Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. is appointed to the Supreme Court.

Appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt, Holmes had been chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Sworn in on December 8, 1902, Holmes serves for 30 years and becomes known as the “Great Dissenter” for opinions in cases such as the one in United States vs. Rosika Schwimmer, where he defended, “Free thought – not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought we hate.” Holmes retires on January 12, 1932.