This day in history

On 23 June, 1956, 99.95% of Egyptian voters mark their ballots to elect Gamal Abdel Nasser as the first President of the Republic of Egypt. Nasswe, who toppled the Egyptian monarchy in 1952 in a military coup, was the only Presidential Candidate on the ballot.

In the same ballot, Nasser’s new Constitution, under which Egypt became a one-party state with Islam as the official religion, was also approved by 99.8% of votes.  

 

Sikh extremists place a bomb on an Air India jumbo jet, which explodes off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 on board.
 

In Poland, Pope John Paul II meets Lech Walesa, the leader of Solidarity, Poland’s independent trade union movement banned by the communist authorities. 

The first day of the Glassboro Summit Conference between United States President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Union Premier Aleksei Kosygin in America. 
 

The International Olympic Committee is established in Switzerland. 

Fighting begins between English and Scottish soldiers at the Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland. 
 

The Seven Years War: A Hanoverian army defeats the French at the Battle of Krefeld. 

 

British troops, commanded by Robert Clive, win the Battle of Plassey in Bengal, laying the foundations of the British Empire in India.