UK police charge 17th person for failed London bombings News
UK police charge 17th person for failed London bombings

[JURIST] British police Friday charged Muhedin Ali, 27, in connection with the attempt to bomb the London subway and a bus on July 21, 2005. Ali was arrested January 17 and is charged with helping another bomber, Hussein Osman, evade arrest. Ali is the 17th person charged over the attacks that failed when the bombs did not detonate. The attempted attacks were scheduled two weeks after a suicide bombing attack [JURIST news archive] that killed 52 people and the bombers themselves. The individuals who have been arrested and indicted are scheduled to stand trial in September. 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.