Today in History - Britannica.com/on-this-day/

 

Oct 23

1739

The War of Jenkins’ Ear begins

On this day in 1739, the story of an ear in a jar started a war. Fought between Great Britain and Spain, the War of Jenkins’ Ear was precipitated by an incident that took place in 1738 when Brit Robert Jenkins appeared before a committee of the House of Commons and exhibited what he alleged to be his own amputated ear, cut off in April 1731 in the West Indies by Spanish coast guards, who had boarded his ship, pillaged it, and then set it adrift.

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NARA

U.S. and French troops attacked in Beirut

On this day in 1983, suicide bombers drove truckloads of high explosives into the barracks of U.S. Marines and French paratroopers in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. servicemen and 58 French troops.

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Marka/Fioroni/age fotostock

Pelé

Born this day in Brazil in 1940, Pelé became the most famous football (soccer) player in the sport’s history, and, by the time of his retirement in 1977, he had arguably become the most famous athlete in the world.

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2003

Soong Mei-ling, the second wife of the Nationalist Chinese president Chiang Kai-shek and a powerful political figure in her own right, died at age 106. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about China.]

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2001

Apple introduced the iPod, a portable media player that became one of the most successful and revolutionary products of the early 2000s.

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1998

Britney Spears released the single “…Baby One More Time,” which, accompanied by its provocative music video, became a huge hit and helped make her a pop star.

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1956

The Hungarian Revolution began with a massive demonstration in Budapest. [Take our plots and revolutions quiz.]

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1956

The International Atomic Energy Agency was created with the purpose of increasing the contribution of atomic energy to world peace. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about world organizations.]

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1944

During World War II, U.S. forces under the leadership of Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., commenced a decisive air and sea battle against the Japanese on the central Philippine island of Leyte. [How much do you know about World War II?]

National Archives, Washington, D.C.

1942

The British, led by Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, launched a successful infantry attack against German forces at El-Alamein, Egypt, during World War II. [Take our quiz about Germany and World War II.]

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1941

The Disney animated classic Dumbo had its world premiere. [Take our Disney quiz.]

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1925

Johnny Carson—who, as host of The Tonight Show (1962–92), established the standard format for television chat shows—was born in Corning, Iowa.

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

1901

A statue of Albert Pike was dedicated in Washington, D.C. The city’s only outdoor public monument to a Confederate general, it was torn down by protesters in 2020 and reinstalled by the federal government in 2025.

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1694

The siege of Ceuta (on Morocco’s coast) began—and would continue for nearly 30 years.

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1684

In the face of increasing estrangement between the colony and England, King Charles II revoked the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Archaeology News: Backyard find: Egyptian farmer unearths statue fragments believed to depict Ramesses II

Backyard find: Egyptian farmer unearths statue fragments believed to depict Ramesses II

Alongside the statue fragments, a pink granite block bearing several hieroglyphic inscriptions, including two of Ramesses’ titles: “Nesu-Bity,” meaning “King of Upper and Lower Egypt,” and "Sa Ra."

By Miriam Sela-Eitam, Jerusalem Post, October 20, 2026

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-912316

Head of Ramesses II statue fragment found at Behbeit El Hagar, Egypt, October 20, 2026.

(photo credit: EGYPTIAN TOURISM AND ANTIQUITIES MINISTRY)

Fragments of two massive statues depicting Ramesses II were discovered by accident by a farmer working on his land in a northern Egyptian village, Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry announced last week.

The fragments were found in Behbeit El Hagar, a village and archaeological site that is home to the remains of an ancient temple dedicated to the goddess Isis, known as the Iseion. In antiquity, it served as part of the ancient Egyptian nome of Sebennytos, the Twelfth Lower Egyptian Nome.

After discovering the stone blocks, the farmer, Khaled El-Shahat Khalil, notified the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry, which sent a team to the village to conduct rescue excavations of the fragments.

The first fragment is a massive depiction of the head of Ramesses II, standing about 1.60 meters tall, which shows the pharaoh wearing the pschent (double crown) of Upper and Lower Egypt.

The backing of the statue was also found nearby, bearing an inscription of the pharaoh’s Horus name, "Hor Ka Nakht Meri Maat," meaning “Strong Bull, Beloved of Maat.”

Inscribed granite block found at Behbeit El Hagar, Egypt, October 20, 2026. (credit: EGYPTIAN TOURISM AND ANTIQUITIES MINISTRY)

Dr. Hisham El-Leithy, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, added that the size of the head indicated that the statue may have originally stood at around 8.5 meters.

The second statue fragment, also believed to belong to Ramesses II, stands 2.4 meters tall and has clear, well-preserved facial features.

Missing its legs and base, the fragment portrays the pharaoh wearing the traditional nemes headdress, the top part of which is missing.

Alongside the statue fragments, a pink granite block bearing several hieroglyphic inscriptions, including two of Ramesses’ titles: “Nesu-Bity,” meaning “King of Upper and Lower Egypt,” and "Sa Ra," meaning “Son of Ra.”

Following the discovery and the rescue excavations, Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy presented Khalil and his wife with a certificate of appreciation for reporting the finds, stressing the importance of the discovery to the ongoing study of Egypt's history.

Partial statue, inscriptions of Ramesses II previously found

Previously, in August, archaeologists discovered a large, broken sandstone lintel inscribed both with the titles of Ramesses II as well as a reference to restoration work being carried out on a statue belonging to the deity “Horus, Lord of the City of Mesn.”

Earlier this year, archaeologists also found a partial statue of Ramesses II at the Tel Faraon archaeological site near El Husseiniya in the Nile Delta.

The statue was discovered incomplete, missing its legs and base. Even so, Leithy said at the time that, according to initial assessments, the statue weighed about five to six tons and stood around 2.20 meters tall (just over seven feet).

He added that although the statue was poorly preserved, the remaining features “display artistic and royal features suggesting it was once part of a Triad, similar to those uncovered at a number of archaeological sites across Sharqia Governorate.”

Why Was a Giant Ramesses II Buried Under an Egyptian Farm?

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Today in History - Britannica.com/on-this-day/

 

Oct 22

1836

Sam Houston becomes the George Washington of Texas

On this day in 1836, Sam Houston became the first elected president of the Republic of Texas, a position he held from 1836–38 and then again from 1841–44. Houston was instrumental in Texas’s becoming a U.S. state in 1845.

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Cuban missile crisis

On this day in 1962, President John F. Kennedy alerted Americans to the Cuban missile crisis, declaring a naval blockade to prevent further missile shipments to the island country 90 miles (145 km) off the coast of the U.S.

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G. Dagli Orti—De Agostini/age fotostock

Franz Liszt

Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, born this day in 1811, was not only the greatest piano virtuoso of his time but also a composer of enormous originality and a principal figure in the Romantic Movement.

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2010

WikiLeaks, a website founded by Julian Assange that functioned as a clearinghouse for classified or otherwise privileged information, released thousands of U.S. documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Doug Ellison

2008

Chandrayaan-1, India’s first lunar space probe, was launched, and it later found water in the Moon’s atmosphere. [Take our quiz about space exploration.]

Gisele Freund

1964

French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre was announced the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature; however, he became the first person to decline the award. [Test your knowledge of Nobel laureates in literature.]

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1943

French actress Catherine Deneuve, who was noted for her archetypal Gallic beauty as well as for her roles in films by some of the world’s greatest directors, was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about A-list actors.]

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1934

Infamous criminal Charles (“Pretty Boy”) Floyd was fatally shot in a field near East Liverpool, Ohio, by FBI agents. [Test your knowledge of mobster names.]

George Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. ( LC-DIG-ggbain-08612)

1910

In one of the most notorious criminal cases of the 20th century, American physician Hawley Harvey Crippen (widely known as Dr. Crippen) was found guilty of murdering his wife; he was executed in a British prison the following month. [Read about 10 “trials of the century.”]

Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

1906

French artist Paul Cézanne, considered one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists, died at the age of 67. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about artists and painters.]

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1797

André-Jacques Garnerin, an inspector in the French army who encouraged the use of balloons for military purposes, made a balloon ascent in order to give his first exhibition of parachuting, when he jumped from a height of about 3,200 feet (1,000 metres). [Test your knowledge of French history.]