TODAY IN HISTORY

1829

William Austin Burt received a patent for his “typographer,” a forerunner of the typewriter.

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.

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.)

1967

Five days of deadly rioting erupted in Detroit as an early morning police raid on a “blind pig” (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.