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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:

Thursday marks the 45^th anniversary of Thurgood Marshall becoming the nation鈥檚 first African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice. He pursued a career in the law even though, as a youngster, he was forced to read the Constitution as punishment when he got into trouble at school. Marshall graduated from Lincoln University in 1930, and tried to enroll at the University of Maryland鈥檚 law school. The law school didn鈥檛 admit black students at the time, but Marshall wasn鈥檛 deterred from pursuing a career as a lawyer. He went on to earn his law degree from Howard University in 1933 and, while in private practice in Maryland, successfully sued the University of Maryland over its segregationist policy. Marshall went on to serve as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He also won several cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court in 1961. He served for 24 years before retiring due to health problems.

On Sept. 1, 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr narrowly escaped being found guilty of treason for plotting to annex parts of Louisiana and Mexico to create an independent republic. He was acquitted only because he had not engaged in an 鈥渙vert act.鈥� Even though the legal system didn鈥檛 condemn Burr as a traitor, the court of public opinion ultimately drove him out of the country to seek solace in Europe. He eventually returned to live in New York and died in 1836.

The name Squeaky Fromme became forever emblazoned in our minds on Sept. 5, 1975, when the Manson family follower attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford. Ford was in Sacramento to deliver a speech 鈥� on crime 鈥� when Fromme tried to shoot him. Secret Service intervened before she could get the shot off. A couple of weeks later, Sarah Jane Moore tried to shoot Ford in San Francisco. She was stopped by a bystander named Oliver Sipple who, fortunately for Ford, happened to be a Marine. Both women were sent to the same West Virginia prison and both tried to escape in separate attempts a decade apart. Both are still in prison serving life sentences.

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

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