On August 20, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Economic Opportunity Act. The bill approved $1 billion for social programs to combat poverty. It was central to President Johnson’s Great Society legislation program. Learn more about President Johnson’s War on Poverty from NPR.
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On August 20, 1980, the UN Security Council passed by 14-0 a resolution condemning an Israeli declaration that all of Jerusalem is its capital. The US abstained.
On August 19, 1692, 5 people – four men and a woman – were executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. Learn more about the Salem Witch Trials.
On August 19, 1960, US spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Soviet Union after being convicted of espionage. Powers was captured and tried by the USSR after his U-2 was shot down while flying a mission over Soviet airspace. In 1962, Powers was returned to the [...]
On August 18, 1964, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) barred South Africa from participating in the Summer Olympics due to the country’s Apartheid policy. The nation would not be reinstated until 1992. Learn more about the banishment of South Africa by the IOC from the BBC.
On August 18, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, establishing women’s suffrage, was ratified by the states. Learn more about the Nineteenth Amendment.
On August 17, 2005, Israel began removing settlers from certain occupied territories in the West Bank. The move began Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral disengagement plan. Learn more about the Israeli disengagement plan from the Washington Post.
On August 17, 1870, Esther Morris became the first woman magistrate in the US when she was appointed Justice of the Peace for South Pass City, Wyoming. Learn more about Esther Morris.
On August 16, 1960, Cyprus became independent of the United Kingdom. In May 2004, Cyprus became a member of the European Union.Read the constitution of Cyprus.
On August 16, 1918, Lothar Witzke was convicted of espionage by a military commission sitting at Ft. Sam Houston, becoming the first German spy convicted by the United States in World War I. Witzke was sentenced to hang, but President Wilson commuted the sentence on May 27, 1920. In 1922 Witzke was pardoned by President [...]
