By The Associated Press

              - Today is Friday, July 23, the 204th day of 1999. There are 161 days
                left in the year.

              - On July 23, 1886, New York saloonkeeper Steve Brodie claimed to have
                made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East
                River.
              - In 1829 William Austin Burt of Mount Vernon, Mich., received a
                patent for his "typographer" - a forerunner of the typewriter.
              - In 1885 Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the U.S., died in
                Mount McGregor, N.Y., at age 63.
              - In 1904, by some accounts, the ice cream cone was invented by
                Charles E. Menches during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St.
                Louis.
              - In 1914 Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia following the
                killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serb assassin; the
                dispute led to World War I.
              - In 1948 American pioneer filmmaker D.W. Griffith died in Los Angeles
                at age 73.
              - In 1952 Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser
                overthrew King Farouk I.
              - In 1967 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 1984 Vanessa Williams became the first Miss America to resign her
                title, because nude photographs of her were published in Penthouse
                magazine.
              - In 1986 Britain's Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at
                Westminster Abbey in London. (They divorced in 1996.)

              - Ten years ago Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost its
                majority in the upper house of the Diet in parliamentary elections.
                Greg LeMond of the U.S. won the Tour de France.
              - Five years ago space shuttle Columbia returned to Earth after a
                15-day mission which included experiments on the effects of
                weightlessness on aquatic animals.
              - One year ago Scientists at the University of Hawaii announced they
                had turned out more than 50 carbon-copy mice, with a cloning
                technique said to be more reliable than the one used to create Dolly
                the sheep.
 

              *Happy Birthday*
              ----------------
              - Actress Gloria DeHaven is 74.
              - Actor Calvert DeForest is 71.
              - Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is 63.
              - Radio personality Don Imus is 59.
              - Country singer Tony Joe White is 56.
              - Rock singer David Essex is 52.
              - Actor Larry Manetti is 52.
              - Actress Belinda Montgomery is 49.
              - Rock musician Blair Thornton (Bachman Turner Overdrive) is 49.
              - Actress-writer Lydia Cornell is 42.
              - Actor Woody Harrelson is 38.
              - Rock musician Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) is 38.
              - Actor Eriq Lasalle is 37.
              - Rock musician Yuval Gabay (Soul Coughing) is 36.
              - Rock musician Nick Menza is 35.
              - Rock musician Slash is 34.
              - Actress Charisma Carpenter ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") is 29.
              - Rhythm-and-blues singer Sam Watters (Color Me Badd) is 29.
              - Country singer Alison Krauss is 28.
              - Rhythm-and-blues singer Mr. Dalvin (Jodeci) is 28.
              - Rock musician Chad Gracey (Live) is 28.
              - Actor-comedian Marlon Wayans is 27.
              - Actor Omar Epps ("Scream 2") is 26.