On This Day in History

June 23

Historical Events

930 World's oldest parliament, the Icelandic Parliament is established, the Alþingi (anglicised as Althing or Althingi).

1868 Christopher Latham Sholes patents the Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful of its kind.

1960 First contraceptive pill is made available for purchase in the United States.

1974 First extraterrestrial message sent from Earth into space.

1983 Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa meets Pope John Paul II during papal visit to Poland.

Counting gets underway in the UK referendum on membership in the European Union

2016 United Kingdom votes in the Brexit referendum to leave the European Union.

More Historical Events

Famous Birthdays

Oda Nobunaga 1534 - 1582 Joséphine de Beauharnais 1763 - 1814

Alan Turing 1912 - 1954 Frances McDormand 67th Birthday

Also Edward VIII and Zinedine Zidane (52).

More Famous Birthdays

Famous Deaths

Jonas Salk 1914 - 1995 Betty Shabazz 1940 - 1997

Also Vespasian and Sheldon Harnick.

More Famous Deaths

How the Qwerty Keyboard was Born

A typewriter patent was granted on this day to the man who would go on to produce and inflict on us all the ubiquitous Qwerty keyboard.

The Qwerty Keyboard