Today in contracts history—November 19

1493: Christopher Columbus makes his first landing on Puerto Rico. Columbus is best known as the namesake of of the first modern contracts professor, Christopher Columbus Langdell.

1944: President Roosevelt launches the 6th War Loan Drive to raise $14 billion for the war effort.

1985: Pennzoil wins the largest contract-related jury verdict in history, taking $10.5 billion from Texaco.  The case will later settle for an amount that will make the plaintiff's counsel very rich and, later, the law school at the University of Texas very, very happy.

1951: Charles Falconer, later Baron Falconer of Thoroton, is born. He will become the first English Lord Chancellor to refuse to wear the wig and the robe.  Some people just don’t get tradition.

1850: Former Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson (left) dies.  Johnson’s lasting work as a Congressman was the abolition of imprisonment for debt in 1832.