On This Day: Thursday June 23, 2005 This is the 174th day of the year, with 191 days remaining in 2005. Fact of the Day: Tornado Tornadoes are violent windstorms that are also called twisters or cyclones. Extremely fast, rotating columns of air descend from cumulonimbus clouds and the winds can either cause explosions within buildings or sweep objects up into its eye. A tornado sounds like a thundering train coming through. Tornadoes occur all over the world except on the two poles and are the most common in the U.S. A tornado over water is called a cyclone. They occur in unstable air, as that caused by a thunderstorm. In the center of a tornado, winds can get to 400 miles per hour (650 km). Holidays Feast day of St Cyneburg, St Etheldreda, St Agrippina, St Lietbertus, St Joseph Cafasso, and St Thomas Garnet. Latvia, Denmark: Midsummer Eve. Luxembourg: National Day (became principality 963 AD). Estonia: Victory Day. Orthodox Pentecost. Events 1845 - A special session of the legislature of Texas voted in favor of annexation by the United States. 1860 - The US Secret Service is created to arrest counterfeiters and protect the president. 1868 - Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called a "Type-Writer." It typed capital letters. 1931 - Aviators Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from New York on the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane. 1933 - "The Breakfast Club" premiered on radio. 1938 - The Civil Aeronautics Authority was established. 1947 - The Senate joined the House in overriding President Harry Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act 1952 - The US Air Force bombs power plants on Yalu River, Korea. 1956 - Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt. 1961 - The International Treaty of Scientific Cooperation and Peaceful Use of Antarctica was signed. 1992 - Mafia boss John Gotti was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on 14 accounts of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. Births 1763 - Josephine, French consort of Napoleon and empress of France (1804-10). 1894 - Dr. Alfred Kinsey, zoologist, sexual behavior researcher. 1894 - Edward VIII, British monarch who abdicated in 1936 in order to marry American Wallis Simpson. 1910 - Jean (-Marie-Lucien-Pierre) Anouilh, playwright. 1912 - Alan M. Turing, English mathematician and pioneer of computer theory. 1927 - (Robert Louis) Bob Fosse, award-winning director, choreographer.