This day in history

[July 23, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Thursday, July 23, the 204th day of 2009. There are 161 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On July 23, 1914, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum containing a list of demands to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb assassin; the dispute led to World War I.

On this date:

In 1885, Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor, N.Y., at age 63.

In 1892, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was born.

In 1945, French Marshal Henri Petain, who had headed the Vichy government during World War II, went on trial, charged with treason. (He was condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted; Petain died in prison on this date in 1951.)

In 1952, Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser launched a successful coup against King Farouk I.

In 1958, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II named the first of four women to peerage in the House of Lords.

In 1959, Vice President Richard Nixon arrived in Moscow to attend the opening of the American National Exhibition aimed at promoting U.S. life and culture.

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 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.)

Ten years ago: Members of the Kennedy family gathered in New York City for a private memorial Mass a week after John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard. 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. Morocco's King Hassan II died at age 70. Woodstock '99 opened in Rome, N.Y.

Five 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.

One year ago: Hurricane Dolly slammed into the South Texas coast with punishing rain and winds of 100 mph. Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama toured Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, laying a wreath in memory of the 6 million Jews who died. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Pak Ui Chun, North Korea's top diplomat, in Singapore, ending a four-year hiatus in cabinet-level contacts between the two countries.

Today's birthdays: Actress Gloria DeHaven is 84. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is 73. Actor Ronny Cox is 71. Radio personality Don Imus is 69. Country singer Tony Joe White is 66. Rock singer David Essex is 62. Actor Larry Manetti is 62. Singer-songwriter John Hall is 61. Actress Belinda Montgomery is 59. Rock musician Blair Thornton (Bachman Turner Overdrive) is 59. Actor Woody Harrelson is 48. Rock musician Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) is 48. Actor Eriq Lasalle is 47. Rock musician Yuval Gabay is 46. Rock musician Slash is 44. Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman is 42. Rock musician Nick Menza is 41. Model-actress Stephanie Seymour is 41. Actress Charisma Carpenter is 39. R&B singer Sam Watters is 39. Country singer Alison Krauss is 38. R&B singer Dalvin DeGrate is 38. Rock musician Chad Gracey (Live) is 38. Actor-comedian Marlon Wayans is 37. Country singer Shannon Brown is 36. Actor Omar Epps is 36. Oakland Athletics first baseman Nomar Garciaparra is 36. Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky is 36. Actress Stephanie March is 35. Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk is 33. Country musician David Pichette (Emerson Drive) is 32. R&B singer Michelle Williams is 29. Portland Trail Blazers All-Star guard Brandon Roy is 25. Actor Daniel Radcliffe is 20.

Thought for today: "I'm a self-made man, but I think if I had it to do over again, I'd call in someone else." -- Roland Young, English actor (1887-1953)

[Associated Press]

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