On this day: October 23
The Smurfs are born, the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut are hit by a truck bomb, Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination is rejected, and the iPod is introduced, all on this day.
2002: Chechen terrorists seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 850 theater-goers hostage. The terrorists demand the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya and an end to the Second Chechen War. After a two-and-a-half day siege, Russian Spetsnaz forces pump an unknown chemical agent (thought to be fentanyl, or 3-methylfentanyl), into the building's ventilation system and raid it. In the resulting fray, 39 of the attackers were killed by Russian forces, along with at least 129 of the hostages. All but a few of the hostages who died during the siege were killed by the toxic substance pumped into the theater to subdue the militants, causing a backlash against the government, especially for refusing to reveal the type of gas used in the assault.
