Today in History - July 23
• President Ulysses S. Grant Dies
• U.K. Parliament Attacked
-- Compiled by James Finlayson-Bald
Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States (1869-1877) as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods.
On this date:
1794—Alexandre de Beauharnais, first husband of Napoleon's consort Josephine, went to the guillotine for treason.
1803—An insurrection began in Dublin, Ireland.
1819—The Savannah, first American steamship to cross the Atlantic, left Liverpool, England, for St. Petersburg, Russia.
1848—Battle of Somma campaign, the Italian overthrow of the Austrian occupation.
1864—Dr Livingstone returned to England.
1875—Isaac Singer, one of the inventors of the modern sewing machine, died in Devon.
1885—Ulysses Simpson Grant, Union soldier and 18th American President, died. Christened Hirum Ulysses, he assumed his mother's maiden name of Simpson while at West Point. He joined the forces of Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War and fought at battles at Palo Alto and Monterey, although his usefulness as a soldier was severely impaired by alcohol. After the war he resigned his commission and was farming in Illinois at the outbreak of the Civil War. Throughout the war he displayed qualities of leadership to rise to Commander of the Army and received the surrender from Robert E.Lee at Appomotox. As a popular two-term president his administration was plagued by corruption but his outstanding foreign success was the settlement of the Alabama claims against England. At the end of his life Grant was rendered penniless by his banking interests collapsing through questionable management, and he only provided for his family's future by completing the manuscript of his "Personal Memoirs", for which he received $500,000, a few days before his death.
1892—Henry C.Frisk shot and wounded by an anarchist, Alexander Berkman.
1904—A patent was given for the icecream cone.
1912—A law was effected in America requiring wireless equipment for every steamship carrying 50 or more passengers.
1945—Marshal Henri Petain, puppet governor of France for the Germans, was put on trial for treason.
1951—Marshal Henri Petain, convicted, died in the prison of He d'Yeu.
1956—Bedloe's Island in New York harbour, renamed Liberty after the statue upon it.
1970—The Sultan of Muscat and Oman was deposed by his son.
1970—Two canisters of CS gas (used by the British Government in Northern Ireland) were thrown into the House of Commons.
Birthdays:
-- Coventry Patmore, poet and critic, (1823-1896)
-- Sir Arthur Whitten Brown, aviator, (1886-1948)
Quote:
"Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week." — W. D. Howells.
The above article was written by James Finlayson-Bald.
Edited and illustrations added by David Paul Wagner.
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