Youtube download / AP video / Nixon presidency brought down in 1974 by tape two years earlier aptly referred to as the 'smoking gun' in Watergate scandal. Screenshot pic shows Watergate Building merged with Nixon image.ORLANDO, Fla. -- Highlights of this day in history for June 23: A key moment in the Watergate scandal; Adolf Hitler visits Paris after France falls to Nazi Germany; The typewriter gets a patent; Polio vaccine pioneer Dr. Jonas Salk and TV producer Aaron Spelling die.
Key events by year on June 23, per Wikipedia:
- 229 – Sun Quan proclaims himself emperor of Eastern Wu.
- 1180 – First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan.
- 1280 – The Battle of Moclín takes place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista pitting the forces of the Kingdom of Castile against the Emirate of Granada. The battle resulted in a Granadian victory.
- 1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn (south of Stirling) begins.
- 1532 – Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France sign a secret treaty against Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1611 – The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again.
- 1780 – American Revolution: Battle of Springfield fought in and around Springfield, New Jersey (including Short Hills, formerly of Springfield, now of Millburn Township).
- 1812 – War of 1812: Great Britain revokes the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war.
- 1865 – American Civil War: At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate, Brigadier General Stand Watie surrenders the last significant rebel army.
- 1868 – Typewriter: Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer."
- 1913 – Second Balkan War: The Greeks defeat the Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran.
- 1914 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa takes Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta.
- 1917 – In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire.
- 1919 – Estonian War of Independence: The decisive defeat of the Baltische Landeswehr in the Battle of Cēsis; this date is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia.
- 1926 – The College Board administers the first SAT exam.
- 1938 – The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.
- 1940 – Adolf Hitler goes on a three-hour tour of the architecture of Paris with architect Albert Speer and sculptor Arno Breker in his only visit to the city.
- 1941 – The Lithuanian Activist Front declares independence from the Soviet Union and forms the Provisional Government of Lithuania; it lasts only briefly as the Nazis will occupy Lithuania a few weeks later.
- 1942 – World War II: The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz take place on a train full of Jews from Paris.
- 1942 – World War II: Germany's latest fighter aircraft, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales.
- 1943 – World War II: The British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.
- 1946 – The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake strikes Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
- 1947 – The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry Truman's veto of the Taft–Hartley Act.
- 1959 – Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumes a scientific career.
- 1960 – The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world.
- 1961 – Cold War: The Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, comes into force after the opening date for signature set for the December 1, 1959.
- 1967 – Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for the three-day Glassboro Summit Conference.
- 1969 – IBM announces that effective January 1970 it will price its software and services separately from hardware thus creating the modern software industry.
- 1972 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins.
- 1972 – Title IX of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 is amended to prohibit sexual discrimination to any educational program receiving federal funds.
- 1973 – A fire at a house in Hull, England which kills a six-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by arsonist Peter Dinsdale.
- 1985 – A terrorist bomb aboard Air India Flight 182 brings the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard.
- 2001 – The 8.4 Mw southern Peru earthquake shakes coastal Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A destructive tsunami followed, leaving at least 74 people dead, and 2,687 injured.
- 2012 – Ashton Eaton breaks the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials.
- 2013 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.
- 2014 – The last of Syria's declared chemical weapons are shipped out for destruction.
- 2016 – The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union, by 52% to 48%.
Famous Births:
- 1957 – Frances McDormand, American actress (Coen Brothers movies "Fargo" and "Burn After Reading" and "No Country for Old Men")
- 1961 – LaSalle Thompson, American basketball player, coach, and manager
- 1966 – Chico DeBarge, American singer and pianist
- 1979 – LaDainian Tomlinson, American football player
Famous Deaths:
- 1980 – Sanjay Gandhi, Indian engineer and politician (b. 1946)
- 1995 – Jonas Salk, American biologist and physician (b. 1914)
- 1995 – Anatoli Tarasov, Russian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1918)
- 1996 – Andreas Papandreou, Greek economist and politician, 174th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1919)
- 1998 – Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish-American actress (b. 1911)
- 2006 – Aaron Spelling, American actor, producer, and screenwriter, founded Spelling Television (b. 1923)
- 2007 – Rod Beck, American baseball player (b. 1968)
- 2009 – Ed McMahon, American game show host and announcer (b. 1923)
- 2011 – Peter Falk, American actor (b. 1927) (TV series "Colombo")
- 015 – Dick Van Patten, American actor (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Ralph Stanley, American singer and banjo player (b. 1927)
Holidays & Observances:
- Christian feast day:
- Earliest day on which Feast of Raḥmat can fall, while June 24 is the latest. (Bahá'í Faith)
- Father's Day (Nicaragua, Poland)
- Grand Duke's Official Birthday (Luxembourg)
- International Widows Day (international)
- National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism (Canada)
- Okinawa Memorial Day (Okinawa Prefecture)
- St John's Eve and the first day of the Midsummer celebrations [although this is not the real summer solstice; see June 20] (Roman Catholic Church, Europe):
- Bonfires of Saint John (Spain)
- First night of Festa de São João do Porto (Porto)
- First day of Golowan Festival (Cornwall)
- Jaaniõhtu (Estonia)
- Jāņi (Latvia)
- Kupala Night (Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine)
- Last day of Drăgaica fair (Buzău, Romania)
- United Nations Public Service Day (International)
- Victory Day (Estonia)
-- Compiled by Henry Frederick, Headline Surfer