A Blast frm the Past

Today is Oct. 5.

Americans in 2001 were growing concerned about a possible terrorist attack involving biological weapons. This concerned was revved up by the death from anthrax infection of Robert Stevens, photo editor for America media Inc. of Boca Raton Fla., publisher of the National Enquirer and other tabloids. It was one of several anthrax incidents dutring those late summer days.

It was on this date in 1986 that events were sent in motion that would lead to the unraveling of the scheme known as "Iran-Contra." A U.S. plane carrying arms for the Nicaraguan Contra rebels was shot down over Nicaragua, and the only survivor was a former U.S. Marine named Eugene Hasenfus. The U.S. government denied any link to the "mission." Nicaragua's Sandinista government would try and convict Hasenfus, but then pardon him a couple of months later. The episode exposed the covert operation and resulted in congressional hearings in the spring and summer of 1987.

Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic had lost the presidential election but didn't want to concede defeat. So it was on this date in 2000 that hundreds of thousands of people in Belgrade overthrew the government and pushed Milosevic out of power. The next day, Milosevic resigned, ending 13 years of rule that had led to a NATO bombing campaign in 1999.

The Shawnee chief Tecumseh -- regarded as one of the greatest of American Indians -- was killed on this date in 1813 while fighting on the side of the British during the War of 1812. Tecumseh had tried to establish an Indian confederation to stop white encroachment. While he advocated peaceful means and negotiations, he didn't rule out war as a last resort. He sided with the British in the War of 1812 after U.S. troops, during the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe, burned the Indiana town where he was headquartered.

Germany's Hindenburg Line was broken on this date in 1918 as World War I neared an end.

The Dalai Lama, the exiled god-king of Tibet, won the Nobel Peace Prize on this date in 1989 for nonviolent efforts to free his homeland from China.

Also on this date in 1989, televangelist Jim Bakker -- who may have fancied himself a god-king -- was convicted on all 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy for fleecing his PTL flock. Bakker lost his religious empire, he ended up serving time in prison, and his wife -- the heavily mascaraed Tammy Faye -- divorced him.

And it was on this date in 1994 that a total of 53 members of a secretive religious cult were found dead -- the victims of murder or suicide -- over a two-day period in Switzerland and in Quebec, Canada.

We now return you to the present, already in progress.