October 23 has seen terrorist attacks, revolutionary calendars adopted, and dramatic battles fought.
A suicide truck bomber killed 241 American servicemen and 58 French paratroopers at their barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The attack was the deadliest single-day death toll for the US Marines since Iwo Jima.
Archbishop James Ussher calculated that the world was created on October 23, 4004 BCE. His chronology was widely accepted for centuries and appeared in the margins of many King James Bibles.
British forces under General Montgomery launched a major offensive against Rommel's Afrika Korps at El Alamein, Egypt. The decisive Allied victory was the turning point of the North African campaign.
Students and workers in Budapest launched a spontaneous revolt against Soviet-imposed Communist rule. The revolution was brutally crushed by Soviet tanks, but it inspired resistance movements worldwide.
The first Parliament of Great Britain convened following the Acts of Union that merged England and Scotland. The united parliament sat at the Palace of Westminster in London.
Over 25,000 women marched down Fifth Avenue in New York City demanding the right to vote. The massive demonstration was one of the largest suffrage parades in American history.
Hurricane Patricia became the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere, with sustained winds of 215 mph. Remarkably, the storm weakened rapidly before making landfall in Mexico, limiting casualties.