Today in History - October 23rd

1668 - On this day in history, the Jews of Barbados were forbidden to engage in retail trade.
1775 - The Continental Congress approved resolution barring blacks from The US Army.
1864 - During the United States Civil War, Union forces led by Gen. Samuel R. Curtis defeated the Confederate forces in Missouri.
1910 - 1910 - Blanche S. Scott became the first woman to make a public solo airplane flight in the United States.
1915 - 25,000 women marched in New York City commanding the right to vote.

1929 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged, starting the stock-market crash that began the Great Depression.
1946 -The UN General Assembly convened in New York for the first time.
1973 - President Richard Nixon agreed to release White House tape recordings requested by the Watergate special prosecutor to Judge Sirica.
2003 - Madame Chiang Kai-shek died at age 105.
1962 - During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States naval "quarantine" of Cuba was approved by the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS).
1981 - US national debt reached $1 trillion.
1998 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reached a breakthrough in a land-for-peace West Bank accord.
2000 - Universal Studios Consumer Products Group (USCPG) and Amblin Entertainment announced an unprecedented worldwide merchandising program with Toys "R" Us, Inc. The deal was for the rights to exclusive "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" merchandise.
2002 - Moscow Theatre Siege began: Chechen rebels seized the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage.
2011 - A mighty 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Van Province, Turkey, killing 582 people and injuring thousands.

SCIENCE, INVENTIONS, PATENTS - Today in History, October 23rd

1814 - The first plastic surgery was performed (England).
1956 - NBC broadcasted the first videotape recording coast-to-coast.
1977 - Paleontologist Elso Barghoorn announced that 34-billion-year-old one-celled fossils, the earliest life forms, had been discovered.
2001- Apple released the iPod.

1547 - Miguel de Cervantes, poet, dramatist, author of the Adventures of Don Quixote.
1913 - Stanley Kramer, Film Director
1935 - Jerry Lee Lewis, Rock Musician
1943 - Lech Walesa, Polish Labor Leader
1948 - Bryant Gumbel, TV Newscaster