By Brenda June Temple
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
David Hackett Souter (/ˈsuːtər/ SOO-tər; born September 17, 1939) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1990 until his retirement in 2009. Appointed by President George H. W. Bush to fill the seat that had been vacated by William J. Brennan Jr., Souter sat on both the Rehnquist and the Roberts courts.
Raised in New England, Souter attended Harvard College, Magdalen College, Oxford, and Harvard Law School. After briefly working in private practice, he moved to public service. He served as a prosecutor (1966–1968) in the New Hampshire Attorney General‘s office (1968–1976), as the attorney general of New Hampshire (1976–1978), as an associate justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire (1978–1983), as an associate justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court (1983–1990), and briefly as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1990).
Souter was nominated to the Supreme Court without a significant “paper trail” but was expected to be a conservative justice. Within a few years of his appointment, Souter moved towards the ideological center. He eventually came to vote reliably with the Court’s liberal wing. In mid-2009, after Democrat Barack Obama took office as U.S. president, Souter announced his retirement from the Court; he was succeeded by Sonia Sotomayor. Souter has continued to hear cases by designation at the circuit court level.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Died
- Henry Fielding (writer) –
- John Hancock (statesman) –
- Franklin Pierce (14th U.S. president) –
Born
- James Wilson Marshall (pioneer) –
- John Hay (politician) –
- Otto Heinrich Warburg (biochemist) –
- Edward V. Rickenbacker (WWI flying ace) –
- Juan Peron (former president of Argentina) –
- Billy Conn (boxer) –
- Frank Patrick Herbert (writer) –
- Faith Ringgold (artist & writer) –
- Paul Hogan (actor) –
- Jesse Jackson (politician) –
- Chevy Chase (actor) –
- Robert Lawrence (R. L.” Stine writer”) –
- Sigourney Weaver (actress) –
- Emily Procter (actress) –
- Matt Damon (actor) –
- Bruno Mars (singer) –
Events
- Acadians, refusing to swear loyalty to British crown, were expelled from Nova Scotia–
- Great Chicago Fire began in a stable on the west side of the Chicago River when, historians agree, Mr. and Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over an oil lamp–
- Deadly forest fire began in Peshtigo, Wisconsin–
- Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) began tour of United States–
- The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet debuted–
- NY Yankees pitcher, Don Larsen, pitched the first perfect baseball game in World Series history–
- Walter O’Malley, president and chief stockholder of the Brooklyn Dodgers, announced that his baseball team would move to Los Angeles.–
- Possible UFO photographed, Vancouver Island, British Columbia–
- Judge David Souter was sworn in as the 105th U.S. Supreme Court justice–
- Congress approves the California Desert Bill. The bill will allow for the expansion and upgrade of Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Monuments, as well as the creation of the Mojave National Preserve and several large wilderness areas. Republicans filibustered against the bill but failed to prevent its passing. Affecting 6 million acres, the legislation was the largest land conservation bill ever enacted for the US outside Alaska–
- Tom Ridge was sworn in as the first director of the newly created Office of Homeland Security–
- Kenyan Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She was the first African woman to receive the award.–
- A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Pakistan and parts of India and Afghanistan. More than 73,000 lives were lost–
- California wildfires began in wine country–
Weather
- Thirteen inches of snow stranded a thousand people in Wyoming–
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