On October 6, 1973, war erupted in the Middle East as Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel during the Yom Kippur holiday. (Israel, initially caught off-guard, suffered heavy losses before rebounding and pushing back the Arab forces before a cease-fire finally took hold in the nearly three-week conflict.)

Ten years ago

President George W. Bush sought to rally flagging public support for the war in Iraq, accusing militants of seeking to establish a “radical Islamic empire” with Iraq as the base.

Five years ago

A presidential commission said the Obama administration had blocked efforts by government scientists to tell the American public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could become and committed other missteps that raised questions about its competence and candor during the crisis.

One year ago

The Supreme Court unexpectedly cleared the way for a dramatic expansion of gay marriage in the United States as it rejected appeals from five states seeking to preserve their bans, effectively making such marriages legal in 30 states. Husband-and-wife scientists Edvard Moser and May-Britt Moser of Norway and New York-born researcher John O’Keefe were named recipients of the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering the brain’s GPS-like system.

— By The Associated Press