On this day in history

October 15

29 births · 13 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

1988 Summer Paralympics

38 years ago

Born this day

1844

Friedrich Nietzsche

Died aged 55

Photo (modified): Friedrich Hermann Hartmann · Public domain

Oldest record

1065th

Abd-ar-Rahman III

death anniversary

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Famous births29

1542 · 484 yrs

Akbar

Akbar (Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Akbar, (1542-10-15)15 October 1542 – (1605-10-27)27 October 1605), also known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 63

View profile Photo (modified): 1605 artist · Public domain

1608 · 418 yrs

Evangelista Torricelli

Evangelista Torricelli ( TORR-ee-CHEL-ee, Italian:; 15 October 1608 – 25 October 1647) was an Italian physicist and mathematician, and a student of Benedetto Castelli. He is best known for his invention of the barometer, but is also known for his advances in optics and work on the method of indivisibles.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 39

View profile Photo (modified): Lorenzo Lippi · Public domain

1795 · 231 yrs

Frederick William IV of Prussia

Frederick William IV (German: Friedrich Wilhelm IV.; 15 October 1795 – 2 January 1861) was King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 until his death in 1861. Also referred to as the "romanticist on the throne", he was deeply religious and believed that he ruled by divine right.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 65

View profile Photo (modified): Hermann Biow · Public domain

1814 · 212 yrs

Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov ( LAIR-mən-tof, US also -⁠tawf; Russian: Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, IPA:; 15 October 1814 – 27 July 1841) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837 and the greatest…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 26

View profile Photo (modified): Petr Zabolotskiy · Public domain

1829 · 197 yrs

Asaph Hall

Asaph Hall III (October 15, 1829 – November 22, 1907) was an American astronomer who is best known for having discovered the two moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, in 1877. He determined the orbits of satellites of other planets and of double stars, the rotation of Saturn, and the mass of Mars.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 78

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1844 · 182 yrs

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher and writer who started his career as a classical philologist and turned to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, at age 24, he was appointed Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 55

View profile Photo (modified): Friedrich Hermann Hartmann · Public domain

1881 · 145 yrs

P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse ( WUUD-howss; 15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century.

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LiteratureWould be 145

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1894 · 132 yrs

Moshe Sharett

Moshe Sharett (Hebrew: משה שרת; born Moshe Chertok (משה שרתוק); 15 October 1894 – 7 July 1965) was an Israeli politician who was Prime Minister of Israel from 1954 to 1955 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1948 to 1956.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 132

View profile Photo (modified): GPO Photographer · Public domain

1908 · 118 yrs

John Kenneth Galbraith

John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as J. K. Galbraith or Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the 2000s.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 118

View profile Photo (modified): Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. Photographer is unknown. · Public domain

1914 · 112 yrs

Mohammed Zahir Shah

Mohammad Zahir Shah (15 October 1914 – 23 July 2007) was the last king of Afghanistan, reigning from 8 November 1933 until he was deposed on 17 July 1973. Ruling for almost 40 years, Zahir Shah was the longest-serving ruler of Afghanistan since the foundation of the Durrani Empire in the 18th century.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyWould be 112

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1920 · 106 yrs

Mario Puzo

Mario Francis Puzo (Italian:; October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999) was an American author and screenwriter. He wrote crime novels about the Italian-American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia, most notably The Godfather (1969), which he later co-adapted into a film trilogy directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 106

View profile Photo (modified): Bernard Gotfryd · Public domain

1926 · 100 yrs

Michel Foucault

Paul-Michel Foucault, known as Michel Foucault, (UK: FOO-koh, US: foo-KOH; French:; 15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, literary critic, and historian of ideas who analyzed the relationships between power, knowledge, and liberty, and how they are used as a form of social control through…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyWould be 100

View profile Photo (modified): Jerry Bauer · Public domain

Showing 12 of 29

Famous deaths13

AD 961 · 1065 yrs

Abd-ar-Rahman III

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Marwānī al-Umawī al-Qurashī (Arabic: عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن عبد الله بن محمد بن عبد الرحمن بن الحكم بن هشام بن عبد الرحمن المرواني، الأموي، القرشي; 890–961), or simply ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III, was the…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 70

View profile Photo (modified): Rowanwindwhistler · CC BY-SA 4.0

1582 · 444 yrs

Teresa of Ávila

Teresa of Ávila (born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada; 28 March 1515 – 4 or 15 October 1582), religious name Teresa of Jesus, was a Carmelite nun, prominent Spanish mystic and spiritual reformer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 67

View profile Photo (modified): Eduardo Balaca · Public domain

1591 · 435 yrs

Gregory XIV

Pope Gregory XIV (Latin: Gregorius XIV; Italian: Gregorio XIV; 11 February 1535 – 16 October 1591), born Niccolò Sfondrato or Sfondrati, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 5 December 1590 to his death, in October 1591.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 56

View profile Photo (modified): Scuola romana/ Roman School · Public domain

1817 · 209 yrs

Tadeusz Kościuszko

Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko (English: Andrew Thaddeus Bonaventure Kosciuszko; February 4 or 12, 1746 – October 15, 1817) was a Polish military engineer, statesman, and military leader who became a national hero in Poland, the United States, Lithuania, and Belarus.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 71

View profile Photo (modified): Josef Grassi · Public domain

1917 · 109 yrs

Mata Hari

Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod (née Zelle, Dutch:; 7 August 1876 – 15 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari ( MAH-tə HAR-ee, Dutch:; Indonesian for 'sun', lit. 'eye of the day'), was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleWould be 150

View profile Photo (modified): Koene & Com / Batavia-Amsterdam · Public domain

1934 · 92 yrs

Raymond Poincaré

Raymond Nicolas Landry Poincaré (French:; 20 August 1860 – 15 October 1934) was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1913 to 1920, and three times as Prime Minister of France. He was a conservative leader, primarily committed to political and social stability.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LawDied aged 74

View profile Photo (modified): Harris & Ewing · Public domain

1945 · 81 yrs

Pierre Laval

Pierre Jean Marie Laval (French:; 28 June 1883 – 15 October 1945) was a French politician. He served as Prime Minister of France three times: 1931–1932 and 1935–1936 during the Third Republic, and 1942–1944 during Vichy France.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 143

View profile Photo (modified): Agence de presse Meurisse · Public domain

1946 · 80 yrs

Hermann Göring

Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; German:; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, aviator, military commander, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which controlled Germany from 1933 to 1945.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 133

View profile Photo (modified): Robert Röhr · Public domain

1959 · 67 yrs

Stepan Bandera

Stepan Andriiovych Bandera (1 January 1909 – 15 October 1959) was a Ukrainian far-right leader of the radical militant faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the OUN-B.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 117

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1964 · 62 yrs

Cole Porter

Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in Hollywood films.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 135

View profile Photo (modified): unattributed, see link · Public domain

1987 · 39 yrs

Thomas Sankara

Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé military officer, politician, Marxist and pan-Africanist revolutionary who served as the first president of Burkina Faso from 1983 until his assassination in 1987.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 76

View profile Photo (modified): The Militant/ Ernest Harsch · Public domain

2000 · 26 yrs

Konrad Emil Bloch

Konrad Emil Bloch (German pronunciation:; 21 January 1912 – 15 October 2000) was a German-American biochemist. Bloch received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1964 (joint with Feodor Lynen) for discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 114

View profile Photo (modified): Peter Geymayer · Public domain

Showing 12 of 13

Events5

1944 · 82 yrs

Operation Panzerfaust

Operation Panzerfaust (German: Unternehmen Panzerfaust, lit. 'Operation Armored Fist') was a military operation undertaken in October 1944 by the German Wehrmacht to ensure the Kingdom of Hungary would remain a German ally in World War II.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1979 · 47 yrs

Salvadoran Civil War

The Salvadoran Civil War (Spanish: guerra civil de El Salvador) was a twelve-year civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador that was backed by the United States, against the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of left-wing guerrilla groups that was backed…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1988 · 38 yrs

1988 Summer Paralympics

The 1988 Summer Paralympics (Korean: 1988년 하계 패럴림픽; RR: Cheon gubaek palsip-pal nyeon hagye paereollimpik) were the first Paralympics in 24 years to take place in the same city as the Olympic Games. They took place in Seoul, South Korea.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

2017 · 9 yrs

2017 Austrian legislative election

Legislative elections were held in Austria on 15 October 2017 to elect the 26th National Council, the lower house of Austria's bicameral parliament.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2023 · 3 yrs

2023 Polish parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 15 October 2023 to elect members of the Sejm and Senate. A referendum containing four questions concerning economic and immigration policy of the government was held simultaneously.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

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