President Eisenhower signs the official proclamation admitting
Hawaii into the Union.

The modern United States receives its crowning star when President
Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a proclamation admitting Hawaii into the
Union as the 50th state. The president also issued an order for an
American flag featuring 50 stars arranged in staggered rows: five six-
star rows and four five-star rows. The new flag became official July 4,
1960.

The first known settlers of the Hawaiian Islands were Polynesian
voyagers who arrived sometime in the eighth century. In the early
18th century, American traders came to Hawaii to exploit the islands’
sandalwood, which was much valued in China at the time. In the
1830s, the sugar industry was introduced to Hawaii and by the mid
19th century had become well established. American missionaries
and planters brought about great changes in Hawaiian political,
cultural, economic, and religious life. In 1840, a constitutional
monarchy was established, stripping the Hawaiian monarch of
much of his authority.

A dramatic battle in the Tennessee House of Representatives ends with
the state ratifying the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution
on August 18, 1920. After decades of struggle and protest by suffragettes
across the country, the decisive vote was cast by a young representative
who reputedly changed his vote after receiving a note from his mother.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act on
August 14, 1935. Press photographers snapped pictures as FDR (above)
flanked by ranking members of Congress, signed into law the historic act,
which guaranteed an income for the unemployed and retirees. FDR
commended Congress for what he considered to be a “patriotic” act.

Roosevelt had taken the helm of the country in 1932 in the midst of the
Great Depression, the nation’s worst economic crisis. The Social Security
Act (SSA) was in keeping with his other “New Deal” programs, including
the establishment of the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, which attempted to hoist America out of the Great
Depression by putting Americans back to work.

CAMILLE BOHANNON

1977

1988

In an evening televised address on August 8, 1974, President Richard M.
Nixon announces his intention to become the first president in American
history to resign. With impeachment proceedings underway against him
for his involvement in the Watergate affair, Nixon was finally bowing to
pressure from the public and Congress to leave the White House.