On this date

In 1757, forces of the East India Company won the Battle of Plassey, which effectively marked the start of British colonial rule in India.

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 1968, in a syndicated newspaper column, Joseph Kraft coined the term “Middle America.”

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 chief of staff H.R. Haldeman discussed using the CIA to obstruct the FBI’s Watergate investigation. (Revelation of the recording of this conversation sparked Nixon’s resignation in 1974.)

In 1972, President Nixon signed Title IX barring discrimination on the basis of sex for “any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

In 1993, Lorena Bobbitt of Prince William County, Va., sexually mutilated her husband, John, after he allegedly raped her. (John Bobbitt was later acquitted of marital sexual assault; Lorena Bobbitt was later acquitted by reason of insanity of malicious wounding.)

Ten years ago: The U.N. Security Council declared that a fair presidential vote in Zimbabwe was impossible because of a “campaign of violence” waged by President Robert Mugabe’s government.

Five years ago: Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor behind the disclosures of the U.S. government’s surveillance programs, left Hong Kong for Moscow in a bid for asylum.

One year ago: President Donald Trump signed a bill making it easier for the Department of Veterans Affairs to fire employees, part of a push to overhaul the agency.