Local History

50 years ago: The sixth interpretive marker in Brown County’s series of historic markers was unveiled at Lake Hanska.

10 years ago: Members of the New Ulm Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans joined with community adults and youth to clean up gardens at German Park as part of the 10th annual Join Hands Day project.

5 years ago: Dr. David Wendler, Martin Luther College’s vice president for Academics, announced his retirement after a 44-year career in education.

And elsewhere…

Today is Sunday, June 23, the 174th day of 2019. There are 191 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight:

On June 23, 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.)

On this date:

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

In 1868, Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for his “Type-Writer,” featuring a QWERTY keyboard; it was the first commercially successful type- writer.

In 1892, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominated former President Grover Cleveland on the first ballot.

In 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was established.

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 1969, Warren E. Burger was sworn in as chief justice of the United States by the man he was succeeding, Earl Warren.

In 1985, all 329 people aboard an Air India Boeing 747 were killed when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland because of a bomb authorities believe was planted by Sikh separatists.

In 1988, James E. Hansen, a climatologist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told a Senate panel that global warming of the earth caused by the “greenhouse effect” was a reality.

In 1995, 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.

Ten years ago: Hardening the U.S. reaction to Iran’s disputed elections and bloody aftermath, President Barack Obama condemned the violence against protesters and lent his strongest support yet to their accusations that the hardline victory was a fraud.

Five years ago: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, visiting Baghdad, told leaders of Iraq’s factions they had to keep their commitments to seat a new parliament before a Sunni insurgency swept away hopes for a lasting peace.

One year ago: Trump administration officials said the government knew the location of all children in its custody after separating them from their families at the border, and that it was working to reunite them.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Ted Shackelford is 73. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is 71. Actress Frances McDormand is 62. Rock musician Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) is 57. Actor Paul La Greca is 57. Writer-director Joss Whedon is 55. Actress Selma Blair is 47. Actor Joel Edgerton is 45. Rock singer KT Tunstall is 44. Rhythm and blues singer Virgo Williams (Ghostowns DJs) is 44. Actress Emmanuelle Vaugier is 43. Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz is 42. Football Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson is 40. Actress Melissa Rauch is 39. Rock singer Duffy is 35. Country singer Katie Armiger is 28.

Thought for Today: “Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.” — May Sarton, Belgian-born American poet (1912-1995).