On April 24, 1915, the German army used chlorine gas against Canadian troops at Ypres. Gas was later employed by British and French forces against the Germans.
Learn more about early efforts by the Red Cross to ban chemical weapons and review the June 1925 Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare.
President Carter authorizes Chrysler bailout
On January 7, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed the Chrysler Corporation Loan Guarantee Act of 1979 (Public Law 96-185) into law. The act granted to Chrysler $1.5 billion to save the company from bankruptcy. Twenty-eight years later in 2008, President George W. Bush authorized $17.4 billion to again bailout Chrysler in addition to the other two major American automobile manufacturers, Ford and General Motors.
Anglo-Irish Treaty ratified
On January 7, 1922, Dáil Éireann ratified the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Signed on December 6 of the preceding year, the treaty ended the Irish War of Independence against Great Britain. The British Parliament voted to approve the treaty on December 16, 1921. Ratification was completed on January 14, 1922, when the House of Commons of Southern Ireland became the third and final party to approve the document. The Anglo-Irish treaty effectively split the island into its current state. While the lower counties of Ireland were granted autonomy under the treaty, Britain insisted that the six Protestant counties of Northern Ireland be allowed to determine their own future. On the day after the treaty was signed, these counties elected to remain part of Great Britain. Today, they remain part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
New York State Assembly expels five socialist assemblymen
The New York State Assembly, the state's lower house, expelled five duly elected assemblymen from the Socialist Party over their political affiliation on January 7, 1920. The US was in the midst of the first Red Scare, a panic resulting from the ascendancy of the Bolsheviks in Russia, which resulted in the repression of socialists across the country. The result of the expulsion vote was 140-6. Thus, Assemblymen August Claessens, Samuel A. DeWitt, Samuel Orr, Charles Solomon and Louis Waldman were removed from their posts. Learn more about the expulsions from the Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York.
Rehnquist sworn in as US Supreme Court Justice
On January 7, 1972, the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist was sworn in as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Read a short profile of Chief Justice Rehnquist here.
