Today, July 23, 2023

776 BC…The first Olympic Games begin in Olympia.

1821…. After an agreement signed between the Greeks and the Ottomans on July 21, Monemvasia is handed over to the Greeks.

1903… The Ford company sells its first car in Detroit, the Model A, which costs $850 and has a top speed of 48 km/h. Its designer is Henry Ford.

1911…. Constantinople is deserted after a huge fire. 7,000 houses are reduced to ashes.

1912…. Konstantinos Tsiklitiras returns to Athens after his successes at the Stockholm Olympic Games and the Berlin International Games and disembarks at the Peloponnese railway station, where the people give him an enthusiastic welcome.

1914…. Austria-Hungary sends an ultimatum to Serbia, after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria by a Serb, demanding reparations. The conflict between them will lead to the First World War.

1926… Fox Film Company buys the rights from Movietown to be able to record sound on motion pictures.

1930… In Italy, 2,500 are dead and 4,250 injured from the devastating earthquake that hits the region of Naples and Puglia.

1952….Coup d’etat in Egypt. Group of young army and air force officers occupy Cairo and major cities. Three days later the coup is called a revolution, (Julian revolution), and King Farouk will be forced to abdicate in favor of the crown prince and leave Egypt.

….. On the same day, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), a precursor to the European Union, comes into force.

1953…. The trial of the arrested communist Nikos Plumbidis and his collaborators begins at the Athens Military Court. It will be executed on August 14 of the same year.

1974… Drowned in the blood of crime in Cyprus, the junta of Athens collapses. In a meeting with the participation of politicians, it is decided to summon Konstantinos Karamanlis from Paris. In Cyprus, the appointed Nikos Samson resigns from the presidency and his place is taken by Glaukos Cleridis.

1986… In London, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, marries Sarah Ferguson in Westminster Abbey.

1992…. The trial for the death of Professor Nikos Tebonera begins in Volos, who was murdered in the student uprisings in Patras. The main accused is Yiannis Kalambokas.

On this day in 1892, the emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, was born, in 1957, the top Greek basketball player, Nikos Galis, and in 1974, the American track and field athlete, Morris Green.

On the same day in 1757 the Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti died, in 1966 the American actor Montgomery Clift and in 1996 the actress Aliki Vougiouklakis.