Today is Friday, July 23, the 204th day of 2010. There are 161 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On July 23, 1885, Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor, N.Y. at age 63.

ON THIS DATE

In 1892, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was born.

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

In 1945, French Marshal Henri Petain, who had headed the Vichy government during World War II, went on trial, charged with treason. (He was convicted and 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 four women to peerage in the House of Lords.

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 1985, Commodore International Ltd. unveiled its Amiga 1000 personal computer during a press event at New York’s Lincoln Center. Bandleader Kay Kyser, known for his “Kollege of Musical Knowledge,” died in Chapel Hill, N.C. (sources differ on whether he was 79 or 80).

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

Associated Press