Today is Thursday, July 23, the 204th day of 2015. There are 161 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 23, 1945, French Marshal Henri Petain (ahn-REE’ 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.)
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 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 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 (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 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 1985, Commodore International Ltd. unveiled its Amiga 1000 personal computer during a press event at New York’s Lincoln Center. Bandleader Kay Kyser, 80, known for his “Kollege of Musical Knowledge,” died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
In 1990, President George H.W. Bush announced his choice of Judge David Souter of New Hampshire to succeed the retiring Justice William J. Brennan on the U.S. Supreme Court.
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: Multiple bomb blasts in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik (shahrm ehl shayk) killed at least 64 people. London police acknowledged that Jean Charles de Menezes (zheh-AHN’ SHAR’-lehs deh meh-NEH’-zehs), the Brazilian electrician they’d shot and killed on a subway car in front of horrified commuters, had nothing to do with recent bombings of the city’s transit system. Accordionist Myron Floren died in Los Angeles County at age 85.
Five 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.) Ford Motor Co. said it had made $2.6 billion from April through June 2010, its fifth straight quarterly profit. Daniel Schorr, longtime journalist with stints at CBS, CNN and NPR, died in Washington at age 93.
One year ago: Taiwan’s TransAsia Airways Flight 222, an ATR-72, crashed while attempting to land on Penghu Island, killing 48 of the 58 people on board. The state of Arizona executed Joseph Rudolph Wood, convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend and her father. (Wood repeatedly gasped as it took nearly two hours for him to die from his lethal injection.)
Today’s Birthdays: Actress Gloria DeHaven is 90. Concert pianist Leon Fleisher (FLY’-shur) is 87. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is 79. Actor Ronny Cox is 77. Radio personality Don Imus is 75. Actor Larry Manetti is 72. Country singer Tony Joe White is 72. Rock singer David Essex is 68. Singer-songwriter John Hall is 67. Actress Belinda Montgomery is 65. Rock musician Blair Thornton (Bachman Turner Overdrive) is 65. Actress Edie McClurg is 64. Actress-writer Lydia Cornell is 62. Actor Woody Harrelson is 54. Rock musician Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) is 54. Actor Eriq Lasalle is 53. Rock musician Yuval Gabay is 52. Rock musician Slash is 50. Actor Juan Pope is 48. Rock musician Nick Menza is 47. Model-actress Stephanie Seymour is 47. Actress Charisma Carpenter is 45. Rhythm-and-blues singer Sam Watters is 45. Country singer Alison Krauss is 44. Rhythm-and-blues singer Dalvin DeGrate is 44. Rock musician Chad Gracey (Live) is 44. Actor-comedian Marlon Wayans is 43. Country singer Shannon Brown is 42. Actress Kathryn Hahn is 42. Retired MLB All-Star Nomar Garciaparra is 42. Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky is 42. Actress Stephanie March is 41. Country musician David Pichette (Emerson Drive) is 38. Rhythm-and-blues singer Michelle Williams is 35. Actor Paul Wesley is 33. Actor Daniel Radcliffe is 26. Country musician Neil Perry is 25. Country singer Danielle Bradbery (TV: “The Voice”) is 19.
Thought for Today: “There is nothing harder than the softness of indifference.” — Juan Montalvo, Ecuadorean essayist and political writer (1832-1889).
