June 23rd

Today's Highlight in History:
On June 23rd, 1931, aviators Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from New York on the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane.

On this date:
In 1868, Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called a "Type-Writer."

In 1888, abolitionist Frederick Douglass received one vote from the Kentucky delegation at the Republican convention in Chicago, effectively making him the first black candidate nominated for US president. (The nomination went to Benjamin Harrison.)

In 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was established.

In 1947, the Senate joined the House in overriding President Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.

In 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt.

In 1967, President Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin held the first of two meetings in Glassboro, New Jersey.

In 1969, Warren E. Burger was sworn in as chief US justice by the man he was succeeding, Earl Warren.

In 1972, President Nixon and White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman discussed a plan to use the CIA to obstruct the FBI's Watergate investigation. (Revelation of the tape recording of this conversation sparked Nixon's resignation in 1974.)

In 1985, all 329 people aboard an Air-India Boeing 747 were killed when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland, 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.

Ten years ago: African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela received a tumultuous welcome in Boston as he continued his US tour.

Five years ago: Dr. Jonas Salk, the medical pioneer who developed the first vaccine to halt the crippling rampage of polio, died in La Jolla, California, at age 80.

One year ago: A divided Supreme Court dramatically enhanced states' rights in a trio of decisions that eroded Congress' power. US Marines in Kosovo killed one person and wounded two others after coming under fire; no Marines were injured.

"Even the merest gesture is holy if it is filled with faith."

-- Franz Kafka, Austrian author and poet (1883-1924).