October 15 is the 288th day of the year (289th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 77 days remaining until the end of the year.
[edit] Events
- 1211 – Battle of the Rhyndacus: The Latin emperor Henry of Flanders defeats the Nicaean emperor Theodore I Lascaris.
- 1529 – The Siege of Vienna ends as the Austrians rout the invading Turks, turning the tide against almost a century of unchecked conquest throughout eastern and central Europe by the Ottoman Empire.
- 1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15.
- 1764 – Edward Gibbon observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspires him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
- 1783 – The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon marks the first human ascent, by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, (tethered balloon).
- 1793 – Queen Marie-Antoinette of France is tried and convicted in a swift, pre-determined trial in the Palais de Justice, Paris, and condemned to death the following day.
- 1815 – Napoleon I of France begins his exile on Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1863 – American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink a ship, sinks during a test, killing its inventor, Horace L. Hunley.
- 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Glasgow is fought, resulting in the surrender of Glasgow, Missouri, and its Union garrison, to the Confederacy.
- 1878 – The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation.
- 1880 – Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists.
- 1888 – The "From Hell" letter sent by Jack the Ripper is received by investigators.
- 1894 – The Dreyfus affair: Alfred Dreyfus is arrested for spying.
- 1904 – The Russian Baltic Fleet leaves Reval, Estonia for Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.
- 1910 – Airship America launched from New Jersey in the first attempt to cross the Atlantic by a powered aircraft.
- 1917 – World War I: At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for the German Empire.
- 1928 – The airship, Graf Zeppelin completes its first trans-Atlantic flight, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States.
- 1932 – Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight.
- 1934 – The Soviet Republic of China collapses when Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army successfully encircles Ruijin, forcing the fleeing Communists to begin the Long March.
- 1939 – The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.
- 1940 – The President of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, is executed by the Spanish dictatorship of Francisco Franco, making him the only European president to have been executed.
- 1944 – The Arrow Cross Party (very similar to Hitler's NSDAP (Nazi party)) takes power in Hungary.
- 1945 – World War II: The former premier of Vichy France Pierre Laval is shot by a firing squad for treason.
- 1951 – Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes conducts the very last step of the first synthesis of norethisterone, the progestin that would later be used in one of the first three oral contraceptives.
- 1951 – The first episode of I Love Lucy, an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley, airs on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).
- 1953 – British nuclear test Totem 1 detonated at Emu Field, South Australia.
- 1956 – Fortran, the first modern computer language, is shared with the coding community for the first time.
- 1965 – Vietnam War: The Catholic Worker Movement stages an anti-war rally in Manhattan including a public burning of a draft card; the first such act to result in arrest under a new amendment to the Selective Service Act.
- 1966 – Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
- 1969 – Vietnam War; The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam is held in Washington DC and across the US. Over 2 million demonstrate nationally; about 250,000 in the nation's capitol.
- 1970 – Thirty-five construction workers are killed when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses.
- 1970 – The domestic Soviet Aeroflot Flight 244 is hijacked and diverted to Turkey.
- 1971 – The start of the 2500-year celebration of Iran, celebrating the birth of Persia.
- 1979 – Black Monday in Malta. The Building of the Times of Malta, the residence of the opposition leader Eddie Fenech Adami and several Nationalist Party clubs are ransacked and destroyed by supporters of the Malta Labour Party.
- 1987 – The Great Storm of 1987 hits France and England.
- 1989 – Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the NHL.
- 1990 – Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation.
- 1997 – The first supersonic land speed record is set by Andy Green in ThrustSSC (United Kingdom), exactly 50 years and 1 day after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in the Earth's atmosphere.
- 1997 – The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn.
- 2001 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io.
- 2003 – China launches Shenzhou 5, its first manned space mission.
- 2003 – The Staten Island Ferry boat Andrew J. Barberi runs into a pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island, killing 11 people and injuring 43.
- 2005 – A riot in Toledo, Ohio breaks out during a National Socialist/Neo-Nazi protest; over 100 are arrested.
- 2007 – Seventeen activists in New Zealand are arrested in the country's first post 9/11 anti-terrorism raids.
- 2008 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 733.08 points, or 7.87%, the second worst day in the Dow's history based on a percentage drop.
- 2011 – Global protests break out in 951 cities in 82 countries.
[edit] Births
- 70 BC – Virgil, Roman poet (d. 19 BC)
- 1471 – Konrad Mutian, German humanist (d. 1526)
- 1608 – Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist (d. 1647)
- 1686 – Allan Ramsay, Scottish poet (d. 1758)
- 1701 – Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, first native Canadian canonized (d. 1771)
- 1711 – Elisabeth Teresa of Lorraine, queen of Sardinia (d. 1741)
- 1762 – Samuel Adams Holyoke, American composer and teacher of vocal and instrumental music (d. 1820)
- 1784 – Thomas Robert Bugeaud, Marshal of France and duke of Isly (d. 1849)
- 1785 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean general and founding father (d. 1821)
- 1814 – Mikhail Lermontov, Russian author (d. 1841)
- 1818 – Alexander Dreyschock, Czech pianist and composer (d. 1869)
- 1825 – Queen Marie of Prussia, (d. 1889)
- 1829 – Asaph Hall, American astronomer (d. 1907)
- 1836 – James Tissot, French artist (d. 1902)
- 1840 – Honoré Mercier, politician and premier of Quebec (d. 1894)
- 1844 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (d. 1900)
- 1853 – Jan Harte van Tecklenburg, Dutch politician (d. 1937)
- 1858 – John L. Sullivan, American boxer (d. 1918)
- 1865 – Albert Heijn, Dutch businessman (d. 1945)
- 1872 – Wilhelm Miklas, Austrian president (d. 1956)
- 1872 – August Nilsson, Swedish athlete (d. 1921)
- 1874 – Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, (d. 1899)
- 1878 – Paul Reynaud, French politician (d. 1966)
- 1879 – Jane Darwell, Academy Award-winning American actress (d. 1967)
- 1880 – Herman Glass, American gymnast (d. 1961)
- 1881 – P. G. Wodehouse, British novelist (d. 1975)
- 1882 – Charley O'Leary, American baseball player (d. 1941)
- 1884 – Arch Hoxsey, pioneer aviator (d. 1910)
- 1887 – Frederick Fleet, English crewman and survivor of RMS Titanic (d. 1965)
- 1890 – Álvaro de Campos, a heteronym of Fernando Pessoa (d. 1935).
- 1893 – King Carol II of Romania, (d. 1953)
- 1894 – Moshe Sharett, second Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1965)
- 1898 – Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete (d. 1951)
- 1900 – Mervyn LeRoy, American film director (d. 1987)
- 1905 – C. P. Snow, British writer (d. 1980)
- 1906 – Hiram Leong Fong, American politician (d. 2004)
- 1906 – Alicia Patterson, American publisher, co-founded Newsday (d. 1963)
- 1906 – Victoria Spivey, American blues singer and songwriter (d. 1976)
- 1907 – Varian Fry, American journalist (d. 1967)
- 1908 – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian-born US economist (d. 2006)
- 1908 – Herman Chittison, American jazz pianist (d. 1967)
- 1909 – Robert Trout, American reporter (d. 2000)
- 1909 – Jesse Leonard Greenstein, American astronomer (d. 2002)
- 1912 – Nellie Lutcher, American pianist, R&B and jazz singer (d. 2007)
- 1915 – Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli politician
- 1916 – Al Killian, American jazz trumpet player and occasional bandleader (d. 2007)
- 1917 – Jan Miner, American actress (d. 2004)
- 1917 – Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., American historian and political commentator (d. 2007)
- 1919 – Malcolm Ross, American balloonist and atmospheric physicist (d. 1985)
- 1920 – Chris Economaki, American sportscaster (d. 2012)
- 1920 – Mario Puzo, American novelist (d. 1999)
- 1920 – Henri Verneuil, French film director (d. 2002)
- 1921 – Angelica Rozeanu, Romanian table-tennis player (d. 2006)
- 1922 – Agustina Bessa-Luís, Portuguese writer
- 1923 – Italo Calvino, Italian writer (d. 1985)
- 1923 – Antonio Fontan, Spanish journalist and politician (d. 2010)
- 1924 – Lee Iacocca, American automotive executive
- 1924 – Mark Lenard, American actor (d. 1996)
- 1924 – Marguerite Andersen, German writer
- 1924 – Francis "Frank" X. McDermott, American Republican Party politician (d. 2011)
- 1924 – Warren Miller, American director
- 1925 – Mickey Baker, American guitarist (Mickey & Sylvia)
- 1925 – Aurora Bautista, Spanish actress (d. 2012)
- 1926 – Michel Foucault, French philosopher (d. 1984)
- 1926 – Evan Hunter, American author (d. 2005)
- 1926 – Jean Peters, American actress (d. 2000)
- 1926 – Karl Richter, German conductor (d. 1981)
- 1926 – James E. Akins, American diplomat and adviser to Richard Nixon (d. 2010)
- 1927 – Bill Henry, American baseball player
- 1930 – Fereydun M. Esfandiary, Iranian philosopher (d. 2000)
- 1931 – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Eleventh President of India
- 1931 – Freddy Cole, American jazz singer and pianist
- 1934 – N. Ramani, Indian flutist
- 1935 – Bobby Morrow, American sprinter
- 1935 – Barry McGuire, American singer
- 1935 – Dick McTaggart, British Olympic boxing champion
- 1935 – Willie O'Ree, Canadian Hockey Player
- 1937 – Linda Lavin, American actress
- 1938 – Fela Kuti, Nigerian musician and political activist (d. 1997)
- 1938 – Marv Johnson, American singer (d. 1993)
- 1938 – Robert Ward, American blues and soul guitarist (d. 2008)
- 1940 – Tommy Bishop, English rugby league player
- 1940 – Peter Doherty, Australian immunologist, Nobel laureate
- 1942 – Harold W. Gehman, Jr., American admiral
- 1942 – Penny Marshall, American actress and film director
- 1944 – Sali Berisha, former President of Albania; current Prime Minister
- 1944 – David Trimble, Irish politician, Nobel laureate
- 1944 – Haim Saban, Egyptian-born American media proprietor
- 1945 – Jere Burns, American actor
- 1945 – Jim Palmer, American baseball player
- 1946 – Richard Carpenter, American musician (The Carpenters)
- 1946 – Palle Danielsson, Swedish jazz double bassist, member of Tomasz Stanko Septet
- 1946 – John Getz, American actor
- 1946 – Stewart Stevenson, Scottish politician
- 1947 – Jaroslav Erno Šedivý, Czech rock drummer (The Primitives Group, Life After Life)
- 1948 – Chris de Burgh, Irish singer and songwriter
- 1949 – Laurie McBain, U.S.American novelist.
- 1949 – Prannoy Roy, Indian journalist and psephologist, CEO – NDTV
- 1951 – A.F.Th. van der Heijden, Dutch writer
- 1951 – Rafael Vaganian, Armenian chess grandmaster
- 1951 – Peter Richardson, English actor, comedian, and writer
- 1953 – Tito Jackson, American musician
- 1953 – Larry Miller, American actor and comedian
- 1953 – Betsy Clifford, Canadian alpine skier
- 1954 – Peter Bakowski, Australian poet
- 1954 – Jere Burns, American actor
- 1954 – Princess Friederike of Hanover, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg
- 1955 – Kulbir Bhaura, British field hockey player
- 1955 – Tanya Roberts, American actress
- 1957 – Mira Nair, Indian director
- 1957 – Stacy Peralta, American director
- 1958 – Stephen Clarke, British author
- 1958 – Renée Jones, American actress
- 1959 – Sarah, Duchess of York
- 1959 – Emeril Lagasse, American chef
- 1959 – Alex Paterson, English musician, co-founder of ambient group The Orb
- 1959 – Todd Solondz, American film director
- 1960 – Daniel Mazur, American mountaineer
- 1963 – Stanley Menzo, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1964 – Roberto Vittori, Italian astronaut
- 1966 – Jorge Campos, Mexican footballer
- 1966 – Bill Charlap, American jazz pianist
- 1966 – Ilse Huizinga, Dutch jazz singer
- 1966 – Dave Stead, drummer for The Beautiful South
- 1967 – Götz Otto, German actor
- 1968 – Jyrki 69, Finnish musician The 69 Eyes
- 1968 – Didier Deschamps, French footballer
- 1969 – Paige Davis, American television personality and actress
- 1969 – Vanessa Marcil, American actress
- 1969 – Dominic West, British actor
- 1969 – Vítor Baía, Portuguese footballer
- 1970 – Eric Benét, American singer
- 1971 – Andy Cole, British footballer
- 1971 – Jason Arhndt, American wrestler
- 1972 – Fred Hoiberg, American basketball player
- 1972 – Matt Keeslar, American actor
- 1972 – Sandra Kim, Belgian singer
- 1973 – Dax Riggs, American musician
- 1974 – Bianca Rinaldi, Brazilian actress
- 1975 – Alessandro Doga, Italian footballer
- 1975 – Ginuwine, American singer
- 1975 – Glen Little, English footballer
- 1976 – Christian Allen, American video game designer
- 1976 – Manuel Dallan, Italian rugby player
- 1976 – Yoon Son-ha, South Korean actress and singer
- 1977 – Masato Kawabata, Japanese racing driver
- 1977 – Erin McKeown, American musician
- 1977 – David Trezeguet, French footballer
- 1977 – Patricio Urrutia, Ecuadorian footballer
- 1978 – Devon Gummersall, American actor
- 1978 – Takeshi Morishima, Japanese professional wrestler
- 1979 – Paul Robinson, English footballer
- 1979 – Māris Verpakovskis, Latvian football player
- 1979 – Blue Adams, American football player
- 1979 – Jaci Velasquez, American Contemporary Christian and Latin pop singer
- 1979 – Bohemia (musician), Punjabi Rapper and Music Producer
- 1980 – Tom Boonen, Belgian cyclist
- 1980 – Siiri Nordin, Finnish singer (Killer)
- 1981 – Keyshia Cole, American R&B singer
- 1981 – Elena Dementieva, Russian tennis player
- 1981 – Abram Elam, American football player
- 1981 – Guo Jingjing, Chinese diver
- 1981 – Radoslav Židek, Slovak snowboarder
- 1982 – Paulini Curuenavuli, Fijian/Australian singer
- 1982 – Charline Labonté, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1982 – Sachiko Yamada, Japanese swimmer
- 1983 – Stephy Tang, Hong Kong singer and actress
- 1983 – Holly Montag, American reality TV personality
- 1983 – Bruno Senna, Brazilian racing driver
- 1984 – Johan Voskamp, Dutch footballer
- 1985 – Arron Afflalo, American basketball player
- 1985 – Walter Alberto López, Uruguayan footballer
- 1985 – Marcos Martínez, Spanish racing driver
- 1986 – Donghae, South Korean singer (Super Junior)
- 1986 – Carlo Janka, Swiss alpine ski racer
- 1987 – Jesse Levine, Canadian/American tennis player
- 1987 – Chantal Strand, Canadian actress, singer and voice actress
- 1988 – Mesut Özil, German footballer
- 1989 – Leandro Antonio Martínez, Argentinian/Italian footballer
- 1989 – Blaine Gabbert, American Football Player
- 1990 – Ji Yoon, South Korean singer (4minute)
- 1992 – Vincent Martella, American actor
- 1995 – Billy Unger, American teen actor
- 1996 – Zelo, South Korean singer (B.A.P)
- 1999 – Bailee Madison, American child actress
- 2005 – Prince Christian of Denmark, Danish royal
[edit] Deaths
- 412 – Pope Theophilus of Alexandria
- 898 – Lambert, Holy Roman Emperor
- 912 – Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Umawi, Spanish-born Moor religious figure (b. 844)
- 1002 – Otto-Henry, Duke of Burgundy (b. 946)
- 1080 – Rudolf of Rheinfelden, German noble (b.c. 1025)
- 1326 – Walter de Stapledon, English bishop (b. 1261)
- 1389 – Pope Urban VI
- 1564 – Andreas Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (b. 1514)
- 1715 – Humphry Ditton, English mathematician (b. 1675)
- 1730 – Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, French explorer (b. 1658)
- 1788 – Samuel Greig, Scottish-Russian admiral (b. 1735)
- 1810 – Alfred Moore, American judrist (b. 1755)
- 1811 – Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, English painter (b. 1735)
- 1817 – Tadeusz Kościuszko, Lithuanian-born Polish military officer (b. 1746)
- 1819 – Sergey Vyazmitinov, Russian general and statesman (b. 1744)
- 1820 – Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, Austrian field marshal (b. 1771)
- 1837 – Ivan Dmitriev, Russian statesman and poet (b. 1760)
- 1880 – Victorio, Apache leader
- 1891 – Gilbert Arthur a Beckett, English writer (b. 1837)
- 1900 – Zdeněk Fibich, Czech composer (b. 1850)
- 1910 – Stanley Ketchel, American boxer (b. 1886)
- 1917 – Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (b. 1876)
- 1918 – Sai Baba of Shirdi, Indian religious figure (b. c. 1838)
- 1930 – Herbert Henry Dow, American chemical industrialist (b. 1866)
- 1934 – Emil Beyer, American gymnast (b. 1876)
- 1934 – Raymond Poincaré, French statesman (b. 1860)
- 1945 – Pierre Laval, French politician (b. 1883)
- 1946 – Hermann Göring, German Nazi official (b. 1893)
- 1948 – Edythe Chapman, American actress (b. 1863)
- 1955 – Fumio Hayasaka, Japanese Composer (b. 1914)
- 1959 – Lipót Fejér, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1880)
- 1960 – Clara Kimball Young, American actress (b. 1890)
- 1963 – Horton Smith, American golfer (b. 1908)
- 1964 – Cole Porter, American composer (b. 1891)
- 1965 – Abraham Fraenkel, Israeli mathematician (b. 1891)
- 1966 – Frederick Montague, 1st Baron Amwell, British politician (b. 1876)
- 1976 – Carlo Gambino, American organized crime figure (b. 1902)
- 1980 – Mikhail Lavrentyev, Russian physicist and mathematician (b. 1900)
- 1980 – Apostolos Nikolaidis, Greek footballer and volleyball player (b. 1896)
- 1981 – Philip Fotheringham-Parker, British racing driver (b. 1907)
- 1987 – Thomas Sankara, Burkinan military officer and politician (b. 1949)
- 1988 – Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, English composer, music critic, pianist, and writer (b. 1892)
- 1994 – Sarah Kofman, French philosopher (b. 1934)
- 1995 – Bengt Åkerblom, Swedish ice hockey player (b. 1967)
- 1995 – Marco Campos, Brazilian racing driver (b. 1976)
- 1999 – Josef Locke, Irish-born tenor (b. 1917)
- 2000 – Konrad Emil Bloch, Prussian-born American biochemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1912)
- 2000 – Vincent Canby, American movie critic (b. 1924)
- 2001 – Zhang Xueliang, Chinese head of state (b. 1901)
- 2003 – Ben Metcalfe, Canadian environmental activist (b. 1919)
- 2005 – Jason Collier, American basketball player (b. 1977)
- 2005 – Matti Wuori, Finnish politician (b. 1945)
- 2007 – Piet Boukema, Dutch jurist and politician (b. 1933)
- 2008 – Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, Turkish poet (b. 1914)
- 2008 – Edie Adams, American singer and actress (b. 1927)
- 2008 – Jack Narz, American game show host (b. 1922)
- 2009 – Heinz Versteeg, Dutch footballer in Germany (b. 1939)
- 2010 – Richard C. Miller, American photographer (b. 1912)
- 2010 – Mildred Fay Jefferson, American physician and pro-life activist (b. 1926)
- 2010 – Johnny Sheffield, American actor (b. 1931)
- 2011 – Betty Driver, British Actress (b. 1920)
[edit] Holidays and observances
