Let’s look at major events that happened today in history;
Today in History
2002 Dubrovka Theater Hostage Crisis
About 50 Chechen rebels led by Movsar Barayev took over the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow during Nord-Ost’s musical performance. The rebels took about 850 hostages and demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. The siege lasted for about 3 days and ended after Russian security forces released a chemical gas in the theatre. All of the rebels and about 170 hostages died during the siege.
Story
The Moscow theatre hostage crisis was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theater by 40 to 50 armed Chechen Islamist terrorists on 23 October 2002, which involved 850 hostages and ended with the death of at least 170 people. The attackers, led by Movsar Barayev, claimed allegiance to the Islamist separatist movement in Chechnya. They demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya and an end to the Second Chechen War.
Due to the theatre’s layout, special forces would have had to fight through 30 metres of the corridor and advance up a well-defended staircase before reaching the hall where the hostages were held. The attackers had numerous explosives, with the most powerful in the auditorium’s centre.
Spetsnaz operators from Federal Security Service Alpha and Vympel, supported by a Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs SOBR unit, pumped an undisclosed chemical agent into the building’s ventilation system and began the rescue operation.
All forty of the insurgents were killed, and up to 130 hostages died during the siege, including nine foreigners, due to the toxic substance pumped into the theatre.
2001 Apple announces the first iPod Player
The iPod is the world’s best-selling portable media player. Already 6 years after its initial launch, Apple announced that 100 million devices had been sold. The company has been criticized for its aggressive policies forcing users to use only original batteries and preventing them from freely sharing content with others.
1998 Swatch Announces Internet Time
The Swiss watch company invented a new unit of time called the .beat, corresponding to 1 minute and 26.4 seconds. Under the Internet Time system, a day is divided into 1000 .beats.
1983 Beirut Barracks Bombing
Two bombs exploded in front of American and French barracks during the Lebanese Civil War, killing about 300 French and American military personnel. Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the bombings.
1964 Jean-Paul Sartre Turns Down Nobel Prize
The French existentialist philosopher and writer published a letter in the newspaper Le Figaro to explain why he did not want to accept the Nobel Prize for Literature he had been awarded the day before on October 22. In his letter, he said he did not want to take sides in the East and West struggle of the Cold War, by accepting an award that Western institutions gave out.
