Today in 1903 the Ford Motor Company sells its first car; in 1930 a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in Italy kills 1,425 people; and in 1962 Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted Transatlantic TV program.

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

Our on this day in history archives contain over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

EVENTS

811 – Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I plunders the Bulgarian city of Pliska and captures Khan Krum's treasure.

1148 – Crusades: A Crusader army starts a Siege of Damascus, lasting until July 28.

1793 – The Kingdom of Prussia re-conquers Mainz from France.

1632 – 300 colonists leave for New France from Dieppe, France.

1677 – Scanian War: Denmark-Norway captures the harbour town of Marstrand from Sweden

1783 – Prussia re-conquers Mainz from France.

1829 – In the US William Austin Burt patents the typographer, a precursor of the typewriter.

1840 – The Province of Canada is created in an Act of Union.

1862 – American Civil War: Henry Halleck takes command of the Union army.

1871 – Austria-Hungary decides to use the metric system. The change becomes effective on January 1, 1876.

1881 – Chile and Argentina agree on their territories in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia.

1903 – The Ford Motor Company sells its first car.

1914 – World War I: Austria-Hungary issues an ultimatum to Serbia, demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia does not meet Austria-Hungary's terms and war is declared on July 28.

1921 – The Communist Party of China (CPC) launched the first time of Chinese National Congress, Communist party in China are established.

1927 – The first station of the Indian Broadcasting Company goes on the air in Bombay.

1929 – The Fascist government in Italy bans the use of foreign words.

1930 – A magnitude 6.7 earthquake in Italy kills 1,425 people.

1936 – The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia is founded through the merger of the Socialist and Communist Parties.

1940 – United States Secretary of State Sumner Welles issues a declaration that the United States will not recognize the Soviet Union's annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

1942 – Holocaust: Treblinka Extermination Camp is opened.

1942 – World War II: The German offensives Operation Edelweiss and Operation Braunschweig begin.

1942 – World War II: Macedonian poet from Bulgaria and Communist leader Nikola Vapcarov is executed by a Bulgarian firing squad.

1943 – World War II: British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean Sea after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.

1952 – King Farouk I of Egypt is removed in a coup and a Republic is declared.

1961 – The Sandinista Liberation Front is founded in Nicaragua.

1962 – Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted Transatlantic TV programme, featuring Walter Cronkite.

1967 – A riot in Detroit leaves 43 people dead and 342 injured.

1968 – The only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft takes place when a Boeing 707 carrying ten crew and 38 passengers is taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, en route from Lod, Israel.

1970 – Sultan Qaboos of Oman removes his father, Sultan Sa'id ibn Taimur, in a bloodless coup.

1972 – The United States launches Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite.

1974 – Constantine Karamanlis is invited to form the government of Greece after the fall of the military junta.

1976 – Mario Soares is elected Prime Minister of Portugal.

1982 – The International Whaling Commission decides to end commercial whaling by 1985 or 1986.

1983 – The Sri Lankan Civil War begins.

1985 – The Amiga computer is presented for the first time, in New York City. Celebrities such as Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry are present at the event.

1986 – Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson. Their marriage later ends in divorce.

1988 – General Ne Win, effective military ruler of Burma since 1962, resigns after pro-democracy protests.

1992 – Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia.

1995 – Comet Hale-Bopp is discovered.

1999 – Mohammed VI becomes King of Morocco.

1999 – ANA Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo, Japan by Yuji Nishizawa.

2001 – As a result of a finance scandal, President of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid is forced out of office. Megawati Sukarnoputri succeeds him.

2004 – The Stari Most (Old Bridge) in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is re-opened. It had been destroyed during the Balkan War.

2005 – Three bombs explode at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt, killing 88 people.

2011 – A train crash on the high-speed rail line between Beijing and Shanghai kills 40 people.

2011 – British singer Amy Winehouse is found dead in her London home.

2012 – A major solar storm begins, which narrowly misses Earth.

2014 – The 2014 Commonwealth Games, taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, begin.

2015 – NASA announces the discovery of the planet Kepler 452b by the Kepler probe. It is believed to be the most Earth-like planet to have been discovered.

2016 – A bomb attack on a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills 80 people.

2018 – A dam in southern Laos breaks, killing at least 26 people and leaving over 130 missing.

2018 – Massive wildfires break out in the Attica region of Greece, killing at least 85 people.

2019 – Boris Johnson becomes leader of the British Conservative Party, having defeated Jeremy Hunt in the leadership election; he becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom the next day.

2021 – 2020 Summer Olympics open in Tokyo.