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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:

From Richard Nixon to Charles Manson, Aug. 9 marks several significant anniversaries in criminal law. On this day in 1969, a group of Manson cult followers murdered four people in the Beverly Hills home of film director Roman Polanski. The victims included Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate; Abigail Folger; Jay Sebring; and Wojciech Frykowski. Steve Parent, a recent high-school graduate, was murdered by the Manson group on its way to Polanski’s house. Aug. 9, 1974, marks Nixon’s departure from the Oval Office and Gerald Ford’s swearing in as his replacement. And, on this day in 1985, retired U.S. Navy officer Arthur Walker was found guilty of espionage after selling top-secret plans about the construction of naval vessels to the Soviets. Walker earned about $12,000 as a spy – and netted a $250,000 fine and life in prison for his efforts.

On Aug. 10, 1937, the U.S. Patent Office issued Patent #2,089.171 to G.D. Beauchamp, forever altering the course of American music. Beauchamp received the patent for the

Rickenbacker Frying Pan, the first electric guitar. Beauchamp, who owned L.A.’s Electro String Instrument Corp. with partner Adolph Richenbacher, was forced to pursue the patent for five years because of technical details related to his application. By the time he finally got it, competitors had created their own versions of the electric guitar.

Retirees and unemployed people received a much-needed cash infusion with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of the federal Social Security Act on Aug. 14, 1935. Part of the New Deal package, the Social Security Act initially was intended to combat unemployment during the Great Depression. It hasn’t changed much in structure over the years and, in addition to providing financial support to retirees and unemployed people, it pays death benefits to taxpayer dependents.

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