On October 20, 1973, Solicitor General Robert Bork fired Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox at the direction of President Richard Nixon after Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Assistant Attorney General Ruckelshaus had refused and resigned.
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On October 19, 1765, the Stamp Act Congress, meeting in New York in the wake of Parliament’s passage of the controversial Stamp Act imposing a tax for the upkeep of British troops in North America, approved a Declaration of Rights enumerating the rights and grievances of the American colonies.
On October 19, 2005, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was put on trial for crimes against humanity committed during his time in office. He was convicted and sentenced to death on November 6, 2006. The execution took place on the following December 30. Learn more about the Trial of Saddam Hussein from the US Law [...]
On October 18, 1929, The Privy Council of the United Kingdom declared that women were considered “persons” under the laws of Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada had held in Edwards v. Canada that women were not considered “persons” under Canada’s governing law, the British North America Act. The Privy Council overturned this ruling, declaring [...]
On October 18, 1945, the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals began. Read US prosecutor Robert H. Jackson’s opening statement.
On October 17, 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) launched an oil embargo against Western countries in an attempt to end support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Read a personal account of the 1973 oil embargo by Saudi Arabia’s former oil minister.
On October 17, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed a bill retroactively restoring the US citizenship of Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederate States of America, US Senator from Mississippi and US Secretary of War in the administration of President Franklin Pierce.
On October 16, 1946, 10 Nazi war criminals, including former German Foreign Minister von Rippentrop, were hanged following the verdicts of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal.
On October 15, 1582, the Gregorian Calendar was implemented, following a papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII. Spain, Portugal, Poland, and Italy were the only nations to adopt the calendar on this day, but it spread over the succeeding centuries to become the international standard today. Learn more about the history of the Gregorian [...]
On October 15, 1914, Congress passed the Clayton Antitrust Act to clarify and supplement the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The Clayton Act outlawed trusts formed by two companies with interlinking boards of directors, price-fixing with businesses offering competing products, making agreements with other businesses to control the supply of a product, and abusing power [...]
