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 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 (ahn-REE’ pay-TAN’), who had headed the 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.)
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 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 (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: 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.)
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.)
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.)
