Mikhail Gorbachev formally resigns as President of USSR
On the night of this day, Mikhail Gorbachev announces that he is resigning as president of the Soviet Union. He said in a televised speech, "I hereby discontinue my activities at the post of President of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." He declared the office extinct and handed over its functions, including control of the Soviet nuclear codes, to Yeltsin.