July 23rd in History

A 1903 advertisement for Ford automobiles

Today in History

  • The “typographer,” an early precursor to the typewriter, receives a patent (1829)
  • The Ford Motor Company sells its first car (1903)
  • Italy’s fascist government bans the use of foreign words (1929)
  • Holocaust: The Treblinka extermination camp is opened (1942)
  • The Sandinista National Liberation Front is founded in Nicaragua (1961)
  • The first publicly transmitted live transatlantic television program is transmitted via Telstar (1962)
  • The only successful hijacking of an El Al jet takes place (1968)
  • A helicopter accident during the filming of The Twilight Zone movie kills Vic Morrow and two children (1982)
  • Comet Hale-Bopp is discovered. It will not be visible to the naked eye until nearly a year later (1995)

Birthdays

  • Georges Matchabelli, perfumer (1885)
  • Raymond Chandler, crime novelist and screenwriter (1888)
  • Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia (1892)
  • Arthur Treacher, actor and namesake of Arthur Treacher’s Fish and Chips (1894)
  • Virgil Finlay, illustrator (1914)
  • Pee Wee Reese, baseball player (1918)
  • Calvert DeForest, actor best known as Larry “Bud” Melman on The Late Show With David Letterman (1921)
  • Bert Convy, actor and game show host (1933)
  • Don Drysdale, baseball player (1936)
  • Don Imus, radio host (1940)
  • Gardner Dozois, editor and author (1947)
  • Woody Harrelson, actor (1961)
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman, actor (1967)
  • Gary Payton, basketball player (1968)
  • Charisma Carpenter, actress (1970)

Deaths

  • Domenico Scarlatti, composer (1757)
  • Roger Sherman, US founding father (1793)
  • Isaac Singer, founded Singer Sewing Machines (1875)
  • Ulysses S. Grant, general, 18th US President (1885)
  • Glenn Curtiss, aviation pioneer (1930)
  • D. W. Griffith, filmmaker (1948)
  • Philippe Pétain, Marshal of France, head of the Vichy government (1951)
  • Montgomery Clift, ator (1966)
  • Van Heflin, actor (1971)
  • Eddie Rickenbacker, US World War I ace (1973)
  • Donald Barthelme, author (1989)
  • Jean Muir, actress (1996)
  • Eudora Welty, author (2001)
  • Leo McKern, actor (2002)
  • Chaim Potok, author (2002)
  • Daniel Schorr, television journalist (2010)
  • Amy Winehouse, singer-songwriter (2011)
  • Sally Ride, astronaut (2012)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Birthday of Haile Selassie (Rastafari)
  • Children’s Day (Indonesia)
  • National Remembrance Day (Papua New Guinea)
  • Renaissance Day (Oman)
  • Revolution Day (Egypt)

July 23 is the 204th day of the year (205th in leap years). There are 161 days remaining until the end of the year.