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It’s been said that there’s no time like the present. But where we are now is often the result of where we’ve been in the past. With that in mind, Briefly Legal invites you to travel back in time to take a look at what happened during this week in legal history:

Nay-sayer: On April 5, 1792, President George Washington kicked off what would become a rich legacy of political divisiveness within Congress as he exercised the very first presidential veto. The subject of this historical veto was a proposed division of House seats that would have given more seats to the northern states.

Power in numbers: Two centuries after the veto made its appearance, Washington, D.C., experienced one of the largest protest marches in its history as hundreds of thousands of people marched to protect abortion rights. The protest was spurred by the U.S. Supreme Court’s deliberation over the constitutionality of a Pennsylvania law that limited access to abortion. It’s fair to say that the issue remains as heated now as it was then.

Friends in high places: This month also marks the 58^th anniversary of the Army-McCarthy hearings, which ruled the TV airwaves for the next two months. The unprecedented amount of press coverage the hearings received – along with Sen. Joe McCarthy’s overzealous and well-publicized campaign against Communism – is said to have sealed the deal on his loss of favor with the American public. He was censured by the Senate in December 1954.

Got a tidbit of legal history to share? Send it to us at [email protected].