On This Day in History - June 23

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

June 23, 1992: Teflon Don sentenced to life

Mafia boss John Gotti, who was nicknamed the "Teflon Don" after escaping unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on 14 accounts of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. Moments after his sentence was read in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, hundreds of Gotti's supporters stormed the building and overturned and smashed cars before being forced back by police reinforcements.  

Gotti, born and educated on the mean streets of New York City, became head of the powerful Gambino family after boss Paul Castellano was murdered outside a steakhouse in Manhattan in December 1985. The gang assassination, the first in three decades in New York, was organized by Gotti and his colleague Sammy "the Bull" Gravano. The Gambino family was known for its illegal narcotics operations, gambling activities, and car theft. During the next five years, Gotti rapidly expanded his criminal empire, and his family grew into the nation's most powerful Mafia family. Despite wide publicity of his criminal activities, Gotti managed to avoid conviction several times, usually through witness intimidation. In 1990, however, he was indicted for conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Paul Castellano, and Gravano agreed to testify against him in a federal district court in exchange for a reduced prison sentence.  

On April 2, 1992, John Gotti was found guilty on all counts and on June 23 was sentenced to multiple life terms without the possibility of parole.  

While still imprisoned, Gotti died of throat cancer on June 10, 2002.


The world's oldest parliament, Iceland's Althing, was established. William Penn signed a friendship treaty with the Lenni Lenape tribe. The French of Acadia are given a year to pledge their loyalty to the British, or be forcibly removed from the area. The final draft of the Declaration of Independence was submitted to the US Congress. A few years later, there was a battle during the Revolutionary War right here in New Jersey, in Springfield. Months after the official end of the Civil War, the last sizeable Confederate Army was surrendered. Frederick Douglas was the first black man to be nominated for President. The Olympic Committee was founded at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, on this date. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy renewed the Triple Entente for a twelve year duration, although when World War I actually broke out, Italy wound up not participating and, moreover, would eventually join the war against Germany. The Red Skeleton Show aired for the last time. A few years later, Nixon agreed to use the CIA to cover up Watergate. The first message intended for UFO's was sent to outer space. Alice Cooper fell off stage and broke 6 ribs in Vancouver, British Columbia. The CN Tower opened, and remained the tallest free standing structure in the world until just a few years ago, when the Dubai Tower (also known as the Burj Khalifa) overtook it.  There was a record cold day in the South Pole. The team that just won the NBA title last week, the Miami Heat, began play in the NBA, as well as the Charlotte Hornets. The United Nations imposed an oil embargo on Haiti. South Africa rejoined the United Nations, following the end of apartheid.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:


930 - World's oldest parliament, the Iceland Parliament, established

1295 - Pope Boniface VIII enters Rome

1298 - Duke Albrecht von Habsburg chosen Roman Catholic German king

1305 - French-Flemish peace treaty signed at Athis-sur-Orge

1532 - Henry VIII and Francois I signs secret treaty against emperor Karel V

1565 - Turgut Reis (Dragut), commander of the Ottoman Navy, dies during the Siege of Malta.

1585 - Spanish army under Tassis beats Amerongen Staatse troops

1658 - Dutch troops occupy last Portugese Fort Jafnapatnam Ceylon

1661 - Marriage contract for Charles II of England and Catharina of Portugal

1683 - William Penn signed friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania; only treaty "not sworn to, nor broken"

1700 - Russia gave up its Black Sea fleet as part of a truce with the Ottoman Empire.  

1713 - The French residents of Acadia are given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada.

1724 - Russia and Turkey sign Treaty of Constantinople

1757 - Robert Clive defeated the Indians at Plassey and won control of Bengal.

1758 - Seven Years' War: Battle of Krefeld - British and Hanoverian forces defeated French troops at Krefeld in Germany.

1760 - Battle of Landshut Silesia: Austria defeated the Prussians at Landshut, Germany.

1775 - First regatta held on Thames, England

1776 - Final draft of Declaration of Independence submitted to US Congress

1780 - American Revolution: Battle of Springfield fought in and around Springfield, New Jersey (including Short Hills, formerly of Springfield, now of Millburn Township.

1784 - First US balloon flight (13 year old Edward Warren)

1794 - Empress Catherine II grants Jews permission to settle in Kiev

1810 - John Jacob Astor organizes Pacific Fur Co (Astoria, Oregon)

1821 - Dutch troops conquer Palembang

1836 - The U.S. Congress approved the Deposit Act, which contained a provision for turning over surplus federal revenue to the states.

1848 - A bloody insurrection of workers in Paris erupted.

1854 - Antwerp-Roosendaal railway goes into use

1860 - The U.S. Secret Service was created to arrest counterfeiters.

1860 - Congress establishes Government Printing Office

1863 - Tullahoma campaign, TN

1865 - Confederate General Stand Watie, who was also a Cherokee chief, surrendered the last sizable Confederate army at Fort Towson, in the Oklahoma Territory.

1868 - Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention that he called a "Type-Writer."

1884 - A Chinese Army defeated the French at Bacle, Indochina.

1888 - Frederick Douglass is first African-American nominated for president

1894 - The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne, Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

1902 - Gioacchino Rossini's unveils monument to Santa-Croce

1902 - Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy renewed the Triple Alliance for a 12 year duration.

1904 - The first American motorboat race got underway on the Hudson River in New York.

1909 - Confessional parties win Dutch parliamentary elections

1915 - Yanks get record 16 walks & 3 wild pitches beat A's Bruno Hass, 15-0

1915 - Zeb Turner, country-rock performer (Chew Tobacco Rag)

1917 - 31st US Womens Tennis: Molla Mallory beat Marion Vanderhoef (46 60 62)

1917 - Ammunition factory in Boleweg Bohemia explodes, killing 1,000

1917 - Ernie Shore replaces Red Sox pitcher Babe Ruth with a runner on, he throws him out & retires all 26 he faces for a perfect game

1918 - Boston Red Sox Dutch Leonard's 2nd no-hitter beats Tigers, 5-0

1919 - Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) incorporates

1919 - Nitti government forms in Italy

1924 - 8 month Twenste textile strike ends

1925 - British warship fires on Hong Kong harbor strikers

1925 - Landslides create 3-mile long "Slide Lake" (Gros Ventre Wyoming)

1926 - 8th government of Briand van France forms

1926 - Commencement of the West Indies' 1st Test cricket match, at Lord's

1926 - The first lip reading tournament in America was held in Philadelphia, PA.    

1926 - The College Board administers the first SAT exam.

1927 - Lou Gehrig hits 3 HRs in 11-4 victory over Red Sox

1930 - Chicago Cubs beat Philadelphia Phillies 21-8

1931 - Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from New York on the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane.

1932 - Lou Gehrig plays 1,103rd successive game in a NY uniform, equaling Joe Sewell's record with one team (Cleveland)

1933 - Don McNeill's Pepper Pot (Breakfast Club) begins 35½ year run on NBC

1934 - Italy gained the right to colonize Albania after defeating the country.

1935 - Anthony Eden offers Benito Mussolini, Somalian harbor

1938 - The Civil Aeronautics Authority was established.

1938 - Marineland opened near St. Augustine, Florida - first aquarium.

1938 - NYC Mayor LaGuardia assigns 21 cops to patrol subway

1939 - Bronko Nagurski beats Lou Thesz in Houston, to become wrestling champ

1939 - France turns over Sanjak of Alexandretta (Hatay) to Turkey

1940 - Marcel Louette seeks opposition group "White Brigade" on Antwerp

1940 - RAF bombs Schiphol

1941 - Germany occupied Telz Lithuana

1942 - World War II: Germany's latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf FW190 is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales.

1943 - Dutch artsens protest against Nazis    

1943 - RAF discovers Werner von Brauns V1/V2-base in Peenemunde

1944 - 4 tornadoes strike Appalachia, killing 153

1944 - Russian offensive in central front sector

1944 - Thomas Mann becomes a US citizen

1945 - 77th Belmont: Eddie Arcaro aboard Pavot wins in 2:30.2

1945 - Last organized Japanese defiance broken (Tarakan)

1947 - Compton & Bill Edrich make 370 stand for 3rd wkt v South Africa

1947 - The U.S. Senate joined the House in overriding President Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.

1949 - First 12 women graduate from Harvard Medical School

1949 - Dutch Constellation plunge at Bari in sea, 33 die

1950 - Swiss parliament refuses voting right for women

1950 - Yanks & Tigers hit record 11 HRs, Tigers win 10-9

1950 - Indians' Luke Easter hits longest ball in Cleveland Stadium history, 477 feet, into upper deck, Section 4

1951 - British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean flee to USSR

1951 - Most expensive US hailstorm ($1.5M crop damage & $14M property-Kansas)

1951 - Soviet U.N. delegate Jacob Malik proposed cease-fire discussions in the Korean War.

1952 - The U.S. Air Force bombed power plants on Yalu River, Korea.    

1954 - 122°F (50°C), Overton, Nevada (state record until June 29, 1994)

1955 - Walt Disney's "Lady & the Tramp" released

1956 - "Jimmy Durante Show," last airs on NBC-TV

1956 - "Transfusion" by Nervous Norvous peaks at #8

1956 - Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt

1958 - Dutch Reformed Church accepts women ministers

1958 - Fed judge rules race separation must end in 2½ years in Little Rock

1958 - Foundation Praemium Erasmianum (Erasmus Prize) established

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 resumed a scientific career).

1959 - A fire in a resort hotel in Stalheim, Norway kills 34 people.

1960 - "Pat Boone Show," last airs on ABC-TV

1960 - Japan signs security treaty with the US

1961 - Antarctic Treaty goes into effect

1961 - Cubs Ernie Banks ends his 717 consecutive-games-played streak

1961 - Phillies overcome 9-0, losing 11-2 they score 4 in 8th & 6 in 9th

1961 - USAF Maj Robert M White takes X-15 to 32,830 m

1962 - "Subways Are after Sleeping" closes at St James NYC after 205 perfs

1962 - Laos Suvanna Phuma forms government

1962 - Larry Doby, retires from Cleve Indians to play in Japan

1963 - NY Mets Jimmy Piersall, hits his 100th HR, he circles bases backwards

1963 - Pres Kennedy tours West-Europe

1964 - Gen Maxwell Taylor appointed US ambassador in South Vietnam

1964 - Henry Cabot Lodge resigned as the U.S. envoy to Vietnam and was succeeded by Maxwell Taylor.

1966 - Civil Rights marchers in Mississippi were dispersed by tear gas.

1967 - Jim Ryun sets mile record (3:51.1, Bakersfield CA)

1967 - LBJ and Alexei Kosygin hold 1st of 2 summit meetings in Glassboro, NJ

1967 - US Senate censures Thomas J Dodd (D-Ct) for misusing campaign funds

1968 - 74 are killed and 150 injured in a football stampede towards a closed exit in a Buenos Aires stadium.

1969 - French government of Couve de Murville resigns

1969 - Joe Frazier TKOs Jerry Quarry in 8 for heavyweight boxing title

1969 - Warren E Burger was sworn in as Supreme Court Chief Justice

1970 - "Red Skelton Show," last airs on CBS-TV, moved to NBC-TV

1970 - Charles Rangel defeats Adam Clayton Powell in Democratic primary

1970 - Rocker Chubby Checker arrested for marijuana possession

1971 - Phillies Rick Wise no-hits Cincinnati Reds, 4-0

1971 - WTVP TV channel 47 in Peoria, IL (PBS) begins broadcasting

1972 - Hurricane Agnes is costliest natural disaster in American history

1972 - U.S. 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 this conversation spurred on Nixon's 1974 resignation.

1972 - Pres Nixon signs act barring sex discrimination in college sports

1972 - 45 countries leave the Sterling Area, allowing their currencies to fluctuate independently of the British Pound.

1973 - "Cyrano" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 49 performances

1973 - "Sugar" closes at Majestic Theater NYC after 506 performances

1973 - Phillies Ken Brett 4th consecutive game HR in which he pitched

1974 - First extraterrestrial message sent from Earth into space

1975 - Rocker Alice Cooper falls off stage in Vancouver, breaks 6 ribs

1976 - CN Tower in Toronto, tallest free-standing structure (555 m) opens

1977 - 13th Mayor's Trophy Game, Mets beat Yanks 6-4

1978 - 33rd US Women's Open Golf Championship won by Hollis Stacy

1979 - Charlie Daniels Band releases "Devil Went Down to Georgia"

1979 - Rock group, the Knack releases "My Sharona"

1979 - West Indies beat England by 92 runs to win Cricket World Cup

1980 - "David Letterman Show," debuts on NBC-TV daytime

1980 - First solar-powered coast-to-coast two-way radio conversation

1980 - West Germany wins European soccer title (2-1 against Belgium)

1981 - "This Was Burlesque" opens at Princess Theater NYC for 28 performances

1981 - 33 inning game ends, Pawtucket 3, Rochester 2

1981 - Amanda Maccaro becomes 1st American to win Russian Ballet Competition

1981 - French government of Mauroy forms, with 4 communists

1981 - NYC mayor Koch turns down a $7,500 offer to perform comedy

1981 - Dave Koza scores Marty Barrett with bases-loaded single in bottom of 33rd inning, Pawtucket beats Rochester 3-2

1982 - "Cleavage" opens & closes at Playhouse Theater NYC

1982 - -117°F; All time low at South Pole

1982 - Himmy, of Australia, weighs in at domestic cat record 20.7 kg (45 lb)

1982 - Intelligence Identities Protection Act (Public Law 97-200)

1982 - Mary Hart joins Entertainment Tonight

1983 - Syria throws out PLO leader Arafat

1983 - US Supreme Court ruled Congress could not veto presidential decisions

1985 - Bomb destroys Air India Boeing 747 in air near Ireland, 329 die

1985 - Laffit Pincay Jr becomes 2nd jockey to win $100 million

1986 - Pedro Morales swims world record 100m butterfly (52.84)

1986 - Tip O'Neill refuses to let Reagan address House

1988 - Charlotte Hornets & Miami Heat begin their NBA expansion draft

1988 - Yank manager Billy Martin's 5th term ends, Lou Pinella named manager

1989 - The movie "Batman" was released nationwide.

1990 - A rally to save Alien Nation from cancellation held at Statue of Liberty

1990 - Moldavia declares independence

1990 - Police find marijuana at Chuck Berry's home

1990 - TV Guide selects Arsenio Hall as TV personality of year

1990 - Zimbabwe beat the Netherlands by 6 wickets to win ICC Trophy

1991 - "Odd Couple" opens & closes at Belasco Theater NYC

1991 - "Weird Al" Yankovic records "Babalu Music"

1991 - Mazda becomes 1st Japanese car to capture Le Mans 24 hour race

1992 - "Tin Bigha Day" protest in India of corridor opening to Bangladesh

1992 - Emmy 19th Daytime Award presentation - Susan Lucci loses for 13th time

1992 - Rabin wins Israeli parliamentary election

1992 Mobster John Gotti was sentenced to life in prison.

1993 - Lindsay Wagner (Bionic Woman) files for divorce from Lawrence Mortorff

1993 - Lorena Gallo Bobbitt amputates husband's John Wayne Bobbitt's penis

1993 - UN authorizes worldwide oil embargo against Haiti

1994 - South Africa reclaims its seat in UN

1994 - Replay shows A's Bobby Witt beat KC's Gagne to 1st in 6th but ump Gary Cedarstrom calls him safe, runing Witt's perfect game

1995 - Dr. Jonas Salk, the medical pioneer who developed the first polio vaccine, died.

1996 - "Tartuffe: Born Again" closes at Circle in Sq NYC after 29 perfs

1996 - Nintendo 64 goes on sale in Japan

1997 - Dow Jones drops 192.25 pts

2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the University of Michigan's School of Law affirmative action policy.

2003 - Apple Computer Inc. unveiled the new Power Mac desktop computer.

2004 - The U.S. proposed that North Korea agree to a series of nuclear disarmament measures over a three-month period in exchange for economic benefits.

2004 - Bob Dylan accepts honorary doctor of music degree from the University of St Andrews, Scotland's oldest university

2005 - Roger Ebert received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2005 - San Antonio Spurs beat Detroit Pistons 4-3 in NBA finals MVP: Tim Duncan (his third), San Antonio

2012 - Greece proposes to slow down austerity measures by two years

2012 - A bus of Czech tourists crashes in Croatia killing 8 and injuring 44

2012 - 76 monks are hospitalized in Thailand following an attack by a swarm of bees



The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jun23.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory