OCTOBER 23rd

On this date in:
1707	The first Parliament of Great Britain, created by the Acts of Union between England and Scotland, held its first meeting.
1915	Some 25,000 women marched in New York City demanding the right to vote.
1925	Comedian and talk show host Johnny Carson was born in Corning, Iowa.
1942	Britain launched a major offensive against Axis forces at El Alamein in Egypt during World War II.
1956	An anti-Stalinist revolt began in Hungary.
1973	President Richard M. Nixon agreed to turn White House tape recordings requested by the Watergate special prosecutor over to Judge John J. Sirica.
1987	The U.S. Senate rejected the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork, 58-42.
1989	A white man, Charles Stuart, claimed that he and his pregnant wife had been shot by a black robber in Boston; Carol Stuart and her prematurely delivered baby died. Charles Stuart was later implicated in the shootings and apparently committed suicide.
1993	Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Joe Carter became the second player to end a World Series with a home run - a three-run shot that gave Toronto an 8-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6.
1998	Dr. Barnett Slepian, a doctor who performed abortions, was killed at his home in suburban Buffalo, N.Y., when a sniper fired through his kitchen window. (James Kopp was convicted of murder and is serving 25 years to life in prison.)
1998	Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed a land-for-peace agreement at the White House, following nine days of talks at Wye River, Md.
2002	Gunmen seized a crowded Moscow theater, taking hundreds hostage and threatening to kill them unless the Russian army pulled out of Chechnya.
2003	Madame Chiang Kai-shek, widow of the Chinese nationalist leader, died in New York at age 105.
2006	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.

Article of the day

Cuban Missile Crisis

In a televised speech of extraordinary gravity, President John F. Kennedy announces that U.S. spy planes have discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. These missile sites--under construction but nearing completion--housed medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C. Kennedy announced that he was ordering a naval "quarantine" of Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from transporting any more offensive weapons to the island and explained that the United States would not tolerate the existence of the missile sites currently in place. The president made it clear that America would not stop short of military action to end what he called a "clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace."

What is known as the Cuban Missile Crisis actually began on October 15, 1962--the day that U.S. intelligence personnel analyzing U-2 spy plane data discovered that the Soviets were building medium-range missile sites in Cuba. The next day, President Kennedy secretly convened an emergency meeting of his senior military, political, and diplomatic advisers to discuss the ominous development. The group became known as ExCom, short for Executive Committee. After rejecting a surgical air strike against the missile sites, ExCom decided on a naval quarantine and a demand that the bases be dismantled and missiles removed. On the night of October 22, Kennedy went on national television to announce his decision. During the next six days, the crisis escalated to a breaking point as the world tottered on the brink of nuclear war between the two superpowers.

On October 23, the quarantine of Cuba began, but Kennedy decided to give Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev more time to consider the U.S. action by pulling the quarantine line back 500 miles. By October 24, Soviet ships en route to Cuba capable of carrying military cargoes appeared to have slowed down, altered, or reversed their course as they approached the quarantine, with the exception of one ship--the tanker Bucharest. At the request of more than 40 nonaligned nations, U.N. Secretary-General U Thant sent private appeals to Kennedy and Khrushchev, urging that their governments "refrain from any action that may aggravate the situation and bring with it the risk of war." At the direction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. military forces went to DEFCON 2, the highest military alert ever reached in the postwar era, as military commanders prepared for full-scale war with the Soviet Union.

On October 25, the aircraft carrier USS Essex and the destroyer USS Gearing attempted to intercept the Soviet tanker Bucharest as it crossed over the U.S. quarantine of Cuba. The Soviet ship failed to cooperate, but the U.S. Navy restrained itself from forcibly seizing the ship, deeming it unlikely that the tanker was carrying offensive weapons. On October 26, Kennedy learned that work on the missile bases was proceeding without interruption, and ExCom considered authorizing a U.S. invasion of Cuba. The same day, the Soviets transmitted a proposal for ending the crisis: The missile bases would be removed in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba.

The next day, however, Khrushchev upped the ante by publicly calling for the dismantling of U.S. missile bases in Turkey under pressure from Soviet military commanders. While Kennedy and his crisis advisers debated this dangerous turn in negotiations, a U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba, and its pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson, was killed. To the dismay of the Pentagon, Kennedy forbid a military retaliation unless any more surveillance planes were fired upon over Cuba. To defuse the worsening crisis, Kennedy and his advisers agreed to dismantle the U.S. missile sites in Turkey but at a later date, in order to prevent the protest of Turkey, a key NATO member.

On October 28, Khrushchev announced his government's intent to dismantle and remove all offensive Soviet weapons in Cuba. With the airing of the public message on Radio Moscow, the USSR confirmed its willingness to proceed with the solution secretly proposed by the Americans the day before. In the afternoon, Soviet technicians began dismantling the missile sites, and the world stepped back from the brink of nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis was effectively over. In November, Kennedy called off the blockade, and by the end of the year all the offensive missiles had left Cuba. Soon after, the United States quietly removed its missiles from Turkey.

The Cuban Missile Crisis seemed at the time a clear victory for the United States, but Cuba emerged from the episode with a much greater sense of security. A succession of U.S. administrations have honored Kennedy's pledge not to invade Cuba, and the communist island nation situated just 80 miles from Florida remains a thorn in the side of U.S. foreign policy. The removal of antiquated Jupiter missiles from Turkey had no detrimental effect on U.S. nuclear strategy, but the Cuban Missile Crisis convinced a humiliated USSR to commence a massive nuclear buildup. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union reached nuclear parity with the United States and built intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking any city in the United States.

Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=VideoArticle&id=7058

Today Birthdays

72	Philip Kaufman Director ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers")
68	Pele Soccer player
66	Michael Crichton Author
65	Barbara Ann Hawkins R&B singer (The Dixie Cups)
62	Mel Martinez U.S. senator, R-Fla.
57	Michael Rupert Actor
54	Ang Lee Director
52	Dianne Reeves Jazz singer
52	Dwight Yoakam Country singer
49	Sam Raimi Director
49	Weird Al Yankovic Musical parodist
46	Doug Flutie Football player
44	Robert Trujillo Rock musician (Metallica)
43	Al Leiter Baseball player, sportscaster
42	Brian Nevin Rock musician (Big Head Todd and the Monsters)
42	David Thomas R&B singer (Take 6)
40	Junior Bryant Country singer, musician
36	Jimmy Wayne Country singer
34	Eric Bass Rock musician (Shinedown)
33	Keith Van Horn Basketball player
32	Ryan Reynolds Actor
30	John Lackey Baseball player
23	Masiela Lusha Actress ("George Lopez")
22	Briana Evigan Actress
22	Jessica Stroup Actress ("90210")