Today in History

Today is Friday, Oct. 23, the 297th day of 2020. There are 69 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

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

On this date:

In 1864, forces led by Union Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis repelled Confederate Maj. Gen. Sterling Price's army in the Civil War Battle of Westport in Missouri.

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

In 1915, tens of thousands of women paraded up Fifth Avenue in New York City, demanding the right to vote.

In 1941, the Walt Disney animated feature "Dumbo," about a young circus elephant who learns how to fly, premiered in New York.

In 1944, the World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf began, resulting in a major Allied victory against Japanese forces.

In 1956, a student-sparked revolt against Hungary's Communist rule began; as the revolution spread, Soviet forces started entering the country, and the uprising was put down within weeks.

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

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

In 1995, a jury in Houston convicted Yolanda Saldivar of murdering Tejano singing star Selena. (Saldivar is serving a life prison sentence.)

In 2001, the nation's anthrax scare hit the White House with the discovery of a small concentration of spores at an offsite mail processing center.

In 2009, President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect non-infected patients.

In 2014, officials announced that an emergency room doctor who'd recently returned to New York City after treating Ebola patients in West Africa tested positive for the virus, becoming the first case in the city and the fourth in the nation. (Dr. Craig Spencer later recovered.)

Ten years ago: The world's leading advanced and emerging countries vowed during a meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, to avoid potentially debilitating currency devaluations, aiming to quell trade tensions that could threaten the global recovery. San Francisco's Juan Uribe hit a tiebreaking homer off Ryan Madson with two outs in the eighth inning and the Giants held off Philadelphia 3-2 to win the NL pennant in six games.

Five years ago: Hurricane Patricia roared ashore in a sparsely populated area of southwestern Mexico as a Category 5 storm, then quickly abated to a tropical storm. A bus carrying retirees on a day trip through southwest France's wine region hit a truck and went up in flames, killing 43 people. The Justice Department announced that neither Lois Lerner nor any other IRS official would face criminal charges in the political controversy over the processing of applications for tax-exempt status. The Kansas City Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 in Game 6 of the AL championship, earning their second straight trip to the World Series.

One year ago: Republicans briefly brought the Democratic-led impeachment investigation to a halt when around two dozen GOP House members stormed into a closed-door deposition with a Defense Department official. Two business associates of Rudy Giuliani -- Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman -- pleaded not guilty in a campaign finance case; prosecutors said they had wanted to use illegal contributions to lobby U.S. politicians to oust the country's ambassador to Ukraine. The bodies of 39 Vietnamese migrants were found inside a refrigerated container that had been hauled by truck to England on a ferry from Belgium. (The truck driver later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.)

Today's Birthdays: Movie director Philip Kaufman is 84. Soccer great Pele is 80. Rhythm-and-blues singer Barbara Ann Hawkins (The Dixie Cups) is 77. Former ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross is 72. Actor Michael Rupert is 69. Movie director Ang Lee is 66. Jazz singer Dianne Reeves is 64. Country singer Dwight Yoakam is 64. Community activist Martin Luther King III is 63. Movie director Sam Raimi is 61. Parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic is 61. Rock musician Robert Trujillo (Metallica) is 56. Christian/jazz singer David Thomas (Take 6) is 54. Rock musician Brian Nevin (Big Head Todd and the Monsters) is 54. Country singer-musician Junior Bryant is 52. Actor Jon Huertas is 51. Movie director Chris Weitz is 51. CNN medical reporter Dr. Sanjay Gupta is 51. Bluegrass musician Eric Gibson (The Gibson Brothers) is 50. Country singer Jimmy Wayne is 48. Actor Vivian Bang is 47. Rock musician Eric Bass (Shinedown) is 46. TV personality and host Cat Deeley is 44. Actor Ryan Reynolds is 44. Actor Saycon Sengbloh is 43. Rock singer Matthew Shultz (Cage the Elephant) is 37. TV personality Meghan McCain ("The View") is 36. Rhythm-and-blues singer Miguel is 35. Actor Masiela Lusha ) is 35. Actor Emilia Clarke is 34. Actor Briana Evigan is 34. Actor Inbar Lavi is 34. Actor Jessica Stroup is 34. Neo-soul musician Allen Branstetter (St. Paul & the Broken Bones) is 30. Actor Taylor Spreitler is 27. Actor Margaret Qualley is 26. Actor Amandla Stenberg is 22.