October 23

4004 BC, 1800 hours Coordinated Universal Time– The Earth is created according to calculations of Irish Archbishop James Ussher in 1650

42 BC – Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar, commits suicide instead of being captured after his army is defeated by that of Octavian and Mark Antony near Philippi in Macedonia.

1086 – During the Spanish Reconquista the Almoravid army of Yusuf ibn Tashfin defeats the Castilians of Alfonso VI, at Sagrajas, but are unable to take advantage of their victory.

1850 – The first National Women’s Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1864 – During the Civil War, the Battle of Westport in what is now Kansas City, is the last significant engagement west of the Mississippi River.

1911 – The first use of an airplane in combat occurs when an Italian pilot makes a reconnaissance flight during the Italo-Turkish War.

1912 – During the First Balkan War, Serbian forces engage and are victorious over the  Ottomans in battle near Kumanovo in the Kosovo Vilayet.

1942 – On Guadalcanal, Japanese forces begin what will turn out to be their last major offensive action to retake Henderson Field from American forces.

1944 – During World War II, in Leyte Gulf of the Philippines, the U.S. submarines USS Darter and USS Dace sight and attack a large Japanese naval force as it passes Palawan island to attack the U.S. landings on Leyte island.

1965 – During the Vietnam War, the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), combined with forces of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, launch an operation to destroy Communist forces besieging Special Forces Camp Plei Me, 25 miles south of Pleiku, under command of Colonel Charles Beckwith.

1970 – Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record of just over 622 miles per hour, driving the rocket powered Blue Flame automobile on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

1973 – President Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations.

1982 – In Miracle Valley Arizona, a gunfight breaks out in the early morning between members of Christ Miracle Healing Church and Cochise County Deputy Sheriffs who had arrived the previous evening to arrest several church members, leaving 2 church members dead and many on both sides wounded.

1983 – In Beirut Lebanon, the building used as barracks by U.S. Marines is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 Marines. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58.

1989 – An explosion at the Houston Chemical Complex in Pasadena, Texas, powerful enough to which register a 3.5 on the Richter magnitude scale, kills 23 people and injures 314 more.

1998 – At the Aspen Institute Wye River Conference Centers, Wye Mills, Maryland, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat negotiate an agreement to resume the implementation of the Oslo II Accord, the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

2001 – Apple Computer releases the iPod

2015 – The lowest sea level pressure in the Western Hemisphere, 25.75 inches Hg, and the highest reliably measured non-tornadic sustained wind speed of 215 mph, are recorded in Hurricane Patricia, which strikes Mexico hours later, killing at least 13 people and causing over $280 million in damages.