On August 11, 1960, Chad declared its independence from France. Read the current Constitution of Chad.
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On August 10, 1988, US President Ronald Reagan signed a bill that provided payments of $20,000 to Japanese-Americans who were sent to internment camps by the US government during World War II. Learn more about the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which also included a formal apology by Congress for what it called a “grave [...]
On August 10, 1949, the National Security Act Amendment was signed into law. It replaced the Department of War with the Department of Defense (DoD) and pulled all military service branches directly under the supervision of the DoD. Learn more about the National Security Act from the U.S. State Department.
On August 9, 1842, the United States and Great Britain signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, settling their dispute over the northern boundaries of Maine and Minnesota. Read the full text of the treaty, online from the Avalon Project at Yale Law School.
On August 9, 1977, the military government of Uruguay announced that it would hold free elections in 1981 to return the country to civilian rule.
On August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon, facing impeachment on obstruction of justice charges in connection with the Watergate investigation, announced that he was resigning from office effective midday August 9. Read his televised resignation speech.
On August 8, 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was founded in Bangkok, Thailand by the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration. Since that time, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei, Laos, and Burma (Myanmar) have also acceded to ASEAN membership.
On August 7, 1964, in response to an alleged North Vietnamese attack on the USS Maddox three days earlier, the US Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, approving and supporting “the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the [...]
On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, guaranteeing voting rights for black citizens. Learn more about federal voting rights laws.
On August 6, 1825, Bolivia gained independence from Spain. Exactly 137 years later in 1962, Jamaica gained its independence from the United Kingdom.
