On August 30, 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) informed former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević that he would be charged with genocide in addition to other war crimes. The charges stemmed from Milošević’s role in the Balkan civil wars of the 1990s in which Milošević, as President of Serbia and Yugoslavia, [...]

On August 30, 1965, civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice by the US Senate, becoming the first African-American to be approved for the nation’s highest tribunal. Learn more about Thurgood Marshall.

On August 29, 1632, the political philosopher John Locke was born in Wrington, England. His political philosophy and social contract theory would heavily influence the American and French Revolutions as well as the democratic governments set up following those revolutions. Read works by John Locke from Project Gutenberg.

On August 29, 1957, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first federal civil rights legislation since 1875. The legislation set up the US Commission on Civil Rights and the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice.

On August 28, 1913, the Peace Palace was opened in the Hague by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. The Palace was conceived of as a forum to host the international Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA). In addition to the PCA, the Palace today hosts the International Court of Justice, the Hague Academy of International Law, [...]

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech to 200,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington. Listen to King’s speech. The march was later credited with helping to achieve passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights [...]

On August 28, 2003, the Supreme Court of Alabama removed a monument of the Biblical Ten Commandments from its courthouse rotunda. The monument had been installed on the orders of Chief Justice Roy Moore, triggering a federal lawsuit. In Glassroth v. Moore, the federal District Court for the Middle District of Alabama ordered Moore to [...]

On August 27, 1928, representatives of thirty-two nations gathered in Paris signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of national policy and agreeing to the peaceful settlement of disputes between them. Frank B. Kellogg, the US Secretary of State who proposed the treaty, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in [...]

On August 26, 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man was adopted by the French National Assembly. Click here to read the text of the Declaration and learn more about its formulation.

On August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was adopted, granting women full suffrage. The Amendment states that “he right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce [...]