January 31

1976. Ernesto Miranda, central figure in the Supreme Court Miranda ruling, is stabbed to death during an argument in a bar. In 1963, Miranda had been arrested for armed robbery and for the kidnap and rape of a mentally retarded 18-year-old woman in Phoenix. While in police custody, he signed a written confession. His lawyers argued at trial that he was not aware of his right to avoid self-incrimination. The case was overthrown by the Supreme Court, which ordered that all arrested suspects must be read what became known as "Miranda Rights."

2000. Two men are stabbed to death outside an Atlanta club. NFL star Ray Lewis and two others were charged, but none were convicted. Catrice Parker claimed that Lewis had beaten her in November at the Windsor Inn bar in Woodlawn, a suburb of Baltimore. However, prosecutors dropped the case because there were too many discrepancies between the stories of Parker and other witnesses.

January 30

1948. Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic. Gandhi believed in nonviolent protest and led the Indian people to independence from Britain. He was jailed several times for sedition but continued to urge his followers to fight the British not with guns, but with petitions, fasting and other forms of nonviolent protest. India finally won its independence on August 15, 1947. Gandhi was not satisfied, however, because he saw his nation split into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India. He fought to rejoin the two until his death.

1972. On what has come to be known as "Bloody Sunday," British troops shoot and kill 14 Irish civilians in Derry. The victims were part of the Derry Civil Rights Association, a group protesting a recent law passed by the English Parliament allowing internment without trial. A tribunal was convened to investigate the actions of the soldiers, but it found they were justified in their actions. However, many Irish people feel the incident was a criminal act to this day.

January 29

1979. Kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst's sentence is commuted by President Jimmy Carter. She served almost two years for bank robbery. Hearst, granddaughter of publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst, was abducted by the Symbionese Liberation Army when she was an undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley. According to Hearst, the radical leftist group brainwashed her and convinced her to commit crimes, including robbing a bank. Read more about Patty Hearst at Crime Library.

January 28

1994. A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles declares a mistrial in the case of Lyle Menendez. Lyle and his brother Erik are later retried and convicted of murdering their parents. The two claimed they killed their parents, Jose and Kitty, because the couple had been abusive. However, prosecutors argued that greed and a life insurance policy motivated the shooting. The brothers are currently serving life without parole. Read more about Lyle Menendez at Crime Library.

1916. Louis Brandeis is appointed to the Supreme Court by President Woodrow Wilson. Brandeis was the first Jewish appointee to the high court. He grew up in a household tolerant of both Christian and Jewish views and showed little interest in Judaism until the turn of the century. It was then he met Jacob de Haas, an English Zionist. He became very involved in the Zionist movement and the lives of Jews in America. Brandeis retired in February 1939.

January 27

1978. "Dracula Killer" Richard Chase fatally shoots two victims in Sacramento, Calif. Police later found that his home was full of human blood. Chase was preoccupied with the idea of his heart shrinking, and he drank the blood of dogs, cats and rabbits to stop it from happening. He then grew tired of practicing on animals and graduated to humans. In all he killed 6 people. He was sentenced to death but committed suicide in his jail cell before his execution. Read more about Richard Chase at Crime Library.

January 26

1875. While hunting for outlaw Jesse James, agents kill his half brother and injure his mother with a bomb. With another brother, Frank, Jesse robbed banks and trains throughout the country. He stole $60,000 from a bank in Liberty, Mo., alone. In 1882, Jesse was shot and killed by Charles and Bob Ford because the two believed they could collect a $10,000 reward. Instead they were jailed for murder. Read more about Jesse James at Crime Library.

1990. Darryl Strawberry is arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife during an argument. He was released on bail and no charges were filed. Strawberry played for the New York Yankees and has been in trouble with the law many times since. In 2000, he was charged with cocaine possession and pleaded no contest. He wasn't allowed to play baseball for the entire 2000 season. The Yankees accepted him back the following season, but in July Strawberry announced his cancer had returned and spread to his abdomen.

January 25

1971. Charles Manson and his "family" are convicted in the murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and seven others. Manson was a gifted leader and organizer, who might have gone far in the legitimate world. However, he used his skills to evil, attracting impressionable young people, mostly women, into his doomsday cult. The group, which at one time numbered more than 100, believed he was both good and evil and that the end of the world was foretold in the Beatles song "Helter Skelter." Manson is not thought to have killed anyone himself, but he was very effective in convincing his followers to do so. Manson was sentenced to death, but later his sentence was commuted to life in prison. Read more about Charles Manson at Crime Library.

January 24

1989. Serial killer Ted Bundy is executed in the electric chair in Florida. Police have confirmed that at least 28 women died at the hands of Bundy, but the number could be as high as 36. As a law student at the University of Utah Law School, Bundy seemed to be a bright and ambitious young man. However, he had grown up in a family accustomed to keeping secrets. He had been born out of wedlock and for much of his life was told that his mother was his sister. It's unclear whether this lie had an effect on him, but all of his victims were women. Read more about Ted Bundy at Crime Library.

January 23

1990. 24 year-old Robert Morris is the first to be convicted under federal law for spreading a computer virus through e-mail. Morris was a graduate student at Cornell University and the son of a National Security Agency computer security expert. At his trial, he claimed he didn't intend to cause damage but admitted he wanted to hack into the infected computer systems. He was sentenced to 400 hours of community service with a $10,000 fine.

1995. Courtney Love appears in an Australian court on charges of abusing a Quantas flight attendant. After flight attendant asked Love to take her feet off the cabin wall, the rock singer allegedly responded with expletives. She was not convicted but was sentenced to one month of good behavior. Love, the widow of deceased grunge star Kurt Cobain, has long been infamous for her sometimes out-of-control behavior. She has since toned down her image and begun a movie career.

January 22

2001. More than a month after escaping from prison, four of the Texas Seven are recaptured at a Colorado trailer park. During their time on the lam, they killed a police officer by shooting him 11 times and then repeatedly running over him with a sports utility vehicle. Six of the men were taken alive, while one committed suicide as police surrounded him. Two of the men have been convicted of the murder so far. For more on their trials, click here.

1973. The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Roe v. Wade that women have the right to legal abortions during the first two trimesters. Justice Harry Blackmun delivered the opinion of the court, stating a woman's right to make reproductive choices was protected under the constitutional right to privacy. Justices Byron White and William Rehnquist were the only two dissenters. The case had been filed by "Jane Roe," an unmarried woman who wished to end her pregnancy. However, the woman gave birth before the case was decided.

January 21

1977. President Jimmy Carter pardons 10,000 Vietnam War draft resisters. During widespread protests of the controversial war, some had burned draft cards, and others moved to Canada. On Nov. 15, 1969, 250,000 people demonstrated against the war in Washington, D.C. In 1973, the United States, South Vietnam and North Vietnam signed Paris Peace Accords, officially ending the United States' combat role.

1998. John Gotti, Jr., son of the Dapper Don, is arrested on charges of extortion, racketeering and loan sharking. He had long been suspected of taking over his infamous father's crime family after the elder Gotti was sentenced to life in prison in 1992. Gotti, Jr. pleaded guilty and was given 77 months in jail.

January 20

1937. Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first U.S president sworn into office on Jan. 20 as mandated by the 20th Amendment. It was Roosevelt's second inauguration and in his address he optimistically detailed the great potential America had to overcome the depression. Prior to that, most inaugurations were held on March 4.

2001. In his final days of office, outgoing President Bill Clinton pardons Marc Rich, Susan McDougal, Patty Hearst and his brother Roger, among others. The pardon of Rich, a billionaire financier, caused an uproar partly because Rich's ex-wife had donated $1 million to the Democratic Party. Rich had been indicted for allegedly evading more than $48 million in taxes, committing fraud and participating in illegal oil deals with Iran.

January 19

2001. NFL player Rae Carruth is found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in the death of his pregnant girlfriend, Cherica Adams, but is acquitted on first-degree murder. He was sentenced to 19 to 24 years but if convicted of first degree murder could have been executed. Carruth played for the Carolina Panthers as a wide receiver. For full coverage of the case, click here.

1977. Tokyo Rose is pardoned for treason by President Gerald Ford. During World War II, Rose, whose real name was Iva Toguri D'Aquino, made anti-American radio broadcasts. Tokyo Rose was a term used during the war to refer to all female Japanese radio broadcasters and later applied only to her. She was born in America, but stranded in Japan during the war and claims she was forced to perform the pro-Japan broadcasts.

2000. Nearly 25 years after the death of Martha Moxley, her alleged killer, Kennedy cousin, Michael Skakel, surrenders to police in Greenwich, Conn. Skakel is the nephew of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. He has always maintained his innocence, but at a school for troubled youth he allegedly bragged about the murder to classmates. Skakel, now 41, has tried unsuccessfully to argue that he should be tried in juvenile court because he was underage when the crime was committed. His trial is scheduled to start in April. For full coverage of his case, click here.

January 18

1996. Lisa Marie Presley files for divorce from Michael Jackson after 20 months of marriage. The marriage between Jackson, a pop singer, and Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley, came as a shock to many because of previous allegations against Jackson of pedophilia. The pair cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split-up.

1990. Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry is arrested and charged with drug possession and the use of crack cocaine. Barry became famous as a leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, battling racial segregation and discrimination. He then went on to political office and in 1977, as city councilman, was shot attempting to defend the District Building from radical Black Muslim terrorists. A year later, he ran for mayor and won. After Barry was caught on video tape smoking crack in a hotel room, he served six months in prison, and was reelected mayor in 1994. However, after the cocaine scandal, he lost political power and did not seek reelection after 1998.

1967. Albert DeSalvo, who claimed to be the "Boston Strangler," is convicted and sentenced to life in prison for armed robbery and rape. He was later killed by another inmate. Controversy still surrounds the case because DeSalvo was never tried for the killing of the 11 women who were the "Boston Strangler" victims and more than one person may have committed the crimes. For an update on the Boston Strangler investigation, visit Crime Library.

January 17

1977. Gary Gilmore, killed by a firing squad, becomes the first person to be executed after the reinstatement of the death penalty. Gilmore was convicted of the murder of a gas station attendant in Orem, Utah, one night and the murder of a hotel owner in the nearby town of Provo the next night. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in the case of Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty as then applied was cruel and unusual. But, three weeks before Gilmore murdered his first victim, the states revised their laws and the Supreme Court again allowed executions. For more on Gilmore, visit Crime Library.

1950. A gang pulls off the Great Brinks Robbery in Boston. The seven men stole $1,218,211.19 in cash and more than $1.5 million in checks, money orders and other securities, the largest robbery in U.S. history at the time. The public was shocked at the audacity of the robbers, and Brinks Bank offered a $100,000 reward for information that led to their capture. Each of the men was eventually captured.

January 16

1919. Prohibition begins when the 18th Amendment is ratified. The Prohibition movement started out slowly a century earlier, with alcohol being outlawed county by county and then state by state. However, when the U.S. government adopted prohibition legislation, it became an enforcement nightmare as illegal crime syndicates sprung up overnight to distribute bootlegged alcohol. Lawmakers eventually realized their mistake and made alcohol again legal with the 21st Amendment.

January 15

1974. An expert testifies that an 18-and-a-half minute gap in the Nixon White House tapes, subpoenaed by the Watergate Committee, is the result of deliberate and repeated erasures. Rose Mary Woods, President Richard Nixon's secretary, denied deliberately erasing the tape, but the discovery proved damaging to the administration. In August, Nixon released more tapes that proved he had knowledge of White House officials' illegal conduct during his reelection. For the first time in U.S. history, the president resigned.

January 14

1998. Charles Barkley pleads not guilty to an assault charge. Barkley allegedly threw a bar patron through a plate glass window after the man hurled a glass of ice at him. Barkley played in the NBA for 16 years before retiring because of an injured knee. He played for the Philadelphia 76ers, the Phoenix Suns, and the Houston Rockets and scored more than 20,000 during his career.

January 13

1979. The YMCA files a lawsuit against the Village People over their song "YMCA." The case was later dropped. The Village People were staples of the disco craze in the 1970s, selling more than 65 million albums and becoming the first pop band to make the cover of Time magazine. Their hits include "Macho Man," "In the Navy" and "Go West." The group was also one of the first mainstream bands to openly embrace homosexuality.

1992. Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer enters an insanity plea for 15 brutal murders. Dahmer committed both cannibalism and necrophilia against his victims, who were mostly young boys. He was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms and was sent to the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wis. Before he could live out his sentence, he was killed by another inmate. Psychologists still debate the origin of Dahmer's illness, but as a child he was fascinated by dead animals and even went so far as to mount a dog's head on a stake. However, he was also able to hide his illness and most acquaintances recalled him as a quiet, normal man.

January 12

1966. The three gunmen accused of assassinating Malcolm X stand trial in a New York City courtroom. Talmadge Hayer, Norman Butler and Thomas Johnson were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. The men were all members of the Nation of Islam, an organization through which the victim himself became famous by preaching what many at the time saw as radical black politics. Eventually Malcolm X's disagreements with the group's leader, Elijah Muhammad, became so intense that he broke away and started Muslim Mosque Inc.

1971. Reverend Philip Berrigan and five co-conspirators are indicted in a plot to kidnap Henry Kissinger and bomb federal buildings in Washington. He was a part of a group, along with his brother Daniel, of radical Jesuits who participated in several peace demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Today he continues to protest for social justice and was again arrested as late as 2000 for damaging warplanes in resistance to the U.S.'s use of depleted uranium against Yugoslavia and Iraq.

January 11

1978. Israel is outraged after France releases a Palestinian suspected in the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in an incident known as Black September. The man, Abu Daoud, helped orchestrate the kidnapping of the Jewish competitors to trade them for 236 Palestinian fighters jailed in Israel. However, the scheme went awry and ended in the death of both the athletes and their captors. Daoud has written an autobiography about his involvement in Black September and has never been prosecuted.

January 10

1994. The trial of Lorena Bobbitt begins. She was accused of maliciously wounding her husband after severing his penis and dumping it in a nearby field. Bobbitt defended herself by saying that her husband John was abusive and had raped her several times throughout the marriage. She was eventually found not guilty by reason of insanity, and she divorced her husband. John Bobbitt had surgery to reattach his penis and went on to star in a pornography film.

January 9

1984. Angelo Buono, one of the Hillside Stranglers, is sentenced to life in prison for the rapes and murders of 10 women. He and his adoptive cousin, Kenneth Bianchi, tricked their victims by posing as police officers or detectives in Los Angeles between October 1977 and February 1978. The two would then rape, sodomize and strangle the women. The media coined the term "Hillside Strangler" before the police discovered there was more than one assailant and the term has been used to describe them ever since.

January 8

1973. The trial of seven men accused of breaking into Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate Hotel begins in Washington. What the burglars hoped to accomplish is still unclear, but the break-in was directly tied to Nixon's bid for re-election and unraveled a tangle of bribes, espionage and misuse of campaign funds. By the end of the scandal, more than 40 government officials were indicted and Nixon resigned. Gerald Ford then became president and gave the former president a full pardon.

1998. Ramzi Yousef is sentenced to life for masterminding the first World Trade Center bombing. Angered by the U.S.'s treatment of Iraq, the conviction of Pakistani Amir Kansi for the murder of two CIA employees, and slow-moving peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian authorities, Yousef drove a Ryder truck loaded with a 1,500-pound bomb into the World Trade Center's basement. He planned to topple one tower onto the other, while releasing cyanide gas. Instead, both towers remained standing, the gas evaporated in the heat, and instead of killing thousands, killed six people. Yousef is now a key source in the Sept. 11 World Trade Center investigation.

January 7

1999. President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial begins in the U.S. Senate. The president was indicted for obstruction of justice and perjury for his statements relating to his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Later, as several polls showed most Americans didn't approve of the Senate trial, support in Congress faded and key Republicans like Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, James Jeffords of Vermont and John Chafee of Rhode Island opposed impeachment. On Feb.12, 1999, the president was cleared of both charges.

1972. William Rehnquist is sworn in as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. First nominated by President Nixon, Rehnquist became chief justice under Reagan in 1986. His rulings have consistently been conservative, and many, such as his dissent in Roe v. Wade, have prompted widespread debate. However, Rehnquist also has an independent streak, demonstrated by his support of Hustler magazine's First Amendment right to ridicule public figures.

1961. Actor Al Pacino, known for playing roles on both sides of the law, is arrested and jailed at age 21 for carrying a concealed weapon. At the time, Pacino was living in New York City but was seen in a car in Rhode Island with three other youths wearing black masks and gloves. A policeman pulled them over because he thought their behavior was suspicious. Legend has it that Pacino got out of the charges by saying he and his friends were participating in an acting exercise. One of Pacino's most famous roles was as Michael Corleone, a reluctant gangster, in The Godfather.

January 6

1994. Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the knee during the Olympic trials by rival Tonya Harding's husband.

January 5

1968. Dr. Benjamin Spock is indicted for conspiring to violate draft laws during the Vietnam War.

1643. The first recorded legal divorce is granted to Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from her absent and adulterous husband.

January 4

1979. An out-of-court settlement of $675,000 is awarded to the victims of the Kent State University shootings.

January 3

1967. Lee Harvey Oswald’s killer, Jack Ruby, dies in prison of cancer awaiting his second trial. Click here for more on John F. Kennedy's assassination and Oswald's murder from Crime Library.

1955. Dr. Sam Sheppard, the model for “The Fugitive,” is sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife. Click here for full story from Crime Library.

January 2

1872. Brigham Young, the 71 year-old leader of the Mormon Church is arrested on bigamy charges for having 25 wives.

1935. Bruno Richard Hauptmann goes on trial for kidnapping and murdering the Lindbergh baby. He is later convicted and executed for the crimes. Click here for more on the Lindbergh kidnapping from Crime Library.

1979. Punk rocker Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols is indicted for murdering his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. Vicious died of a heroin overdose during his trial.

January 1

1808. Congress unanimously bans the importation of slaves. The bill was widely ignored as the smuggling of slaves immediately took the place of open importation.

1863. President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves.

1975. Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman is convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury in the Watergate conspiracy.

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