Today is Wednesday, July 23, the 204th day of 2014. There are 161 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 23, 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 World War I.
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 1886, a legend was born as Steve Brodie claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into New York’s East River. (However, there are doubts about whether the dive actually took place.)
In 1945, French Marshal Henri Petain, who had headed the Vichy government during World War II, went on trial, charged with treason. (He was convicted and condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted.)
In 1951, Henri Petain died in prison.
In 1952, Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser launched a successful coup against King Farouk I.
In 1967, a week of deadly race-related rioting that claimed 43 lives erupted in Detroit.
In 1977, a jury in Washington, D.C., convicted 12 Hanafi 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 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 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 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 2011, singer Amy Winehouse, 27, was found dead in her London home from accidental alcohol poisoning.
Ten years ago: Militants in Iraq took hostage an Egyptian diplomat (Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb), demanding his country abandon any plans it had to send security experts to Iraq. (He was freed after three days of diplomatic efforts.) The Pentagon released newly discovered payroll records from President George W. Bush’s 1972 service in the Alabama National Guard, though the records shed no new light on the future president’s activities during that summer. Joe Cahill, a founding father of the modern Irish Republican Army, died in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at age 84.
Five years ago: Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was named in a search warrant as the target of a manslaughter probe into the singer’s death. (Murray was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter.) Authorities arrested 44 people in New Jersey in a corruption probe. Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox pitched the 18th perfect game in major league history, a 5-0 win over Tampa Bay.
One year ago: With a high-stakes showdown vote looming in the House, the White House and congressional backers of the National Security Agency’s surveillance program warned that ending the massive collection of phone records from millions of Americans would put the nation at risk from another terrorist attack. (The next day, the House narrowly voted against halting the NSA program.)
Today’s Birthdays: Actress Gloria DeHaven is 89. Concert pianist Leon Fleisher (FLY’-shur) is 86. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is 78. Actor Ronny Cox is 76. Radio personality Don Imus is 74. Country singer Tony Joe White is 71. Rock singer David Essex is 67. Actor Larry Manetti is 67. Singer-songwriter John Hall is 66. Actress Belinda Montgomery is 64. Rock musician Blair Thornton (Bachman Turner Overdrive) is 64. Actress Edie McClurg is 63. Actress-writer Lydia Cornell is 61. Actor Woody Harrelson is 53. Rock musician Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) is 53. Actor Eriq Lasalle is 52. Rock musician Yuval Gabay is 51. Rock musician Slash is 49. Rock musician Nick Menza is 46. Model-actress Stephanie Seymour is 46. Actress Charisma Carpenter is 44. Rhythm-and-blues singer Sam Watters is 44. Country singer Alison Krauss is 43. Rhythm-and-blues singer Dalvin DeGrate is 43. Rock musician Chad Gracey (Live) is 43. Actor-comedian Marlon Wayans is 42. Country singer Shannon Brown is 41. Actress Kathryn Hahn is 41. Retired MLB All-Star Nomar Garciaparra is 41. Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky is 41. Actress Stephanie March is 40. Country musician David Pichette (Emerson Drive) is 37. Rhythm-and-blues singer Michelle Williams is 34. Actor Paul Wesley is 32. Actor Daniel Radcliffe is 25. Country musician Neil Perry is 24. Country singer Danielle Bradbery (TV: “The Voice”) is 18.
Thought for Today: “To be proud and inaccessible is to be timid and weak.” — Jean Baptiste Massillon, French clergyman (1663-1742).