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Today in Legal History: Taxes Die, Statesman Born, Mouse Patented
On this day in 1770, the British government repealed most of the Townsend Acts, which placed import taxes on British products such as lead, paper, paint, glass and tea. Anger over such taxes was one cause of the Revolutionary War.
On this day in 1777, Henry Clay, a Virginia lawyer who became a renowned American orator and statesman, was born.
On this day in 1988, a controversial patent for a genetically altered mouse was granted to Harvard University researchers. It was the first time a life-form had ever been patented.
