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This day in history

This day in history: 15 October

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Events43

Born on this day · Died on this day235 · 98

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Key facts

376 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 15 October.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
1944: World War II: Germany replaces the Hungarian government after Hungary announces an armistice with the Soviet Union.

Holidays and observances

Breast Health Day (Europe)

Christian feast day: Gundisalvus of Lagos

Christian feast day: Magdalene of Nagasaki

Christian feast day: October 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Teresa of Ávila

Christian feast day: Thecla of Kitzingen

National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (United States)

Shwmae Su'mae Day (Wales)

White Cane Safety Day

World Students' Day

Events

1944World War II: Germany replaces the Hungarian government after Hungary announces an armistice with the Soviet Union.

1815Napoleon begins his exile on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

1965Vietnam War: A draft card is burned during an anti-war rally by the Catholic Worker Movement, resulting in the first arrest under a new law.

1793Queen Marie Antoinette of France is tried and convicted of treason.

1864American Civil War: The Union garrison of Glasgow, Missouri surrenders to Confederate forces.

1990Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation.

1651Qing forces capture the island of Zhoushan. Zhu Yihai, Prince of Lu, resident of the island and regent of the Southern Ming, flees to Kinmen.

1066Following the death of Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, Edgar the Ætheling is proclaimed King of England by the Witan; he is never crowned, and concedes power to William the Conqueror two months later.

2008The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes down 733.08 points, or 7.87%, the second worst percentage drop in the Dow's history.

1989Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the NHL.

1966The Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.

1932Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight.

1991The leaders of the Baltic States, Arnold Rüütel of Estonia, Anatolijs Gorbunovs of Latvia and Vytautas Landsbergis of Lithuania, signed the OSCE Final Act in Helsinki, Finland.

1939The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed LaGuardia Airport) is dedicated.

201813-year-old American girl, Jayme Closs, is kidnapped from her Barron, Wisconsin home after her parents were both murdered.

1956FORTRAN, the first modern computer language, is first shared with the coding community.

1997The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn.

1529The Siege of Vienna ends when Austria routs the invading Ottoman forces, ending its European expansion.

1991The "Oh-My-God particle", an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray measured at 40,000,000 times that of the highest energy protons produced in a particle accelerator, is observed at the University of Utah HiRes observatory in Dugway Proving Ground,

2013The 7.2 Mw Bohol earthquake strikes the Philippines. At least 215 were killed.

2006The 6.7 Mw Kiholo Bay earthquake rocks Hawaii, causing property damage, injuries, landslides, power outages, and the closure of Honolulu International Airport.

2016One hundred and ninety-seven nations amend the Montreal Protocol to include a phase-out of hydrofluorocarbons.

2001NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles (180 km) of Jupiter's moon Io.

1994The United States, under the Clinton administration, returns Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to the island.

1888The "From Hell" letter allegedly sent by Jack the Ripper is received by investigators.

1928The airship Graf Zeppelin completes its first trans-Atlantic flight, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States.

1954Hurricane Hazel devastates the eastern seaboard of North America, killing 95 and causing massive floods as far north as Toronto.

1582Adoption of the Gregorian calendar begins, eventually leading to near-universal adoption.

1783The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon makes the first human ascent, piloted by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier.

1987A coup d'état in Burkina Faso overthrows and kills then President Thomas Sankara.

1940President Lluís Companys of Catalonia is executed by the Francoist government.

1970During the construction of Australia's West Gate Bridge, a span of the bridge falls and kills 35 workers. The incident is the country's worst industrial accident to this day.

1923The German Rentenmark is introduced in Germany to counter hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic.

1951Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes completes the synthesis of norethisterone, the basis of an early oral contraceptive.

961Al-Hakam II becomes caliph of Cordoba upon the death of his father Abd al-Rahman III.

2003China launches Shenzhou 5, its first crewed space mission.

1979A coup d'état in El Salvador overthrows President Carlos Humberto Romero and begins the 12 year-long Salvadoran Civil War.

1910Airship America is launched from New Jersey in the first attempt to cross the Atlantic by a powered aircraft.

2007Seventeen activists in New Zealand are arrested in the country's first post-9/11 anti-terrorism raids.

1987Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 460 crashes near Conca di Crezzo, Italy, killing all 37 people on board.

Born on this day

1999Bailee Madison, American-Canadian actress and singer

1994Babar Azam, Pakistani cricket player

1992Ncuti Gatwa, Rwandan-Scottish actor

2005Christian, Crown Prince of Denmark

1996Grace Van Dien, American actress

1992Vincent Martella, American actor

1992Teoscar Hernández, Dominican baseball player

1999Ben Woodburn, Welsh footballer

1995Jakob Pöltl, Austrian basketball player

1996Charly Musonda, Belgian footballer

1995Jack Flaherty, American baseball player

1993Richaun Holmes, American basketball player

1991Brock Nelson, American ice hockey player

1996Zelo, South Korean rapper and dancer

1994Lil' Kleine, Dutch rapper

1993Roh Tae-hyun, South Korean singer and dancer

2000Melki Sedek Huang, Indonesian activist and sex offender

1998Teuku Wariza Aris Munandar, Indonesian activist and politician

1990Jeon Ji-yoon, South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer

1989Anthony Joshua, British professional boxer

1989Blaine Gabbert, American football player

1988Dominique Jones, American basketball player

1988Mesut Özil, German footballer

1987Ott Tänak, Estonian racing driver

1986Carlo Janka, Swiss skier

1986Lee Donghae, South Korean singer-songwriter

1986Nolito, Spanish footballer

1985Arron Afflalo, American basketball player

1984Izale McLeod, English footballer

1984Jessie Ware, English singer-songwriter

1983Bruno Senna, Brazilian race car driver

1983Stephy Tang, Hong Kong singer

1981Elena Dementieva, Russian tennis player

1981Keyshia Cole, American singer-songwriter and producer

1980Tom Boonen, Belgian cyclist

1979Bohemia, Pakistani-American rapper and producer

1979Jaci Velasquez, American singer-songwriter and actress

1979Māris Verpakovskis, Latvian footballer

1979Paul Robinson, English footballer

1978Takeshi Morishima, Japanese wrestler

Died on this day

2025Jim Bolger, New Zealand businessman and politician, 35th Prime Minister of New Zealand (born 1935)

2024Mike Jackson, English general (born 1944)

2021David Amess, British politician, member of Parliament for Southend West (born 1952)

2018Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, philanthropist, owner of the Seattle Seahawks (born 1953)

2017Chinggoy Alonzo, Filipino theater, movie & television actor (born 1950)

2017Deng Ken, Chinese politician, younger brother of former Paramount leader of China Deng Xiaoping (born 1911)

2014Giovanni Reale, Italian philosopher and historian (born 1931)

2013Donald Bailey, American drummer (born 1933)

2012Claude Cheysson, French lieutenant and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1920)

2012Erol Günaydın, Turkish actor and screenwriter (born 1933)

2012Maria Petrou, Greek-English computer scientist and academic (born 1953)

2012Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodian politician, 1st Prime Minister of Cambodia (born 1922)

2011Betty Driver, English actress, singer, and author (born 1920)

2010Johnny Sheffield, American actor (born 1931)

2010Mildred Fay Jefferson, American physician and activist (born 1926)

2010Richard C. Miller, American photographer (born 1912)

2009Heinz Versteeg, Dutch-German footballer (born 1939)

2008Edie Adams, American actress and singer (born 1927)

2008Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, Turkish soldier and poet (born 1914)

2008Jack Narz, American game show host and announcer (born 1922)

2007Piet Boukema, Dutch jurist and politician (born 1933)

2005Jason Collier, American basketball player (born 1977)

2005Matti Wuori, Finnish lawyer and politician (born 1945)

2004Per Højholt, Danish poet (born 1928)

2003Ben Metcalfe, Canadian journalist and activist (born 1919)

2001Zhang Xueliang, Chinese general and warlord (born 1901)

2000Konrad Emil Bloch, Polish-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1912)

2000Vincent Canby, American journalist and critic (born 1924)

1999Josef Locke, British-Irish soldier, policeman, tenor and actor (born 1917)

1995Bengt Åkerblom, Swedish ice hockey player (born 1967)

Quote of the day

“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body.”

Seneca

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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