TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, JULY 23, the 204th day of 2018. There are 161 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1829, William Austin Burt received a patent for his “typographer,” a forerunner of the typewriter.
In 1885, Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor, N.Y., at age 63.
In 1914, Austria-Hungary presented a list of demands to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb assassin; Serbia’s refusal to agree to the entire ultimatum led to the outbreak of World War I.
In 1945, French Marshal Henri Petain, who had headed the pro-Axis Vichy government during World War II, went on trial, charged with treason. He was convicted and condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison. On this date in 1951, Petain died in prison.
In 1962, the first public TV transmissions over Telstar 1 took place during a special program featuring live shots beamed from the United States to Europe, and vice versa.
In 1967, five days of deadly rioting erupted in Detroit as an early morning police raid on an unlicensed bar resulted in a confrontation with local residents that escalated into violence that spread into other parts of the city; 43 people, mostly blacks, were killed.
In 1982, actor Vic Morrow and two child actors, 7-year-old Myca Dinh Le and 6-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen, were killed when a helicopter crashed on top of them during filming of a Vietnam War scene for “Twilight Zone: The Movie.” Director John Landis and four associates were later acquitted of manslaughter.
In 1984, Vanessa Williams became the first Miss America to resign her title, after nude photographs of her taken in 1982 were published in Penthouse magazine.
In 1986, Britain’s Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London. The couple divorced in 1996.
In 1996, at the Atlanta Olympics, Kerri Strug made a heroic final vault despite torn ligaments in her left ankle as the U.S. women gymnasts clinched their first-ever Olympic team gold medal.
In 1997, the search for Andrew Cunanan, the suspected killer of designer Gianni Versace and others, ended as police found his body on a houseboat in Miami Beach, an apparent suicide.
In 1999, space shuttle Columbia blasted off with the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope and Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a U.S. space flight.
In 2011, singer Amy Winehouse, 27, was found dead in her London home from accidental alcohol poisoning.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Concert pianist Leon Fleisher is 90. Retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is 82. Actor Ronny Cox is 80. Radio personality Don Imus is 78. Actor Larry Manetti and country singer Tony Joe White are 75. Rock singer David Essex is 71. Singersongwriter John Hall is 70. Actress Belinda Montgomery and rock musician Blair Thornton (Bachman Turner Overdrive) are 68. Actress Edie McClurg is 67. Actress-writer Lydia Cornell is 65. Actor Woody Harrelson and rock musician Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) are 57. Actor Eriq Lasalle is 56. Rock musician Yuval Gabay is 55. Rock musician Slash is 53. Actor Juan Pope is 51. Model-actress Stephanie Seymour is 50. Actress Charisma Carpenter and rhythm-and-blues singer Sam Watters are 48. Country singer Alison Krauss, rhythm-and-blues singer Dalvin DeGrate and rock musician Chad Gracey (Live) are 47. Actor-comedian Marlon Wayans is 46. Country singer Shannon Brown, actress Kathryn Hahn, retired MLB All-Star Nomar Garciaparra and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky are 45. Actress Stephanie March is 44. Country musician David Pichette is 41. Rhythm-and-blues singer Michelle Williams is 38. Actor Paul Wesley is 36. Actress Krysta Rodriguez is 34. Actor Daniel Radcliffe is 29. Country musician Neil Perry is 28. Country singer Danielle Bradbery (TV: “The Voice”) is 22.