16 December is National Independence Day of the Republic of Kazakhstan!

On 16 December 1991, the Constitutional Law "On State Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan" was signed by the then President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Nazarbayev himself was elected president in the first national elections held on 1 December of that year, and on 10 December he signed the law "On the Change of Name of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic", which gave the Republic of Kazakhstan its current name.