On January 8, 1973, seven men went on trial in Washington DC in connection with a June 17, 1972 break-in to Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. Read more about the Watergate burglary and cover-up.

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 [...]

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 [...]

On January 6, 1649, the Parliament of England voted to put Charles I on trial for high treason following the English Civil War. Prior to the vote, a group of soldiers purged Parliament of Members they believed would vote in the King’s favor, creating the Rump Parliament. The Rump Parliament then voted on January 6 [...]

On January 6, 1964, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the free speech/free press case of New York Times v. Sullivan. Columbia Law School professor Herbert Wechsler argued for the petitioner. Listen to the oral arguments on Oyez, the Supreme Court multimedia database at Northwestern University.

On January 5, 1909, Colombia recognized Panama as an independent nation. With support from the US, Panama had achieved de facto independence from Colombia in 1903. Panama had twice declared independence from Colombia before in 1830 and 1840 but was defeated each time and re-occupied by Colombian forces. Finally, pro-independence forces declared separation from Colombia [...]

On January 5, 1968, a US grand jury indicted child psychologist Dr. Benjamin Spock and several others for conspiring to aid draft dodgers. Spock was tried and convicted, but his conviction was later overturned. Read United States v. Spock by the US First Circuit Court of Appeals.

On January 4, 1979, the state of Ohio reached an out-of-court settlement with victims and relatives of victims shot by National Guardsmen at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Under the settlement, plaintiffs received $675,000. Learn more about the Kent State settlement.

On January 4, 1948, Burma became independent of the United Kingdom, regaining national soverignty for the first time since 1885. Fourteen years later, in 1962, a military junta seized power and changed the country’s name to Myanmar. Read the Burma Independence Documents, including the independence treaty between the UK and Burma, from the Burma Peace [...]

The Roman lawyer Cicero was born on January 3, 106 BC. Learn more about Cicero and read selections from his work On the Laws.