India sues Union Carbide over Bhopal industrial disaster

On April 8, 1985, the government of India filed a lawsuit against the Union Carbide Corporation for the Bhopal industrial disaster in which forty-two tons of methyl isocyanate gas was released from the pesticide plant of a Union Carbide subsidiary in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. The disaster initially killed 2,000 Indians and injured another 200,000. These injuries led to another 16,000 deaths as a result of exposure to the gas. In 1989, the parties reached a $470 million settlement out of court.

Learn more about the Bhopal industrial disaster from the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department of the government of Madhya Pradesh.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Amsterdam Treaty signed, broadening scope of EU

On October 2, 1997, European Union delegates signed the Amsterdam Treaty, which broadened the scope of the international organization. It amended previous EU treaties to expand the power of the EU Parliament, start the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and prepare for the influx of post-Communist countries in Eastern Europe.

Thurgood Marshall becomes first African-American Supreme Court justice

On October 2, 1967, civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African-American Supreme Court justice Learn more about Marshall and his career from the Library of Congress.