Would you agree that the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing was the first suicide bombing in history?

Question

On October 23, 1983, around 6:20 am, a yellow Mercedes-Benz delivery truck drove to Beirut International Airport, where the 1st Battalion 8th Marines, under the U.S. 2nd Marine Division of the United States Marines, had set up its local headquarters. The truck turned onto an access road leading to the Marines' compound and circled a parking lot. The driver then sped and crashed through a barbed wire fence around the parking lot, passed between two sentry posts, crashed through a gate and barreled into the lobby of the Marine headquarters. The Marine sentries at the gate were forbidden from using live ammunition, for fear that a discharge might kill a civilian, so they were powerless to stop him. According to one Marine survivor, the driver was smiling as he sped past him.
The suicide bomber detonated his explosives, which were equivalent to 12,000 pounds (about 5,400kg) of TNT. The force of the explosion collapsed the four-story cinder-block building into rubble, crushing many inside.

wouldn't the exploits the japanese kamikaze pilots of WWII managed to pull off classify as suicide bombings?

please provide historical examples that might predate 1983

Answer 1

WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam all had "suicide bombers". By car, plane, and walking.
There have been just as many "suicide bombers" involved in civil conflicts and religious conflicts. They are all over the place now.

Answer 2

No - but the first suicide bombing for the post WW-II generation not accustomed to seeing airplanes crashing into ships. There was no CNN back in WW II - but CNN could broadcast round the clock to an audience which didn't exceed 100,000 subscribers.

Now, you have 9/11 events occurring live before a world wide audience of billions. WW II footage exists on old newsreels which have been digitized. There have always been people who strapped explosives on themselves and threatened to detonate them for ransom money and the like.

"During the Crusades, the Knights Templar destroyed one of their own ships[citation needed], killing 140 Christians in order to kill ten times as many Muslims. Another early example of suicide bombing occurred during the Belgian Revolution, when the Dutch Lieutenant Jan van Speijk detonated his own ship in the harbour of Antwerp to prevent being captured by the Belgians."

Read 1984 and you will notice how information is constantly recycled and reused to suit the agenda of those in power.

Answer 3

They didn't have bombs in those days, but the oldest record of a suicide terrorist I know of is an Israeli in the Bible called Samson. He pulled down a temple full of revelling Palestinians (Philistines) and knew that he would kill himself with them.

Plus ca change...