TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Thursday, July 23.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On July 23, 1829, William Austin Burt received a patent for his "typographer," a forerunner of the typewriter.
ON THIS DATE:
In 1885, Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor, New York, 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 1948, American pioneer filmmaker D.W. Griffith died in Los Angeles at age 73.
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-yearold Myca Dinh Le and 6-yearold 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 charges.)
In 1983, an Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of fuel while flying from Montreal to Edmonton; the pilots were able to glide the jetliner to a safe emergency landing in Gimli, Manitoba. (The near-disaster occurred because the fuel had been erroneously measured in pounds instead of kilograms at a time when Canada was converting to the metric system.)
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 2003, a new audiotape purported to be from toppled dictator Saddam Hussein called on Iraqis to resist the U.S. occupation. Massachusetts' attorney general issued a report saying clergy members and others in the Boston Archdiocese probably had sexually abused more than 1,000 people over a period of six decades.
In 2006, Tiger Woods became the first player since Tom Watson in 1982-83 to win consecutive British Open titles.
In 2011, singer Amy Winehouse, 27, was found dead in her London home from accidental alcohol poisoning.
In 2017, a tractor trailer was found in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio, Texas, crammed with dozens of immigrants; ten died and many more were treated at a hospital for dehydration and heat stroke. (The driver, James Bradley Jr., was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to transporting the immigrants resulting in death.)
Ten years ago: The Office of Management and Budget predicted the budget deficit would reach a record $1.47 trillion in the current fiscal year. (The actual figure for fiscal 2010 turned out to be $1.29 trillion.)
Five years ago: Secretary of State John Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee it was "fantasy plain and simple" to claim that President Barack Obama had failed to insist on enough restraints on Iran's nuclear program before agreeing to lift economic sanctions.
One year ago: Boris
Johnson won the contest to lead Britain’s governing Conservative Party, putting him in line to become the country’s prime minister the following day.
— THE ASSOCIATED PRESS