Today in history
On June 23,1836 Congress approved the Deposit Act, which contained a provision for turning over surplus federal revenue to the states.
In 1868 Christopher Latham Sholes, a Wisconsin journalist and state senator, received a patent for an invention he called the Type-Writer.
In 1892 the Democratic convention in Chicago nominated former President Grover Cleveland on the first ballot.
In 1894 the Duke of Windsor, who became King Edward VIII of Britain before his abdication, was born in Richmond, England.
In 1927 choreographer and director Bob Fosse was born in Chicago.
In 1931 aviators Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from New York for a flight around the world.
In 1938 Congress created the Civil Aeronautics Authority, predecessor to the Federal Aviation Administration, to regulate air traffic.
In 1940 Olympic track star Wilma Rudolph was born outside Clarksville, Tenn.
In 1947 Congress overrode the veto of President Harry Truman and enacted the Taft-Hartley Act, which limited some activities of labor unions.
In1956 Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt.
In 1969 Warren Burger was sworn as chief justice of the United States by the man he was succeeding, Earl Warren.
In 1972 President Richard Nixon and his White House chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, discussed a plan to use the CIA to obstruct the FBI’s Watergate investigation.
In 1985 all 329 people aboard an Air India Boeing 747 were killed when the plane crashed off the Irish coast, apparently because of a bomb.
In 1989 the Supreme Court refused to shut down the “dial-a-porn” industry, ruling Congress had gone too far in passing a law banning all sexually oriented phone message services.
In1992 mob boss John Gotti, convicted of racketeering charges, was sentenced in New York to life in prison.
In 1993 Lorena Bobbitt, of Prince William County, Va., sexually mutilated her husband, John, after he allegedly raped her.
In 1994 French marines and Foreign Legionnaires headed into Rwanda to try to stem the country’s ethnic slaughter. Also in 1994, the United States and Russia signed agreements in Washington on cooperating in space and economic development.
In 1995 Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the first vaccine to halt the crippling rampage of polio, died in La Jolla, Calif.; he was 80.
In 1997 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.
In 1999 a divided Supreme Court dramatically enhanced states’ rights in a trio of decisions that eroded Congress’ power.
In 2001 Peru’s fugitive ex-spy chief Vladimiro Lenin Montesinos, wanted on human rights and corruption charges, was captured in Venezuela.
In 2003 the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, backed the University of Michigan Law School’s consideration of race in its admissions policies, effectively upholding affirmative action. Also in 2003, Maynard Jackson, the first African-American mayor of Atlanta, died in Washington; he was 65.
In 2005 former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the 1964 Mississippi slayings of three civil rights workers. Also in 2005, the San Antonio Spurs became NBA champions after winning Game 7 against the Detroit Pistons, 81-74.
In 2008 Seattle’s Felix Hernandez hit the first grand slam by an American League pitcher in 37 years, then departed with a sprained ankle before he could qualify for a win in the Mariners’ 5-2 victory over the New York Mets.
In 2009 Ed McMahon, television pitchman best known as Johnny Carson’s sidekick on “The Tonight Show” died; he was 86.
In 2014 a Sudanese court released Meriam Ibrahim, a Christian woman who was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy. (Forsaking Islam to convert to another faith is punishable by death in that country. She was later rearrested and released.) Also in 2014, an Egyptian judge sentenced three AlJazeera journalists to up to 10 years in prison on terrorismrelated charges, a verdict that drew condemnations from the Obama administration.