Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf, fought from the 23rd to the 26th of October 1944, was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some criteria the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. It was the last major engagement of the Imperial Japanese Navy, which suffered crippling losses and never again sailed in comparable force.
Japan lost 26 warships at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, including one fleet aircraft carrier (Zuikaku), three light aircraft carriers, three battleships, six heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, and nine destroyers. The Allied forces lost at least 11 warships, including one light aircraft carrier (Princeton) and two escort carriers.
Admiral William F. Halsey Jr. commanded the U.S. Third Fleet and made the controversial decision to take all available forces north to pursue Ozawa's decoy carrier force, leaving San Bernardino Strait completely unguarded. This allowed Kurita's powerful Center Force to emerge unopposed and nearly overwhelm the lightly armed Seventh Fleet escort carriers off Samar.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf saw the first organized kamikaze attacks of World War II. The escort carrier Santee was hit first, killing 16 crewmen; the escort carrier Suwannee was subsequently struck by two kamikaze attacks on the 25th and the 26th of October, killing a total of 107 sailors and wounding over 150. The escort carrier St. Lo of Taffy 3 was also hit and sank after a series of internal explosions.
The Battle of Surigao Strait, fought on the 25th of October 1944, was the last battleship-to-battleship engagement in history and one of only two such battles in the Pacific campaign of World War II. The battleship Mississippi fired the final salvo ever directed by a warship at another battleship: a full spread of twelve 14-inch shells.
Taffy 3 was Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague's task unit of six slow, unarmored escort carriers and a handful of destroyers that stood in the path of Kurita's powerful Center Force on the 25th of October 1944. The destroyers Johnston, Hoel, and Samuel B. Roberts launched suicidal torpedo attacks to defend the carriers; Hoel and Roberts were sunk. Gambier Bay capsized after being struck by Yamato's main battery, making her the only fast carrier sunk in combat during the war. Over 1,161 sailors were killed or went missing in the battle off Samar alone.