Today in History
Today is Tuesday, July 23, the 205th day of 2024. There are 161 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 23, 1967, the first of five days of deadly rioting erupted in Detroit as an early morning police raid on an unlicensed bar resulted in a confrontation with local residents, escalating into violence that spread into other parts of the city and resulting in 43 deaths.
Also on this date:
In 1903, the Ford Motor Company sold its first car, a Model A, for $850.
In 1958, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II named the first four women to peerage in the House of Lords.
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 1983, an Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of fuel while flying from Montreal to Edmonton; the pilots were able to glide the jetliner to a safe emergency landing in Gimli, Manitoba. (The near-disaster occurred because the fuel had been erroneously measured in pounds instead of kilograms at a time when Canada was converting to the metric system.)
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 1996, at the Atlanta Olympics, Kerri Strug made a heroic final vault despite torn ligaments in her left ankle as the U.S. women gymnasts clinched their first-ever Olympic team gold medal.
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 1999, the space shuttle Columbia blasted off with the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope and Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a U.S. space flight.
In 2003, Massachusetts’ attorney general issued a report saying clergy members and others in the Boston Archdiocese had probably sexually abused more than 1,000 people over a period of six decades.
In 2006, Tiger Woods became the first player since Tom Watson in 1982-83 to win consecutive British Open titles.
In 2011, singer Amy Winehouse, 27, was found dead in her London home from accidental alcohol poisoning.
In 2012, Penn State’s football program was all but leveled by penalties for its handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal as the NCAA imposed an unprecedented $60 million fine, a four-year ban from postseason play and a cut in the number of football scholarships it could award.
In 2019, Boris Johnson won the contest to lead Britain’s governing Conservative Party, putting him in line to become the country’s prime minister the following day.
In 2021, Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team, known as the Indians since 1915, announced that it would get a new name, the Guardians, at the end of the 2021 season; the change came amid a push for institutions and teams to drop logos and names that were considered racist.
Today’s Birthdays: Retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is 88. Actor Ronny Cox is 86. Rock singer David Essex is 77. Actor Woody Harrelson is 63. Rock musician Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) is 63. Actor & director Eriq Lasalle is 62. Rock musician Slash is 59. Basketball Hall of Famer Gary Payton is 56. Model-actor Stephanie Seymour is 56. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., is 55. Actor Charisma Carpenter is 54. Country singer Alison Krauss is 53. R&B singer Dalvin DeGrate (Jodeci) is 53. Actor-comedian Marlon Wayans is 52. Actor Kathryn Hahn is 51. Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky is 51. Actor Stephanie March is 50. R&B singer Michelle Williams is 45. Actor Paul Wesley is 42. Actor Daniel Radcliffe is 35.
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