The first freely elected parliament during the Soviet era in Estonia had passed independence resolutions on 8 May 1990, and renamed Estonian SSR to the Republic of Estonia. During the attempted coup on 20 August 1991 by the Gang of Eight, the Estonian parliament issued the Declaration of Independence from the Soviet Union at 23:03 Tallinn time. On 6 September 1991, the State Council of the Soviet Union recognized the independence of Estonia., immediately followed by the international recognitions of the Republic of Estonia.