Uzbek militants charged in coup attempt News
Uzbek militants charged in coup attempt

[JURIST] Uzbekistan [official website, English version] deputy state prosecutor Anvar Nabiyev on Thursday named 15 men who will stand trial next week for trying to overthrow the Uzbek government. The men, who allegedly organized disturbances in the town of Andijan [JURIST report] in May 2005, face charges including shooting hostages, forcing civilians to take part in an anti-government protest and membership in banned extremist groups. Nabiyev also listed specific sites in neighboring Kyrgyzstan where he said the militants had trained for the uprising, and implied that the Kyrgyz government had knowledge of these plans. BBC News has more. The Uzbekistan National News Agency has local coverage.

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.