Commentaries by John Raphling

Where Black Lives Matter Made Their Voices Heard

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Where Black Lives Matter Made Their Voices Heard

January 29, 2021 09:00:44 am

Every Wednesday afternoon for years, Black Lives Matter activists and their partners chanted a simple demand outside the Los Angeles County Hall of Justice: “Jackie Lacey Must Go!” Elected in 2012, District Attorney Lacey presided over the largest prosecutorial office in the United States. These protests and the frustrations that fueled them helped propel George [...]

THIS DAY @ LAW

WWI gas attack on Canadians led to first chemical weapons ban

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.

Library of Congress created

On April 24, 1800, U.S. President John Adams approved $5,000 to fund the establishment of the U.S. Library of Congress.

Learn more about the history of the U.S. Library of Congress.