Seventeen tried in Stalin purge

On January 23, 1937, seventeen of Joseph Stalin’s political enemies went on trial in Moscow during the Soviet leader’s Great Purge. This trial of seventeen represented the second of the three “Moscow Trials” in which prominent Soviet leaders were accused and convicted of conspiring to overthrow the Soviet state under Article 58 of the RSFSR Penal Code. The defendants were sentenced to execution or deportation to work camps.

Read a summary of the case by Soviet state prosecutor, Andrey Vyshinsky.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Senate declares Napoleon Emporer of France

On May 18, 1804, the French Senate declared Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of France.

Supreme Court upheld segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson

On May 18, 1896, the US Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that racially separate but equal facilities were constitutional. This ruling was later overturned by the court in 1954's Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.