TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Saturday, June 23, the 174th day of 2018. There are 191 days left in the year.

HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY

On June 23, 1868, Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for his “Type-Writer,” featuring a QWERTY keyboard; it was the first commercially successful typewriter.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

• Singer Diana Trask is 78. • Actor Ted Shackelford (“The Young and the Restless”) is 72. • Actor Bryan Brown (“Breaker Morant”) is 71. • Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is 70. • Actress Frances McDormand is 61. • Writer-director Joss Whedon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is 54. • Actor Joel Edgerton is 44. • Rock singer KT Tunstall is 43. • Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz is 41. • Football Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson is 39.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“To have felt too much is to end in feeling nothing.” — Dorothy Thompson, American journalist (1894-1961).

ON THIS DATE

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 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was established.

In 1968, a syndicated newspaper column by 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 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.)

In 1993, in a case that drew widespread attention, Lorena Bobbitt of Prince William County, Virginia, 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.) … Canada’s Senate ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement.