


Today’s highlights
On Oct. 23, 1983, 241 U.S. service members, most of them Marines, were killed in a suicide truck-bombing at the U.S. Marine Corps barracks at Beirut International Airport in Lebanon, while a near-simultaneous attack on French barracks in Beirut killed 58 paratroopers.
On this date
1915: An estimated 25,000 women marched on Fifth Avenue in New York City in support of women’s suffrage.
1942: During World War II, Britain launched a major offensive against Axis forces at El Alamein in Egypt, resulting in an Allied victory.
1944: The Battle of Leyte Gulf began; the largest naval battle of World War II resulted in a major Allied victory against Japanese forces.
1956: A student-sparked revolt against Hungary’s Communist rule began; as the revolution spread, Soviet forces started entering the country, putting down the uprising within weeks.
1987: The U.S. Senate rejected the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork 58-42.
1989: 23 people were killed in an explosion at a Phillips Petroleum chemical complex in Pasadena, Texas.
Today’s birthdays
Film director Philip Kaufman is 88. Advocate and humanitarian Graça Machel is 79. Film director Ang Lee is 70. Jazz singer Dianne Reeves is 68. Country singer Dwight Yoakam is 68. Martin Luther King III is 67. Author and commentator Michael Eric Dyson is 66. Film director Sam Raimi is 65. Comedic musician “Weird Al” Yankovic is 65. Rock musician Robert Trujillo is 60. Actor Ryan Reynolds is 48. TV personality Meghan McCain is 40.