6th August 1965: Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law during the height of the Civil Rights movement

The Voting Rights Act outlawed literacy tests and authorised federal officials to oversee voter registration in jurisdictions with a history of discrimination, resulting in a substantial increase in voter registration and political participation among African Americans in the years that followed.

17th May 1954: U.S. Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional

The unanimous opinion of the Court said that segregated public schools were inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional.

22nd March 1621: Hugo Grotius, the Dutch legal scholar, escapes imprisonment in Loevestein Castle concealed inside a book chest

Grotius was permitted to have books sent to him in prison, and these were transported in a large chest. Over time his guards became less vigilant regarding the chest’s contents which led his wife and maid-servant to propose a plan to smuggle him out by hiding him inside it.