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Today in History

  • Today in History 

Today is Tuesday, June 23, the 175th day of 2020. There are 191 days left in the year. 

  • Today's Highlight in History: 

On June 23, 1888, abolitionist Frederick Douglass received one vote from the Kentucky delegation at the Republican convention in Chicago, effectively making him the first Black candidate to have his name placed in nomination for U.S. president. (The nomination went to Benjamin Harrison.) 

  • On this date: 

In 1868, Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for his "Type-Writer," featuring a QWERTY keyboard; it was the first commercially successful typewriter. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt was nominated for a second term of office at the Republican National Convention in Chicago. 
In 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was established. 
In 1947, the Senate joined the House in overriding President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act, designed to limit the power of organized labor. 
In 1969, Warren E. Burger was sworn in as chief justice of the United States by the man he was succeeding, Earl Warren. 
In 1972, President Richard Nixon and White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman discussed using the CIA to obstruct the FBI's Watergate investigation. (Revelation of the tape recording of this conversation sparked Nixon's resignation in 1974.) President Nixon signed Title IX barring discrimination on the basis of sex for "any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." 
In 1985, all 329 people aboard an Air India Boeing 747 were killed when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland because of a bomb authorities believe was planted by Sikh separatists. 
In 1988, James E. Hansen, a climatologist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told a Senate panel that global warming of the earth caused by the "greenhouse effect" was a reality. 
In 1993, in a case that drew widespread attention, Lorena Bobbitt of Prince William County, Va., sexually mutilated her husband, John, after he'd allegedly raped her. (John Bobbitt was later acquitted of marital sexual assault; Lorena Bobbitt was later acquitted of malicious wounding by reason of insanity.) 
In 1995, Dr. Jonas Salk, the medical pioneer who developed the first vaccine to halt the crippling rampage of polio, died in La Jolla (HOY'-ah), California, at age 80. 
In 2009, "Tonight Show" sidekick Ed McMahon died in Los Angeles at 86. 
In 2018, Trump administration officials said the government knew the location of all children in its custody after separating them from their families at the border, and that it was working to reunite them. 

  • Ten years ago: Following Gen. Stanley McChrystal's criticism of the Obama administration in a Rolling Stone magazine profile, President Barack Obama named Gen. David Petraeus to replace the Afghanistan commander. Gary Faulkner, who was detained by authorities in northern Pakistan during a personal quest to track down Osama bin Laden, was released. 
  • Five years ago: WikiLeaks published documents it said showed the U.S. National Security Agency had eavesdropped on the last three French presidents, releasing material that appeared to capture officials in Paris talking candidly about Greece's economy, relations with Germany — and, ironically, American espionage. The NHL's Board of Governors approved the proposed 3-on-3 overtime change. Actor Dick Van Patten, 86, died in Santa Monica, California. 
  • One year ago: Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg faced criticism from angry residents of South Bend, Indiana, where he was mayor, at an emotional town hall meeting a week after a white police officer fatally shot a Black man there; Buttigieg said he would call for an outside investigation. President Donald Trump told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he'd prefer to run for re-election against Joe Biden, suggesting that the former vice president wouldn't be the "great candidate" that Hillary Clinton was in 2016. Two siblings from the famed Flying Wallendas safely crossed New York's Times Square on a high wire strung between two skyscrapers, 25 stories above the pavement. Nearly three months after he was shot to death in Los Angeles, rapper Nipsey Hussle was honored with the Humanitarian Award at the BET Awards in Los Angeles. 
  • Today's Birthdays: Singer Diana Trask is 80. Musical conductor James Levine (luh-VYN') is 77. Actor Ted Shackelford is 74. Actor Bryan Brown is 73. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is 72. Actor Jim Metzler is 69. "American Idol" ex-judge Randy Jackson is 64. Actress Frances McDormand is 63. Rock musician Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) is 58. Actor Paul La Greca is 58. Writer-director Joss Whedon is 56. Rhythm and blues singer Chico DeBarge is 50. Actress Selma Blair is 48. Actor Joel Edgerton is 46. Rock singer KT Tunstall is 45. Rhythm and blues singer Virgo Williams (Ghostowns DJs) is 45. Actress Emmanuelle Vaugier is 44. Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz is 43. Football Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson is 41. Actress Melissa Rauch is 40. Rock singer Duffy is 36. Country singer Katie Armiger is 29.