Welfare Reform signed into law

On August 22, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act into law. The act fundamentally reformed the American welfare system, putting an emphasis on work requirements for those receiving federal assistance. The new law also limited most recipients to no more than five years on welfare and shifted money provided to states in the form of block grants, which the states could use to set their own criteria for welfare recipients.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Standard Oil incorporated

On January 10, 1870, John Davison Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil. Rockefeller's corporation would grow to achieve a virtual monopoly over oil production in the United States. Standard Oil's dominance lasted until the corporation was split into 34 separate companies in 1911 after the Supreme Court found the company in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The rise of Standard Oil made Rockefeller America's first billionaire and eventually the richest man in the world. Read the text of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey vs. United States, 221 U.S. 1 (1910).