On November 4, 1646, the Massachusetts General Court approved a law requiring all members of the colony to recognize the Bible as the Word of God, under penalty of death.
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On November 3, 1783, the last public execution took place at Tyburn Gallows in London, when John Austin was hanged for highway robbery. From the hanging of William Fitz Osburn in 1196 until Austin’s execution, Tyburn served as London’s primary location for public executions. Learn more about the trial of John Austin.
On November 3, 1884, the US Supreme Court ruled in Elk v. Wilkins that John Elk, an American Indian who had tried to vote in a federal election in Omaha, Nebraska, was not a US citizen entitled to the protection of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the US Constitution. Native Americans became eligible for [...]
On November 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued the United Kingdom’s formal statement regarding Jewish people in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration was later endorsed by the World War I Allied Powers. It stated the British intention to support a national homeland for Jewish people and became a cornerstone of the Zionist movement. Read [...]
On November 2, 1951, President Harry Truman signed the “Boggs Act” into law, setting minimum federal sentences for drug offenders. Read Richard J. Bonnie and Charles Whitebread, The Forbidden Fruit and the Tree of Knowledge: An Inquiry Into the Legal History of American Marijuana Prohibition, 56 Virginia Law Review (1970).
On November 1, 1993, the Treaty on the European Union (Maastricht Treaty) officially came into force, formally creating the European Union. Learn more about the history of the EU.
On November 1, 1943, the federal Office of Price Administration first established rent control in wartime New York City.
On October 31, 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two security guards, precipitating riots throughout the country.
On October 31, 1864, Congress admitted Nevada as the 36th state in the US. With President Lincoln coming up for re-election and looking for support for his proposed 13th Amendment to the Constitution, Nevadans had moved quickly to meet the legal requirements for statehood, ultimately sending the entire text of the proposed state constitution to [...]
On October 30, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt approved $1 billion in wartime aid to the Allies under the Lend-Lease Act. America did not formally enter World War II until December of 1941, but the US Government nonetheless provided crucial aid to the Allied Powers from the passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March of 1941 [...]
