist, serving as a Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada, as Chief Prosecutor for War Crimes with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.See recent
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On February 9, 1909, Congress passed the first federal legislation prohibiting narcotics. The "Act to Prohibit Importation and Use Of Opium" barred the importation of opium at other than specified ports and for other than medicinal use. Read a contemporary call for quick passage of the legislation just days before it passed the House.
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On February 9, 1962, Jamaica left the Federation of the West Indies, becoming a fully-independent nation for the first time in its history. The country did, however, remain a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Read the Constitution of Jamaica from the Georgetown University archives.
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On February 8, 1587, Mary I of Scotland was executed for involvement in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England. Before execution, Mary denied three times assisting the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, and crown Mary as ruler of Great Britain. Mary's guilt or innocence is debated to this day.Read about Mary, Queen of Scots and the Babington Plot from the University
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This Day at Law
On February 8, 1924, Gee Jon, a Chinese man convicted of murder, was executed by gas in Nevada and became the first person in the United States to be put to death in that manner. The Nevada state legislature had eliminated hanging and shooting as a method of execution in 1921, and had provided for execution by lethal gas instead. Nevada sent 32 convicts to the gas chamber between 1924 and 1979.
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This Day at Law
On February 7, 1992, the Maastricht Treaty was signed by the members of the European Community, creating the European Union. Officially called the Treaty on the European Union, the original Maastricht Treaty went into force on November 1, 1993. The current Maastricht Treaty includes amendments from later EU treaties.
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This Day at Law
On February 7, 1795, the 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution took effect with ratification by North Carolina. Adopted in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court's ruling in Chisholm v. Georgia, the Amendment limited the jurisdiction of the federal courts to automatically hear cases brought against a state by the citizens of another state.Learn more about the meaning and history of the
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This Day at Law
On February 6, 1933, the 20th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified by the requisite majority of states, moving the start of presidential, vice-presidential and congressional terms from March to January in an effort to shorten the problematic "lame duck" period.Learn more about the 20th Amendment.
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On February 6, 1900, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) was with the ratification of the 1899 Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes. Set at The Hague in the Netherlands, the PCA was the first international tribunal established to settle disputes between nations. The PCA was later revised by the subsequent 1907 Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International
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This Day at Law
On February 5, 1988, Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was indicted on charges of drug smuggling and money laundering. The following year, he was extradited to the United States and later sentenced to 30 years in U.S. federal prison.In 1999, the French government requested that Noriega be extradited to France, where he has been convicted of money laundering. In that same year, the government of
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On February 5, 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, frustrated with the US Supreme Court's treatment of some of his economic reforms, proposed a plan to add judges to that and other federal courts whenever a sitting judge reached the age of seventy but declined to retire. Critics accused Roosevelt of indulging in autocracy and "court-packing.". Listen to Roosevelt's "fireside chat" on the
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This Day at Law
On February 4, 1913, late civil rights activist Rosa Parks - who became famous in 1956 for refusing to give up her seat to a white man and go to the back of a Montgomery Alabama bus - was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. Learn more about Rosa Parks.
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On February 4, 1794, the legislature of France abolished slavery throughout the territories of the French Republic. The practice was then reinstituted by Napoleon in 1804, before being banned permanently in 1814 after Bonaparte was exiled to Elba. As of 2001, slavery is defined as a "crime against humanity" by French law.
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On February 3, 1967, Ronald Ryan became the last person executed in Australia. He was hanged in Pentridge Prison in Melbourne for killing a guard during an escape attempt. Belief in Ryan's innocence led to protests across the country, culminating in the Death Penalty Abolition Act of 1973.The Last Man Hanged, a documentary about the execution of Ronald Ryan, was released in 1993.
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On February 3, 1930, Chief Justice William Howard Taft, former President of the United States, resigned from the United States Supreme Court for health reasons. He died 5 weeks later. Learn more about the life and career(s) of William Howard Taft and review his complex medical history.
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On February 2, 1653, the City of New Amsterdam was incorporated by the Dutch Republic. After British conquest, the city was renamed New York after the Duke of York.
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On February 2, 1819, the United States Supreme Court decided Dartmouth College v. Woodward, ruling that the charter of a college was a contract that a state could not alter arbitrarily.
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Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the King's Bench and author of law reports and commentaries (including, most famously, Coke on Littleton), was born on February 1, 1552. Learn more about Sir Edward Coke.
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On February 1, 1790, the Supreme Court of the United States convened for the first time. The meeting was held at the Merchants' Exchange Building in New York City, then the national capital. Chief Justice John Jay presided over the first Court with five Associate Justices: James Wilson, John Blair, James Iredell, William Cushing, and John Rutledge. However, due to the limitations of 18th century
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On January 31, 1946 the Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was adopted, creating six internal republics. The constitution, modeled on that of the Soviet Union, would serve at the supreme law of Yugoslavia throughout the Cold War, before the union dissolved in 1990.
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On January 31, 1865, Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States.
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On January 30, 1973, former Nixon aides G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in connection with a politically-motivated break-in at the Watergate hotel. Read more about Liddy and McCord from the Washington Post.
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On January 30, 2003, British-born Richard Reid was sentenced to life in a U.S. prison for attempting to destroy an American passenger plane using a bomb hidden in his shoe. Reid attempted to ignite an explosive device hidden in his shoe on a flight leaving Miami International Airport bound for Paris on December 21, 2001. Before he could light the fuse, Reid was restrained by passengers and crew
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On January 29, 1979, kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst's seven-year prison sentence for bank robbery as a member of the Symbianese Liberation Army was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. Hearst was later pardoned by President Bill Clinton.
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On January 29, 1978, Sweden became the first country to outlaw aerosol sprays. The ban was enacted to address the harmful effects of aerosol on the Earth's ozone layer.Read about aerosol sprays and the ozone layer of Earth's atmosphere from NASA.
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On January 28, 1573, the Articles of the Warsaw Confederation were signed, opening religious freedom in Lithuania and Poland. The Confederation document statutized the Polish practice of tolerating different religions. Read the Articles of the Warsaw Confederation in the original Polish.
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On January 28, 1925, US Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone became the first US Supreme Court nominee to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, testifying for five hours.
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On January 27, 1967, representatives of over 60 nations signed the "Outer Space Treaty" banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons. Review the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.
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This Day at Law
On January 27, 1973, representatives of the United States, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam signed the Paris Peace Accords, ending the Vietnam War. The United States's chief negotiator, Dr. Henry Kissinger, was awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in concluding the treaty and ending hostilities.Read important excerpts from the Paris Peace Accords as compiled by Vasser College.
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On January 26, 1838, Tennessee became the first US state to pass a law prohibiting the general sale of alcohol; fines paid by lawbreakers were put towards the support of public schools. Read more about the history of Prohibition.
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On January 26, 1950, India ratified its constitution, formally creating a republic. On the same day, Rajendra Prasad was inarguated as the republic's first president. The anniversary is celebrated today as Republic Day in India.
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On January 25, 1971, Charles Manson and three women of his "family" were convicted of murder and conspiracy for the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate. Learn more about the trial of Charles Manson from Professor Douglas Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
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On January 25, 1981 - Jiang Qing, the widow of Mao Zedong, was sentenced to death by a special court in China. The charges stemmed primarily from Jiang's role in the Cultural Revolution. Saying "I was Chairman Mao's dog. I bit whomever he asked me to bite," Qing unsuccessfully argued that she was merely acting at the direction of her late husband, who had died five years earlier. In 1983, Jiang's
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On January 24, 1996, Jozef Oleksy, the Premier of Poland, resigned after he was accused of spying for the Soviet Union. Former KGB officer Andrzej Milczanowski alleged that Oleksy had passed him classified information while serving as the Polish Minister of Internal Affairs.A military investigation was closed in April of 1996 for lack of evidence.
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On January 24, 1993, retired US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who had spent much of his life fighting and supporting civil rights causes, died in Bethesda, Maryland. Learn more about the life and legal career of Thurgood Marshall from biographer Juan Williams.
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On January 23, 1964, the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution, eliminating the poll tax in federal elections, was ratified. Learn more about the 24th Amendment and poll taxes from the Library of Congress.
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On June 2, 1997, a federal jury convicted Timothy McVeigh on 11 counts, including eight counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Eleven days later, he was sentenced to die by lethal injection. Learn more about the McVeigh execution.
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On June 2 1946, Italians approved a public referendum to change their country from a monarchy into a republic for the first time in the nation's history. The Constitution of Italy later came into force on January 1, 1948.
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On June 1, 1869, inventor Thomas A. Edison received a patent for an electric voting machine for use by Congress. Learn more about the history of electronic voting.
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This Day at Law
June 1, 2000, the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) was signed in Geneva. The purpose of PLT is to make the patent process easier for the applicant at the international level by streamlining the regional and national patent procedures in member countries. Today, there are 19 contracting states and 59 additional nations have signed PLT.Learn more about the Patent Law Treaty from the World Intellectual
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This Day at Law
On May 31, 1910, the Union of South Africa was created. Exactly fifty-one years later in 1961, the Republic of South Africa was born.Learn more about the history of South Africa from the country's government.
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This Day at Law
On May 31, 1921, the Tulsa race riot was touched off after a black elevator operator was alleged to have attacked a white woman in an elevator in downtown Tulsa. Armed whites attacked, burned and looted the local black business community of Greenwood in violence that killed more than 300 people and destroyed more than 1200 homes. Learn more about the Tulsa race riot. A special commission set up
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