Today is Thursday, July 23, the 204th day of 2009. There are 161 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 23, 1914, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum containing a list of demands to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb assassin; the dispute led to World War I.

On this date:

• In 1892, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was born.

• In 1958, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II named the first of 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 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.

Today’s Birthdays: Actress Gloria DeHaven is 84. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is 73. Actor Ronny Cox is 71. Actor Woody Harrelson is 48. Actor Daniel Radcliffe is 20.

Thought for Today: “I’m a self-made man, but I think if I had it to do over again, I’d call in someone else.”—Roland Young, English actor (1887-1953).