On This Day: 23 June

The Battle of Bannockburn begins		1314
Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France sign a secret treaty against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V		1532
Spanish explorer Pedro de Mendoza dies at sea, while returning from Argentina		1537
All provincial printing offices closed by order of the Star Chamber		1585
The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Hudson, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again		1611
The Vice–Chancellor of Cambridge University receives a parcel containing a religious treatise written by John Frith, that was found in the stomach of a fish. The University republished the book as Vox piscis		1626
William Penn signs a treaty of friendship with native Americans		1683
The first evening newspaper – Dawks's News–Letter – is published in London		1696
Battle of Plassey: Robert Clive's small British force defeats a much larger Indian army led by Siraj ud Daula, Nawab of Bengal		1757
Pope Pius VI signs an armistice with Napoleon		1796
John Jacob Astor forms the Pacific Fur Company		1810
Great Britain revokes the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief causes of the War of this year		1812
Adolphe Saxe is granted a patent for the saxophone		1846
The "June Days" insurrection breaks out in France		1848
Keble College, Oxford, opens		1870
Banff National Park – Canada's first – is created		1887
The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin		1894
George V is crowned		1911
The German SDP newspaper Vorwarts calls on the government to sue for peace		1915
Wiley Post (USA) and Harold Gatty (Australia) take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, on a flight that would set the record for a round–the–world flight: 8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes		1931
Dail makes provision for internment without trial to control the IRA		1939
Norwegian–born Canadian explorer Henry Larsen begins the first successful west–to–east navigation of the Northwest Passage from Vancouver		1940
Germany's latest fighter aircraft, a Focke–Wulf Fw 190, is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey, Carmarthenshire		1942
British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean flee to the Soviet Union		1951
SS United States – the largest ocean liner ever constructed entirely in the United States, and the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction (retaining the Blue Riband for the highest average speed since her maiden voyage in the following year) is christened and launched		1951
RMS Queen Elizabeth leaves for New York on schedule, despite attempts by striking seamen to delay the departure		1955
Nasser elected unopposed as President of Egypt		1956
The US Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the world's first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill		1960
US President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin meet in Glassboro, New Jersey for a three–day conference		1967
IBM announces that from January 1970 it will price its software and services separately from hardware, in a move seen as the creation of the modern software industry		1969
Terms for Britain's entry into the Common Market are agreed in Luxembourg		1971
US President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the CIA to obstruct the FBI's investigation into the Watergate break–ins		1972
Chancellor of the Exchequer Anthony Barber announces that he is to float the pound temporarily – seen as a first step towards devaluation		1972
A fire at a house in Hull, in which a six–year–old boy loses his life, is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by serial arsonist Peter Dinsdale		1973
John Paul II, on his second visit to his native Poland since becoming Pope, holds a private meeting with Lech Walesa, founder and leader of Solidarity – which has been banned for eighteen months, since martial law was declared following social tensions in Poland		1983
A bomb planted by Sikh terrorists explodes at Narita International Airport (Tokyo); an hour later, the same group detonates a second bomb aboard an Air India Boeing 747 off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 on board		1985
The IMF agrees to offer associate membership to the Soviet Union		1991
Sonic the Hedgehog is released in America – then to PAL and Japanese audiences a month later		1991
New York mafia leader John Gotti is sentenced to life imprisonment, for racketeering and five counts of murder. He died ten years later, aged 61		1992
The Nintendo 64 home video game console is released in Japan		1996
Sir Simon Rattle is appointed to succeed Claudio Abbado three years later as Principal Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. At 44, he will be the youngest ever		1999
18 die in a fire at a backpackers' hostel in Childers, Queensland		2000
Ten climbers and a local guide lose their lives when a high–altitude base camp near Nanga Parbat (Pakistan) is stormed by militants (whose identity was never confirmed; it is believed that their intention was just to capture the climbers for ransom)		2013
Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope		2013
The last of Syria's declared chemical weapons are shipped out for destruction		2014
The UK votes in a referendum, by a 52% majority, to leave the EU		2016
A series of terrorist attacks in Pakistan leaves 96 dead and over 200 wounded. Responsibility is taken jointly by a breakaway Taliban group and ISIL		2017

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On This Day: 23 June