Suspect in 1999 Buinaksk bombing brought to Russia News
Suspect in 1999 Buinaksk bombing brought to Russia

[JURIST] Dagestani native Magomed Salikhov was brought to Russia on Saturday after his arrest in Azerbaijan for alleged involvement in a 1999 bombing in Buinaksk that killed 64 people and helped instigate Moscow's more recent military campaign in neighboring Chechnya. Two other men, including Salikhov's brother Alisultan, were convicted in 2001 for their involvement in the bombing that targeted an apartment building housing the families of Russian army officers. A date for Salikhov's trial has not been set. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.