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 Today's highlight in history:
On Oct. 23, 1707, the first Parliament of Great Britain, created by the Acts of Union between England and Scotland, held its first meeting.
On this date:
In 1864, forces led by Union Gen. Samuel R. Curtis repelled Confederate Gen. Sterling Price's army in the Civil War Battle of Westport in Missouri.
In 1915, tens of thousands of women marched in New York City, demanding the right to vote.
In 1925, talk show host Johnny Carson was born in Corning, Iowa.
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, resulting in an Allied victory.
In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing Meadow.
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 John J. Sirica.
In 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.
In 1987, the U.S. Senate rejected, 58-42, the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork.
Ten years ago: British au pair Louise Woodward, charged with murdering a baby in her care, testified at her trial in Cambridge, Mass., that she had never hurt 8-month-old Matthew Eappen, saying, "I love kids." The International Whaling Commission opened the way for an American Indian tribe, the Makah, to resume traditional whale hunts for the first time in seven decades. The Florida Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-7, in Game 5 of the World Series.
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 Five years ago: Gunmen seized a crowded Moscow theater, taking hundreds hostage and threatening to kill their hostages unless the Russian army pulled out of Chechnya. President Bush signed the biggest military spending increase since Ronald Reagan's administration
-- a $355.5 billion package. Broadway librettist Adolph Green died in New York at age 87. The San Francisco Giants edged the Anaheim Angels, 4-3, to tie the World Series at two games each.
One year ago: Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced by a federal judge in Houston to 24 years, four months for his role in the company's collapse. Police in Budapest clashed with protesters in anti-government demonstrations coinciding with Hungary's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of its uprising against Soviet rule.
Today's birthdays: Movie director Philip Kaufman is 71. Soccer great Pele is 67. Author Michael Crichton is 65. Rhythm-and-blues singer Barbara Ann Hawkins (The Dixie Cups) is 64. Actor Michael Rupert is 56. Movie director Ang Lee is 53. Jazz singer Dianne Reeves is 51. Country singer Dwight Yoakam is 51. Movie director Sam Raimi is 48. Parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic is 48. Rock musician Robert Trujillo (Metallica) is 43. Rhythm-and-blues singer David Thomas (Take 6) is 41. Rock musician Brian Nevin (Big Head Todd and the Monsters) is 41. Country singer-musician Junior Bryant is 39. Country singer Jimmy Wayne is 35. Actor Ryan Reynolds is 31. Actress Masiela Lusha is 22.
Thought for today: "It is the characteristic of the most stringent censorships that they give credibility to the opinions they attack."
-- Voltaire, French author and philosopher (1694-1778).
[Associated
Press]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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