Today in history
Today is Sunday, July 23, the 204th day of 2017. There are 161 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 23, 1967, five days of deadly rioting erupted in Detroit as an early morning police raid on a “blind pig” (an unlicensed bar) at the intersection of 12th Street and Clairmount Avenue 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.
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, New York, at age 63.
In 1892, Emperor Haile Selassie (HY’-lee suh-LAH’-see) of Ethiopia was born.
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 (ahnREE’ pay-TAN’), who had headed the pro-Axis Vichy (vee-shee) 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 1952, Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser launched a successful coup against King Farouk I.
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 1977, a jury in Washington, D.C. convicted 12 Hanafi (hah-NAH’-fee) Muslims of charges stemming from the hostage siege at three buildings the previous March.
In 1982, actor Vic Morrow and two child actors, 7-year-old Myca Dinh Le and 6-year-old Renee ShinYi 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 1986, Britain’s Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London. (The couple divorced in 1996.)
In 1997, the search for Andrew Cunanan, the suspected killer of designer Gianni Versace (JAH’-nee vur-SAH’-chee) and others, ended as police found his body on a houseboat in Miami Beach, an apparent suicide.
In 2011, singer Amy Winehouse, 27, was found dead in her London home from accidental alcohol poisoning.
Ten years ago: In the first political debate of its kind, all eight Democratic Party contenders, appearing on CNN, fielded questions submitted by the public on YouTube. A violent home invasion in Cheshire, Connecticut, resulted in the deaths of a prominent doctor’s wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and their daughters, Hayley and Michaela; two suspects were almost immediately arrested (both were convicted and received death sentences which were later changed to life without parole). Comic Drew Carey was tapped to replace legend Bob Barker on the CBS daytime game show “The Price is Right.”
Five years ago: His hair dyed a shocking comic-book shade of orange-red, James Holmes, the former doctoral student accused of killing 12 moviegoers at a showing of the new Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado, appeared in court for the first time. (Holmes was convicted of murder and attempted murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.)