Trials Story Briefs

Courtroom battles often produce sensational scenes resulting in curious spectators and endless news coverage. From ancient to modern times, trials attract significant attention. This collection explores some of the most-fascinating.

Edward Coke, a leading 17th-century jurist and expert on Common Law, wrote a series of works about the topic between 1628 and 1644.

During the trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam - for the murder of Emmett Till - Mose Wright identified the two men as the kidnappers of his great-neph...

During the days when the Federal Court had jurisdiction over Indian Territory, many people hanged on Ft. Smith's gallows. The National Park Service te...

While he was head of Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky used Fanny Kaplan's attempted assassination of Vladimir Lenin to justify the use of terror against perce...

Although the Lockheed U-2 has the ability to self-destruct, Francis Gary Powers was unable to destroy his plane before bailing-out on May 1, 1960. He ...

On the 1st of May, 1960, Francis Gary Powers (1929-1977) was a U-2 pilot flying an American spy plane over the Soviet Union.

France celebrates "Bastille Day" every July 14th. Learn more about it with this humorous video clip from "Horrible Histories."

In 1616, Galileo agrees not to teach the Copernican theory. Thereafter, Church officials believe he violated that agreement.

Scholars believe that Jules Verne patterned Captain Nemo on Gustave Flourens (1838-1871), a French revolutionary and writer. Who was he?

Henry Essex Edgeworth - an Irish cleric who was living in France - became Louis XVIs spiritual advisor during his final days. Although he (and others)...

This photo is frequently mistaken as a picture of Homer Plessy.  It is actually Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (10 May 1837 - 21 December 1921...

Image of a lithograph called "Louis XVI and his Family in the Chateau du Temple," by Edgar Melville Ward.

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