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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:

On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered, initiating one of the most controversial trials in history. NFL legend O.J. Simpson was accused of killing his ex-wife and her friend, and prosecutors had a plethora of evidence against him. However, lawyers F. Lee Bailey and Johnnie Cochran successfully defended Simpson in the criminal case. The Brown family sued Simpson in civil court and won a $33.5 million judgment against him. The last we heard of O.J.: He’s in prison for stealing sports memorabilia at gunpoint from a Las Vegas hotel room.

While not technically legal history, To Kill a Mockingbird has inspired so many attorneys that we would be remiss in not mentioning that Gregory Peck – aka Atticus Finch – died on June 12, 2003, at the age of 87. Peck’s portrayal of Finch, who defended a black man accused of raping a white woman in the South, earned Peck an Academy Award. The 1962 film forever elevated Atticus Finch as a model of courage and moral integrity as the Civil Rights movement began to gain momentum.

June 13 marks the 46^th anniversary of Miranda rights, which evolved from a 1963 case in which an 18-year-old woman told Phoenix police that she had been kidnapped and raped. Ernesto Miranda was arrested for the crime. Miranda allegedly confessed to the police without knowing that he didn’t have to discuss it at all, let alone without an attorney present. While Miranda ultimately was convicted of the crime and served time in prison — despite the minimal evidence against him – his case resulted in people being informed of their rights when they are arrested.

On June 13, 1967, Thurgood Marshall was elected to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the court’s first African-American justice. Marshall, the great-grandson of slaves, served on the court for 24 years and is renowned for consistently standing up against racial and sexual discrimination and the death penalty while supporting affirmative action and abortion rights. Marshall retired in 1991 and died in 1993.

Our thanks to History.com for this week’s legal tidbits.