October 23

Today is Mole Day, 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. (Mole Times) on 10/23 (10^23). 1762: American engineer Samuel Morey, inventor of the internal combustion engine, was born. 1868: Frederick Lanchester, automobile and aeronautics pioneer who built the first British petrol automobile, was born. 1921: Scottish inventor of the pneumatic tire, John Dunlop, died. 1944: The Battle of Leyte Gulf, where the Japanese first used Kamikaze ("divine wind") tactics began. 1983: Homicide attackers' bomb-laden trucks blew up the U.S. and French barracks at the Beirut Airport in Lebanon, killing 241 U.S. marines and 58 French paratroopers. 2006: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announced the discovery of exotic particles that are relatives of the proton and neutron, called Sigma-sub-b [Σb].