Did you know that the first national income tax was introduced in Washington DC on August 5, 1861? It was originally initiated to fund the Civil War. This is just one of the many events and occurrences that have happened in the month of August in the US capital. Some of the nation’s most historically significant decisions and actions have taken place in the month of August and Washington DC tours and tour guides are focusing on them so tourists can better understand the history of this great city.

August 24, 1814, General Ross of the British army marched into Washington DC unopposed and burned the White House. It was the last time that a foreign army has stood on mainland American soil. Half a century later, the still fledgling nation was in the midst of a Civil War that nearly destroyed it, but ultimately made it stronger. The income tax bill was only one of many decisions made during that time that still effect us today.

August is also a big month for Civil Rights and the quest for equality in the United States. On August 18, 1920 the 19th Amendment was passed giving women the right to vote. On August 29, 1957 President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act. August 28, 1963 is the date of the Million Man March on Washington and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Four years later, on August 30, 1967 Thurgood Marshall was confirmed in Washington DC as the first African American Supreme Court Justice.

You’ll hear all of this and more if you go on a Washington DC tour this month. August has been a momentous month in American history and Washington DC tour guides will no doubt provide you even more details of what has happened in the midst of Summers past in our nations capital. On August 9, 1974, Gerald Ford took office in Washington DC after Nixon resigned, on August 14, 1935 the Social Security Act was passed here in an attempt to offset the effects of the Great Depression, and on August 4, 1961, six thousand miles away in Honolulu, Hawaii, a man named Barack Hussein Obama was born to parents of mixed racial descent. On January 20, 2009, he took up residence in Washington DC as the forty-fourth President of the United States.