On December 9, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly approved the first world treaty criminalizing genocide. See the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. For much more information, read Professor William Schabas' 1999 report The Genocide Convention at Fifty.

On December 9, 2000, the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 to suspend the ongoing recount of Presidential election results in Florida. Three days later, the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, quashed the recount entirely, holding it unconstitutional. Learn more about the Florida recount from the JURIST archives.