What does Francis Scott Key, Bill Clinton and Elvis have in common? They all had a significant life event happen in the month of August! Brush up on your history facts with our Little August History blog!
August 1, 1779 Happy birthday to Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star-Spangled Banner.
August 6, 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law The Voting Rights Act of 1965.
August 9, 1974 Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency as a direct result of the Watergate investigation.
August 16, 1896 the Great Klondike Gold Rush started when gold was discovered in Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River in Alaska.
August 16, 1977 at the Memphis Baptist Hospital at 3:30 p.m. Elvis Presley was pronounced dead at age 42.
August 17, 1998 President Bill Clinton became the first sitting president to give testimony before a grand jury and was the focus of the investigation.
August 18, 1920 women were granted the right to vote when 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.
August 25, 1985 a commercial airline crash and killed 13 year old Samantha Smith. In December 1982, Samantha Smith, then a 10-year-old American schoolgirl had written a letter to Soviet Russia’s leader Yuri Andropov asking, “Are you going to vote to have a war or not?” Andropov replied personally to her and offered a paid trip to the U.S.S.R. She toured Russia for two weeks. Samantha symbolized the hope for a peaceful existence between America and Russia.
