On January 6, 1964, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the free speech/free press case of New York Times v. Sullivan. Columbia Law School professor Herbert Wechsler argued for the petitioner. Listen to the oral arguments on Oyez, the Supreme Court multimedia database at Northwestern University.

On January 6, 1649, the Parliament of England voted to put Charles I on trial for high treason following the English Civil War. Prior to the vote, a group of soldiers purged Parliament of Members they believed would vote in the King’s favor, creating the Rump Parliament. The Rump Parliament then voted on January 6 [...]

On January 5, 1968, a federal grand jury indicted child psychologist Dr. Benjamin Spock and several others for conspiring to aid draft dodgers. Spock was tried and convicted, but his conviction was later overturned. Read United States v. Spock by the US First Circuit Court of Appeals.

On January 5, 1909, Colombia recognized Panama as an indpendent nation. With support from the U.S., Panama had achieved de facto independence from Colombia in 1903. Panama had twice declared independence from Colombia before in 1830 and 1840 but was defeated each time and re-occupied by Colombian forces. Finally, pro-independence forces declared separation from Colombia [...]

On January 4, 1948, Burma became independent of the United Kingdom for the first time since 1885. Fourteen years later, in 1962, a military junta seized power and changed the country’s name to Myanmar. The nation has been under military rule ever since.Read the Burma Independence Documents, including the independence treaty between the U.K. and [...]

On January 4, 1979, the state of Ohio reached an out-of-court settlement with victims and relatives of victims shot by National Guardsmen at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Under the settlement, plaintiffs received $675,000. Learn more about the Kent State settlement.

On January 3, 1959, Alaska became America’s forty-ninth state. Read the Alaskan Statehood Act, which was passed by Congress and signed by then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower during the preceding year.

The Roman lawyer Cicero was born on January 3, 106 BC. Learn more about Cicero and read selections from his work On the Laws.

On January 2, 1942, twenty-eight countries formally agreed not to make peace with the Axis Powers separately. At the time, all twenty-eight were fighting against the Axis as Allies in World War II. The agreement was part of the Declaration of the United Nations, signed the previous day. During the preceding December of 1941, U.S. [...]

On January 2, 1920, over 500 government agents acting on direction of US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer carried out a massive counter-terror operation in 33 US cities, arresting between six and ten thousand aliens suspected of Communism, radicalism and anarchism. The “Palmer Raids” and the detentions and deportation proceedings that followed them were denounced by [...]