July 23rd

Today's Highlight in History:
On July 23rd, 1885, Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor, New York, at age 63.

On this date:
In 1829, William Austin Burt of Mount Vernon, Michigan, received a patent for his "typographer" -- a forerunner of the typewriter.

In 1886, New York saloonkeeper Steve Brodie claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River.

In 1914, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serb assassin; the dispute led to World War One.

In 1945, French Marshal Henri Petain, who had headed the Vichy government during World War Two, went on trial, charged with treason. (He was condemned to death, but his sentence was commuted.)

In 1951, Henri Petain died in prison.

In 1952, Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk the First.

In 1967, rioting that claimed some 43 lives erupted in Detroit.

In 1977, a jury in Washington DC convicted 12 Hanafi Muslims of charges stemming from the hostage siege at three buildings the previous March.

In 1985, bandleader Kay Kyser, known for his "Kollege of Musical Knowledge," died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at age 79.

In 1986, Britain's Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London. (The couple divorced in 1996.)

Ten years ago: President Bush announced his choice of Judge David Souter of New Hampshire to succeed retiring Justice William J. Brennan on the US Supreme Court.

Five years ago: In a new get-tough approach, the United Nations ordered the first combat unit from its rapid reaction force to Sarejevo to take out any rebel Serb guns that fired at UN peacekeepers.

One year ago: Members of the Kennedy family gathered in New York City for a private memorial Mass a week after John F. Kennedy Junior, 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 the Second died at age 70. Woodstock '99 opened in Rome, New York.

"Troubles impending always seem worse than troubles surmounted, but this does not prove that they really are."

-- Arthur M. Schlesinger Junior, American historian.