CATEGORY: HISTORY
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The Origins of the Legal Thriller: From Criminal Confessions to Courtroom Suspense
The legal thriller genre has evolved throughout the years and its beginning can be traced back to early works of criminal accounts.
John Brown, America’s Radical Abolitionist
While the United States was still deeply divided over slavery, John Brown forced the moral crisis to its boiling point and accelerated the nation on its road to war. Called a martyr, freedom fighter, and madman, his actions are still debated.
The International Criminal Court
In 2002, 125 nations came together to establish the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a judicial body dedicated to the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The culmination of a project dating back to the aftermath of World War II, the ICC has conducted its work in the face of opposition from some of the world’s most powerful states, and faces an uncertain future.
COINTELPRO
On March 8, 1971, four people broke into the FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania and stole more than 1,000 classified documents. In the weeks that followed, documents were mailed anonymously to newspapers around the country from an organization calling itself the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI, revealing a vast illegal surveillance operation.
The Fenian Raids on Canada
On June 1, 1866, over 1,000 Irish-Americans, known as the Fenians, invaded Canada from Buffalo, New York. It was part of an audacious scheme to seize Canada and use it as a bargaining chip for Irish independence.
The Thalidomide Tragedy
In the 1950s, thalidomide was a popular sedative marketed to pregnant women worldwide as an allegedly safe way to relieve morning sickness. In reality, it was far from harmless.
This Land Is Your Land-Grant University
What do Cornell University, Kansas State University, and Florida A&M University have in common? They are three of the hundreds of land-grant universities in the United States.
The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
In 1985, a Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior exploded in Auckland Harbor. The arrest of two French intelligence officers for the crime sparked an international scandal.
The Black Sox Scandal and Sports Betting Today
In 1919, the Cincinnati Reds defeated the heavily favored Chicago White Sox in the baseball World Series. One year later, the news broke that the Sox had thrown the game to the Reds, in exchange for bribes from organized crimes Besmirched by the scandal, the 1919 White Sox were referred to ever after as “The Black Sox.”