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It鈥檚 been said that there鈥檚 no time like the present. But where we are now is often the result of where we鈥檝e 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.

Who in the heck is Harold Weed? Turns out, he鈥檚 the guy who ultimately saved most of us from sliding off Mount Hood during snowy/icy drives. On Aug. 23, 1904, Weed received a patent for his 鈥淕rip-Tread for Pneumatic Tires,鈥� the earliest version of tire chains. At the time of his invention, the Canastota, N.Y., inventor worked for a machine shop that built everything from car engines to automatic palm readers and movie-making machinery. He got the idea for tire chains from neighbors who wrapped ropes around their car tires to keep from sliding in mud, rain and ice. Weed also excelled at marketing: In 1908, he challenged Harry Houdini to escape from a 鈥減rison鈥� made from the tire chains. As legend tells it, Houdini made it out 鈥� barely.

Also on Aug. 23 – 90 years earlier – Dolley Madison heroically saved a portrait of George Washington as British troops looted the White House and burned it down. Madison reportedly abandoned personal items belonging to her and her husband, President James Madison, to save the portrait, which actually was a copy of the original.

On Aug. 24, 1954, Congress passed the Communist Control Act in an effort to pacify the growing national 鈥淩ed Scare.鈥� 听Sen. Joseph McCarthy had already enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame, but many Americans still feared a Communist overthrow of the U.S. government. While the act seemed fairly nebulous in terms of combating Communism in America, it has been used against organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union, labor unions and the NAACP.

Our thanks to History.com for this week鈥檚 legal tidbits.

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