(Monday, May 13, 1963) — The U.S. Supreme Court, in Brady v. Maryland, upheld today, 7-2, a lower court decision overturning the death sentence (but not the conviction) of John L. Brady for murder because the prosecution had withheld from the defense a statement by a separately tried accomplice, Charles D. Boblit, that he’d actually carried out the 1958 killing of William Brooks during a robbery.

Brady spent years in prison in legal limbo, declining his right to another sentencing hearing; he was eventually paroled. Boblit, 79, remains imprisoned in Maryland.

(Friday, May 12, 1933; part of the New Deal in response to the Great Depression) — The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was signed into law today by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, giving the federal government the power to raise farm prices and to provide relief on farm mortgage foreclosures. Also known as the “Wagner Act”, the bill provided $500 million for farm relief.

Signed on the same day was the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), which would eventually spend four billion dollars to create job programs for unemployed U.S. workers.

(Sunday, May 12, 1963, 10:20 p.m. local time) — Pilot Betty Miller, 36, became the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean today as she landed her Piper Apache in Brisbane, Australia, having left Oakland, Calif., on April 30, making three stopovers along the way.