On November 23, 1921, President Warren G. Harding signed the Willis-Campbell Act, popularly termed the “anti-beer bill,” prohibiting doctors from prescribing beer or liquor for medicinal purposes.
On November 23, 1921, President Warren G. Harding signed the Willis-Campbell Act, popularly termed the “anti-beer bill,” prohibiting doctors from prescribing beer or liquor for medicinal purposes.
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.
