Today is Friday, June 23, the 174th day of 2017. There are 191 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History:
On June 23, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin (ah-LEK’-say koh-SEE’-gihn) and their advisers opened a three-day summit at Glassboro State College in New Jersey. The U.S. Senate voted 92-5 to censure Democrat Thomas J. Dodd of Connecticut for diverting campaign money to his personal use.
On this date:
In 1314, during the First War of Scottish Independence, the two-day Battle of Bannockburn, resulting in victory for the forces of Robert the Bruce over the army of King Edward II, began near Stirling.
In 1537, Spanish explorer Pedro de Mendoza, the founder of Buenos Aires, died aboard his ship while heading back to Spain.
In 1757, forces of the East India Company led by Robert Clive won the Battle of Plassey, which effectively marked the beginning of British colonial rule in India.
In 1892, the Democratic national convention in Chicago nominated former President Grover Cleveland on the first ballot.
In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt was nominated for a second term of office at the Republican national convention in Chicago.
In 1931, aviators Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from New York on a round-the-world flight that lasted eight days and 15 hours.
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 1950, Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501, a DC-4, crashed into Lake Michigan with the loss of all 58 people on board.
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 1997, civil rights activist Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, died in New York of burns suffered in a fire set by her 12-year-old grandson; she was 61. (Malcolm Shabazz pleaded guilty to arson and other charges and was placed in juvenile detention.)
Ten years ago: Roadside bombers in Iraq killed seven U.S. troops, four of them in a single blast near Baghdad. Searchers in Summit County, Ohio, found the body of Jessie Davis, a missing 26-year-old pregnant woman, in a park. (Bobby Cutts Jr., a former Canton police officer who was the father of Davis’ unborn child, was later convicted of murder and aggravated murder and sentenced to 57 years to life in prison.)
Five years ago: Syria and Turkey desperately sought to ease tensions following an incident in which Syria shot down a Turkish reconnaissance plane, saying the plane had entered its airspace. Ashton Eaton broke the world record in the decathlon, finishing with 9,039 points at the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon. (Eaton later surpassed his own record with 9,045 points at the 2015 Beijing world championships.) The Daytime Emmys showered “General Hospital” with five trophies, including best drama; NBC’s “Today” show won as best morning show and the syndicated “Jeopardy!” was named best game show.
One year ago: Britain voted to leave the European Union after a bitterly divisive referendum campaign, toppling Prime Minister David Cameron, who had led the campaign to keep Britain in the EU. A short-handed and deeply divided Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 on President Barack Obama’s immigration plan to help millions living in the U.S. illegally, effectively killing it. In a narrow victory for affirmative action, the Supreme Court upheld, 4-3, a University of Texas program that took account of race in deciding whom to admit. Appalachian music patriarch Ralph Stanley, 89, who helped define the bluegrass sound, died in Sandy Ridge, Virginia.
Today’s Birthdays: Singer Diana Trask is 77. Musical conductor James Levine (luh-VYN’) is 74. Actor Ted Shackelford is 71. Actor Bryan Brown is 70. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is 69. Actor Jim Metzler is 66. “American Idol” ex-judge Randy Jackson is 61. Actress Frances McDormand is 60. Rock musician Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) is 55. Actor Paul La Greca is 55. Writer-director Joss Whedon is 53. Rhythm-and-blues singer Chico DeBarge is 47. Actress Selma Blair is 45. Actor Joel Edgerton (“Loving”) is 43. Rock singer KT Tunstall is 42. Rhythm-and-blues singer Virgo Williams (Ghostowns DJs) is 42. Actress Emmanuelle Vaugier is 41. Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz is 40. Football Hall of Fame electee LaDainian Tomlinson is 38. Actress Melissa Rauch is 37. Rock singer Duffy is 33. Country singer Katie Armiger is 26.
Thought for Today: “Suffering without understanding in this life is a heap worse than suffering when you have at least the grain of an idea what it’s all for.” — Mary Ellen Chase, American author (1887-1973).
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