BEIRUT BARRACKS BLOWN UP:

A suicide bomber drives a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. That same morning, 58 French soldiers were killed in their barracks two miles away in a separate suicide terrorist attack. The U.S. Marines were part of a multinational force sent to Lebanon in August 1982 to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon. From its inception, the mission was plagued with problems--and a mounting body count.

In 1975, a bloody civil war erupted in Lebanon, with Palestinian and leftist Muslim guerrillas battling militias of the Christian Phalange Party, the Maronite Christian community, and other groups. During the next few years, Syrian, Israeli, and United Nations interventions failed to resolve the factional fighting, and on August 20, 1982, a multinational force including 800 U.S. Marines was ordered to Beirut to help coordinate the Palestinian withdrawal.

The Marines left Lebanese territory on September 10 but returned in strengthened numbers on September 29, following the massacre of Palestinian refugees by a Christian militia. The next day, the first U.S. Marine to die during the mission was killed while defusing a bomb. Other Marines fell prey to snipers. On April 18, 1983, a suicide bomber driving a van devastated the U.S. embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans. Then, on October 23, a Lebanese terrorist plowed his bomb-laden truck through three guard posts, a barbed-wire fence, and into the lobby of the Marines Corps headquarters in Beirut, where he detonated a massive bomb, killing 241 marine, navy, and army personnel. The bomb, which was made of a sophisticated explosive enhanced by gas, had an explosive power equivalent to 18,000 pounds of dynamite. The identities of the embassy and barracks bombers were not determined, but they were suspected to be Shiite terrorists associated with Iran.

After the barracks bombing, many questioned whether President Ronald Reagan had a solid policy aim in Lebanon. Serious questions also arose over the quality of security in the American sector of war-torn Beirut. The U.S. peacekeeping force occupied an exposed area near the airport, but for political reasons the marine commander had not been allowed to maintain a completely secure perimeter before the attack. In a national address on October 23, President Reagan vowed to keep the marines in Lebanon, but just four months later he announced the end of the American role in the peacekeeping force. On February 26, 1984, the main force of marines left Lebanon, leaving just a small contingent to guard the U.S. embassy in Beirut.

What else happened?

42 B.C. Brutus commits suicide

Marcus Junius Brutus, a leading conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar, commits suicide after his defeat at the second battle of Philippi.

Two years before, Brutus had joined Gaius Cassius Longinus in the plot against the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, believing he was striking a blow for the restoration of the Roman Republic. However, the result of Caesar's assassination was to plunge the Roman world into a new round of civil wars, with the Republican forces of Brutus and Cassius vying for supremacy against Octavian and Mark Antony. After being defeated by Antony at a battle in Philippi, Greece, in October 42 B.C., Cassius killed himself. On October 23, Brutus' army was crushed by Octavian and Antony at a second encounter at Philippi, and Brutus took his own life.

Antony and Octavian soon turned against each other, and in 27 B.C. the Roman Republic was lost forever with the ascendance of Octavian as Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome.

1855 Rival governments in bleeding Kansas

In opposition to the fraudulently elected pro-slavery legislature of Kansas, the Kansas Free State forces set up a governor and legislature under their Topeka Constitution, a document that outlaws slavery in the territory.

Trouble in territorial Kansas began with the signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act by President Franklin Pierce in 1854. The act stipulated that settlers in the newly created territories of Nebraska and Kansas would decide by popular vote whether their territory would be free or slave. In early 1855, Kansas' first election proved a violent affair, as more than 5,000 so-called Border Ruffians invaded the territory from western Missouri and forced the election of a pro-slavery legislature. To prevent further bloodshed, Andrew H. Reeder, the territorial governor appointed by President Pierce, reluctantly approved the election. A few months later, the Kansas Free State forces were formed, armed by supporters in the North and featuring the leadership of militant abolitionist John Brown.

In May 1856, Border Ruffians sacked the abolitionist town of Lawrence, and in retaliation a small Free State force under John Brown massacred five pro-slavery Kansans along the Pottawatomie Creek. During the next four years, raids, skirmishes, and massacres continued in "Bleeding Kansas," as it became popularly known. In 1861, the irrepressible differences in Kansas were swallowed up by the outbreak of full-scale civil war in America.

Chart Toppers for Oct 23rd
1960
Save the Last Dance for Me - The Drifters
My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own - Connie Francis

Devil or Angel - Bobby Vee

Alabam - Cowboy Copas

1968
Hey Jude - The Beatles
Fire - The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

Little Green Apples - O.C. Smith

Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye - Eddy Arnold

1976
If You Leave Me Now - Chicago
Still the One - Orleans

She's Gone - Daryl Hall and John Oates

You and Me - Tammy Wynette

1984
I Just Called to Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder
Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) - Billy Ocean

Lucky Star - Madonna

I Don't Know a Thing about Love (The Moon Song) - Conway Twitty

Famous Oct 23rd Birthdays

1835 - Adlai Ewing Stevenson (23rd Vice President of the U.S. [1893-1897]; grandfather of U.S. presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson [1952, 1956])
1906 - Gertrude Ederle (Olympic swimming medalist [1924]: gold: 4x100-meter relay team; bronze: 100-meter freestyle; 1st woman to swim English Channel [14 hrs., 31 minutes - set a world record]; swimming instructor of deaf children; International Women's Sports Hall of Famer)

1914 - 'Bruiser' (Frank) Kinard (College and Pro Football Hall of Famer: University of Mississippi; NFL's Brooklyn Dodgers; AAFC's NY Yankees; All-Pro: [1940, 1941, 1943, 1944]; 'ironman of football': played 708 out of 720 season minutes [1936]; missed only one game in nine years of pro ball)

1918 - James Daly (Emmy Award-winning actor: Hallmark Hall of Fame: Eagle in a Cage [1965-66]; Medical Center, Planet of the Apes, The Invaders; father of actress, Tyne Daly)

1923 - Ewell Blackwell (baseball)

1923 - Ned Rorem (Pulitzer Prize-winning composer: Air Music [1976])

1925 - Johnny Carson (Emmy Award-winning comedian, TV host: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson [1977-78, 1978-79], 1979-80, 1991-92]; The Johnny Carson Show, Who Do You Trust?, Earn Your Vacation)

1927 - Sonny (William) Criss (musician: saxophone: LP: The Bop Masters, Saturday Morning, Criss Craft, Out of Nowhere, Warm and Sonny)

1931 - Jim Bunning (baseball: Philadelphia Phillies pitcher: pitched a perfect game [6-21-64]; Pittsburgh Pirates, LA Dodgers; U.S. Senator from Kentucky)

1931 - Diana Dors (Fluck) (actress: Children of the Full Moon, Oliver Twist, Unicorn, Theatre of Blood, The Devil's Web, Baby Love)

1935 - Juan 'Chi-Chi' Rodriguez (World Golf Hall of Famer: record for most consecutive wins on Senior PGA Tour [3]; established pro-am tournament: proceeds for Children's Hospital in Puerto Rico; founded: Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation)

1939 - Charlie Foxx (singer: Mockingbird [w/sister, Inez])

1940 - Eleanor (Ellie) Greenwich (Ellie Gay, Ellie Gee) (songwriter [w/Jeff Barry]: My Baby, Chapel of Love, Da Do Ron Ron, Then He Kissed Me, River Deep, Mountain High; singer: group: Raindrops: What a Guy, The Kind of Boy You Can't Forget; solo: LP: Let It be Written, Let It be Sung; on Broadway: Leader of the Pack)

1940 - Pel» (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) (Brazil's soccer star; record for most wins: 3 winning teams [1958, 1962, 1970]; most career goals in international competition [97, 1957-70]; most career hat-tricks [92, 1956-77] in film: Escape to Victory)

1942 - Michael (John) Crichton (writer: Jurassic Park, Twister, Rising Sun, The Great Train Robbery, The Terminal Man, Disclosure, The Great Impostor, The Secret of Canta Victoria, Congo; director: Runaway, Coma, Westworld, The Great Train Robbery)

1947 - Greg Ridley (musician: bass: group: Spooky Tooth: LP: It's All About and Spooky Two, Ceremony; VIP: LP: Supernatural Fairytales)

1950 - Ed Smith (football)

1952 - Andrew Jones (football)

1954 - Dwight Yoakam (songwriter, singer: I'll be Gone, Bury Me, Miner's Prayer, South of Cincinnati; LP: Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., A Town South of Bakersfield)

1959 - 'Weird' Al Yankovic (singer, comedian: parodies: Eat It, My Bologna, Another One Rides the Bus, I Love Rocky Road, King of Suede, I Lost on Jeopardy, Polkas on 45, The Brady Bunch, Like a Surgeon)

1962 - Doug Flutie (football: Boston College quarterback: Heisman Trophy winner [1984]; Canadian Football League: individual record: British Columbia Lions: passing yards gained in a season [6,619 in 1991])

1962 - Mike Tomczak (football: Pittsburgh Steelers; Chicago Bears quarterback: Super Bowl XX)

One last Group of stuff, these are from Yahoo, I got a hell of a grin out of the first couple lines where it reminds you how many days are left in the year. How appropriate *big grin*

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 23, the 296th day of 2001. There are 69 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Oct. 23, 1983, 241 U.S. Marines and sailors in Lebanon were killed in a suicide truck-bombing at Beirut International Airport; a near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58 paratroopers.

On this date:

In 1864, forces led by Union Gen. Samuel R. Curtis defeated Confederate Gen. Stirling Price's army in Missouri.

In 1910, Blanche S. Scott became the first woman to make a solo, public airplane flight, reaching an altitude of 12 feet at a park in Fort Wayne, Ind.

In 1915, 25,000 women marched in New York City, demanding the right to vote.

In 1942, during World War II, Britain launched a major offensive against Axis forces at El Alamein in Egypt.

In 1944, the World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf began.

In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing Meadow.

In 1956, an anti-Stalinist revolt that was subsequently crushed by Soviet troops began in Hungary.

In 1973, President Nixon agreed to turn White House tape recordings requested by the Watergate special prosecutor over to Judge John J. Sirica.

In 1980, the resignation of Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin was announced.

In 1987, the U.S. Senate rejected, 58-to-42, the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork.

Ten years ago: Cambodia's warring factions and representatives of 18 other nations signed a peace treaty in Paris.

Five years ago: Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole tried to persuade Ross Perot to quit the race and endorse the GOP ticket, but Perot refused. The civil trial of O.J. Simpson opened in Santa Monica, Calif. (Simpson was later found liable in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.)

One year ago: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright held groundbreaking talks in North Korea with communist leader Kim Jong Il.

Thought for the day from Yahoo

"Truth is not introduced into the individual from without, but was within him all the time." --Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (1813-1855).