[1][2] Nugis worked as a teacher at Tallinn Technical Secondary School for Building and Mechanics from 1967 to 1968, and at various positions in the Pioneer and Tegur factories from 1968 to 1974.

[5] On 20 August 1991, he presided over the Supreme Council's historic session where it voted to restore Estonia's national independence, with the gavel strike by Nugis confirming the result.

[6] In October, Nugis became the first Estonian politician to publicly state that the country should try to join NATO as soon as possible, even as Soviet troops were still present in the Baltic nation.

The funeral at Charles' Church in Tallinn was attended by Estonian presidents Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Arnold Rüütel, among others.

The coffin was covered with the Estonian flag that had flown over Pikk Hermann on 20 August that year.