August 9 Through History

Explanation: Richard Nixon is the only American president to have resigned from office. This decision followed the Watergate scandal, a political espionage affair that had erupted during the 1972 presidential campaign. His vice president Gerald Ford automatically succeeded him.

Explanation: The Fat Man bomb, a plutonium bomb, destroyed Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima had been struck by Little Boy, a uranium bomb. These two bombings caused between 130,000 and 220,000 deaths and hastened Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945.

Explanation: Singapore declared independence by seceding from Malaysia on August 9, 1965. Its prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, reportedly cried when announcing the news on television, as he believed more strongly in a Malay federation. This date is now Singapore's national holiday.

Explanation: The construction of the Tower of Pisa began in 1173, but it took nearly two centuries to complete due to wars and interruptions. The unstable soil of sand and clay caused the tower to lean from the very first years of construction. Stabilization work in the XXth century reduced its tilt by about 40 cm.

Explanation: Jacques Cartier made three voyages to North America between 1534 and 1542, claiming the territory in the name of King Francis I. He is considered one of the founders of New France. The city of Saint-Malo, where he was born, honors his memory with a bronze statue on the ramparts of the old town.

Explanation: Sergei Stepashin held the position of Prime Minister for only three months, from May to August 1999. Putin, appointed on August 9, 1999, was then designated as Yeltsin's successor to the presidency, which he assumed as acting president from December 31, 1999 after Yeltsin's surprise resignation.

Explanation: The Knebworth concert was Queen's last with Freddie Mercury, in front of around 120,000 people. Mercury died of AIDS on November 24, 1991. In 1992, a major tribute concert was held at Wembley with many guest stars performing Queen's hits.

Explanation: Valens's defeat against the Visigoths at Adrianople is often presented as one of the causes of the decline of the Western Roman Empire. It is one of the rare times a Roman emperor was killed in combat. It marked the beginning of a policy of integrating barbarian peoples into the Roman armies.

Explanation: Jean Piaget is the founder of genetic epistemology. He developed a theory of the stages of cognitive development in children, identifying four main stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. His work revolutionized our understanding of learning and influenced teaching methods in the XXth century.

Explanation: Baden-Powell gathered around twenty boys on Brownsea Island, in Dorset, from 1 to 9 August 1907. This experimental camp allowed him to test the ideas he later developed in his famous manual 'Scouting for Boys', published in 1908. The scout movement today has more than 50 million members worldwide.