On April 13, 1743, Thomas Jefferson was born in Albemarle County in the Virginia Colony. Jefferson went on to become, among other things, the third President of the United States, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, and a founder of the Democratic-Republican Party. Jefferson was also responsible for reforming the laws of Virginia [...]

On April 13, 1598, French King Henry IV promulgated the Edict of Nantes, giving equal rights to French Protestants (Huguenots) and Catholics. Review the complete text of the Edict in French and read the Edict translated into English.

On April 12, 1999, US District Judge Susan Webber Wright found President Bill Clinton in contempt of court in the Paula Jones case, concluding that the President had provided “intentionally false” evidence in that case about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Read a contemporary CNN report here.

On April 12, 1633, the Roman Catholic Church began its formal inquisition of Galileo Galilei on charges of heresy. Galileo was tried by the Roman Inquisition “for holding as true the false doctrine taught by some that the sun is the center of the world” in direct contradiction to the Catholic Church’s teaching that man [...]

On April 11, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (often referred to as the Fair Housing Act), an amendment to the landmark 1964 Act prohibiting discrimination based on race, religion or national origin in the sale, rental, financing or advertising of housing.

On April 11, 1961, the trial of former-Nazi Karl Adolf Eichmann began in Jerusalem, Israel. During the Holocaust, Eichmann was responsible for coordinating the deportation of Jews from Germany and occupied Europe to concentration and extermination camps in Eastern Europe. In 1961, he was captured in Argentina by Israeli commandos and brought to Jerusalem for [...]

Hugo Grotius, Dutch jurist, statesman and father of international law was born in Delft, Holland, on April 10, 1583. His best-known work is De Jure Belli ac Pacis (On the Law of War and Peace), which he published in 1625.

On April 10, 1790, Congress approved the US’s first Patent Act. The Patent Act of 1790 allowed inventors to maintain “sole and exclusive right and liberty of making, constructing, using and vending to others” a patented invention for fourteen years. The Act furthermore created the US Patent Board, the precursor to the modern US Patent [...]

On April 9, 1747, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, became the last man to be beheaded in England when he was executed on Tower Hill for his part in the Jacobite rising of 1745. Learn more about the legal history and practice of beheading.

On April 9, 1867, the U.S. Senate voted to ratify the Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska and thereby approve the purchase of the territory from Russia for $7.2 million. Initially, the purchase was made to keep Alaska away from the British. It was politically unpopular with many Americans who denounced it is [...]