Historical Events on October 15

Events 1 - 200 of 223

• 533 Byzantine General Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Vandals

• 1552 Khanate of Kazan is conquered by troops of Ivan Grozny

• 1598 Spanish general strategist Bernardino de Mendoza occupies fort Rhine
• 1641 Paul de Chomedy de Maisonneuve claims Montreal

• 1654 Prince William of Orange appointed viceroy of Overijssel
• 1655 Jews of Lublin are massacred
• 1660 Asser Levy granted butcher's license (kosher meat) in New Amsterdam
• 1674 Torsåker witch trials begin, largest witch trials in Sweden, 71 beheaded and burned
• 1705 English fleet under Lord Peterborough occupies Barcelona
• 1724 Cornelis Steenoven is 1st archbishop of Old Catholic church in Utrecht, The Netherlands
• 1756 Saxon army surrenders to Prussia

• 1777 Mjr James Graves Simcoe appointed commandant of Queen's Rangers (Penn)
• 1783 Jean Pilstre de Rozier makes 1st tethered balloon ascent
• 1786 Earliest 32°F (0°C) recorded temperature in NYC

• 1846 American Dr William Thomas Green Morton's 1st public use of ether

• 1863 Cliff House opens in San Francisco, 1st of many on the site
• 1864 Confederate troops occupy Glasgow, Missouri
• 1866 Great fire in Quebec destroys 2,500 houses
• 1877 First session of the US 45th Congress (1877-79) convenes in Washington D.C.
• 1878 Edison Electric Light Company incorporated
• 1880 Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists
• 1881 1st American fishing magazine, "American Angler" published
• 1883 US Supreme Court declares Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional
• 1884 Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn pitches his 60th win of season for MLB Providence Grays in 8-0 win over Quakers at Philadelphia

• 1889 Amsterdam Central Station officially opens
• 1890 Alabama Penny Savings Bank organizes in Birmingham

• 1895 Henry Perky patents a machine he developed with William Ford for the preparation of cereals for food, otherwise known as shredded wheat
• 1897 Aaron and Samuel Bloch carry 1st Mail Pouch

• 1899 Cincinnati closes season with 16-1 & 19-3 victories over Cleve Spiders
• 1904 The Russians are driven back by the Japanese in the Battle of Shaho; both sides suffer high casualties: Japanese (16,000) and Russians (60,000)

• 1905 Union workers at NVV rejects safety demands
• 1913 Train crash at St. James' Station, Liverpool during "Black Week" kills six and injures 63
• 1914 Battle of Warsaw, begins (ends Oct 21)
• 1914 US Clayton Anti-trust Act passed (union & strike rights)

• 1918 British Q-ship Cymric sinks British submarine J6
• 1919 14 horses begin 300-mile race from Vermont to Massachusetts for $1000 prize money
• 1923 American pianist Henry Cowell sparks a riot among audience members at Gewandhaus concert hall in Leipzig, Germany - some tried to physically stop his avant-garde performance, while others defended him

• 1925 Willem Landré's opera "Beatrice" premieres in The Hague
• 1926 Austria government of Seipel, forms
• 1926 Philip Barry's play "White Wings!" premieres in NYC

• 1932 Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight
• 1933 20th Amendment to the US Constitution goes into effect, changing the start of a Presidential term from March to January

• 1933 Philadelphia Eagles play 1st NFL game, lose to NY Giants 56-0
• 1935 NHL's St Louis Eagles fold

• 1939 LaGuardia Airport opens in NYC
• 1939 Yeshiva of Mir closes after 124 years

• 1940 -16] Heavy German air raid on London, 400 killed
• 1940 London's Waterloo Station bombed by German luftwaffe
• 1941 First mass deportation of German, Austrian, and Czech Jews to Eastern Europe for "resettlement" in labor camps

• 1941 Jews caught outside Nazi Ghetto walls in occupied Poland could be put to death
• 1941 WWII: Nazi SS-Brigadier General Walter Stahlecker submits summary report documenting killing of more than 118,000 unarmed Jewish men, women, and children by men under his command between June 22 and October 15, 1941 during invasion of the Soviet Union to the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin,
• 1942 German 6th Army occupies Tractorenfabriek, 3,000 Germans die
• 1944 The Arrow Cross Party (very similar to Hitler's NSDAP (Nazi party)) takes power in Hungary
• 1945 Baseball Attendance hits record 10.28 million (Tigers 1.28 is highest)
• 1948 China's Red army occupies Chinchou in Guangdong
• 1949 Administration of territory of Manipur taken over by Indian government
• 1949 Tripura accedes to Indian union

• 1952 Arthur Laurent's "Time of the Cuckoo" premieres in NYC

• 1953 John Patrick's play "Teahouse of the August Moon" premieres in New York
• 1953 KOIN TV channel 6 in Portland, OR (CBS) begins broadcasting
• 1953 WJNL (now WFAT) TV channel 19 in Johnstown, PA (IND) begins
• 1954 Hurricane Hazel makes landfall in the US in North Carolina as a category 4 hurricane, 195 die in US and Canada
• 1954 KLTV TV channel 7 in Tyler-Longview, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting

• 1956 First plane to land safely on water - Pan Am Flight 6 San Francisco to Honolulu, all 24 passengers and 7 crew survive
• 1956 Pyotr Bolotnikov runs world record 10k (28:42.8)
• 1956 William J. Brennan, Jr. is appointed to US Supreme Court
• 1957 Giants trade Minneapolis franchise to Red Sox for SF Seals-franchises only, not the players
• 1958 Tunisia drops diplomatic relations with Egypt
• 1958 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, USSR
• 1959 KNDO TV channel 23 in Yakima, WA (NBC) begins broadcasting
• 1959 TV series "The Untouchables" starring Robert Stack premieres in the US
• 1962 Byron R. White appointed to the US Supreme Court
• 1962 WLOX TV channel 13 in Biloxi-Gulfport, MS (ABC) begins broadcasting
• 1963 Ludwig Erhard succeeds Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor of West Germany

• 1964 American Don Schollander swims a world record 4:12.2 to win the 400m freestyle gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics; second of Schollander's 4 gold medals at the Games
• 1964 American sprinter Bob Hayes equals world record 10.0s to beat Cuba's Enrique Figuerola by 0.2s and win the men's 100m gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics
• 1964 Australian swimmer Ian O'Brien sets world record 2:27.8 to beat Soviet Georgy Prokopenko by 0.4s and win men's 200m breaststroke gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics

• 1964 Soviet rower Vyacheslav Ivanov wins his third consecutive Olympic men's single sculls gold medal at the Tokyo Games; also the reigning World and European champion
• 1964 US women's 4 x 100m freestyle relay team of Sharon Stouder, Donna de Varona, Lillian Watson & Kathy Ellis swims world record 4:03.8 to beat Australia by 3.1s and win the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics
• 1965 WEMT (now WVII) TV channel 7 in Bangor, ME (ABC) begins broadcasting
• 1966 Australia bans Troggs' "I Can't Control Myself" as "terribly obscene"

• 1968 Al Oerter of the US wins the men's discus in an Olympic record 64.78m at the Mexico City Games; Oerter's unprecedented 4th consecutive Olympic discus title
• 1968 American sprinter Wyomia Tyus wins her second consecutive Olympic 100m title with a world record 11.08s; beats teammate Barbara Ferrell by 0.08s for the gold medal at the Mexico City Games
• 1968 Australian Ralph Doubell runs a world record 1:44.40 to beat Kenyan Wilson Kiprugut and win the men's 800m at the Mexico City Olympics
• 1968 British athlete David Hemery sets a world record 48.12s to beat Gerhard Hennige of West Germany and take the gold medal in the men's 400m hurdles at the Mexico City Olympics
• 1968 MLB American League expansion draft: Kansas City Royals pick Baltimore Orioles pitcher Roger Nelson & Seattle Pilots pick California Angels infielder Don Mincher 1st as they choose 30 players each
• 1968 The Nationalist Party of Northern Ireland (NPNI) withdraws from its role as 'official' opposition within the Northern Ireland parliament at Stormont
• 1969 Bank of America World Headquarters (555 California) dedicated
• 1969 Madison Square Garden TV Network begins (Rangers vs North Stars)
• 1969 Vietnam Moratorium Day; millions nationwide protest the war

• 1970 Bridge over Yarra River in Melbourne crashes; killing 35
• 1970 Russian passenger flight hijacked to Turkey
• 1971 The start of the 2,500-year celebration of Iran, celebrating the birth of Persia
• 1971 World's first arcade video game Computer Space developed by Syzygy first demonstrated at the MOA Show in the US

• 1972 Omni in Atlanta opens - Hawks beat NY Knicks 109-101

• 1973 Tanks attack Thailand demonstrating students, 300 killed

• 1974 National Guard mobilizes to restore order in Boston school busing
• 1974 Nobel prize for chemistry awarded to Paul J. Flory for work on macro molecules
• 1974 Washington Capitals 1st NHL tie, playing LA Kings to 1-1 tie
• 1975 Iceland moves intl boundary from 50 to 200 miles

• 1977 "Serpentine Fire" single released by Earth, Wind & Fire (Billboard Song of the Year 1978)
• 1977 Arkansas' Steve Little kicks a record tying 67 yard field goal
• 1977 Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life" goes #1 & stays #1 for 10 weeks
• 1977 Don Ritchie runs world record 100 mile (11:30:51)
• 1978 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
• 1979 1st Monday night game from NYC, Jets beat Vikings 14-7 (Shea Stad)
• 1979 Chinese premier Hwa Kwofeng visits Paris
• 1979 Military coup in El Salvador: President Carlos Romero flees

• 1980 Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to Lawrence Klein
• 1981 Professional cheerleader Krazy George Henderson leads what is thought to be the first audience wave in Oakland, California.
• 1983 Columbia beats Yale 21-18 in football, will lose next 44 games

• 1983 NHL Chicago Black Hawks & Toronto Maple Leafs combine for fastest 5 goals (84 seconds), in a 10-8 Leaf win in Toronto
• 1983 US Marine sharpshooters kill 5 snipers at Beirut International Airport
• 1984 Central Intelligence Agency Information Act passes
• 1984 Dutch Centrum Party expels 2nd Member of parliament Hans Janmaat due to fraud
• 1985 Nobel prize for economics awarded to Franco Modigliani
• 1985 Shelley Taylor of Australia makes fastest swim ever around Manhattan Island, doing it in 6 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds
• 1985 Shuttle Columbia carries Spacelab into orbit
• 1986 Longest post season game, Mets beat Astros 7-6 in 16 & win NL pennant

• 1987 6th Belgium government of Martens falls
• 1987 Coup in Burkina Faso, president Sankara dies
• 1987 Lanford Wilson's "Burn This" premieres in NYC
• 1987 NFL Players Association orders an end to 24 day strike; union fails to achieve demands short-term with no collective bargaining agreement in place
• 1987 The Great Storm of 1987 hits France and England
• 1988 Amnesty International's "Human Rights Now!" Concert Tour ends in Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 1988 NCAA record rushing yardage (768 yards-Oklahoma)

• 1991 Oh-My-God particle - most powerful cosmic ray ever detected, by Fly's Eye camera at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, measuring 320 EeV - 40million x more powerful than any terrestrial particle accelerator [1]

• 1992 Howard Stern radio show begins broadcasting on WLUP-AM, Chicago
• 1992 NYC Subway motorman Robert Ray convicted of manslaughter in death of 5 riders, when he fell asleep drunk while in control of train
• 1993 Amstel brewery on Curacao produces 1,000,000,000th bottle
• 1993 Late night talk show "The Chevy Chase Show" final episode airs on FOX tv; cancelled after 6 weeks

• 1994 Botswana President Ketumile Masires BDP wins parliamentary election
• 1994 Philip Glass' Symphony No. 2, for string orchestra, premieres with the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, NYC
• 1994 President Jean-Baptiste Aristide returns to Haiti
• 1995 Carolina Panthers win 1st game ever beating NY Jets 26-15
• 1997 Britain's Andy Green sets jet-powered car record (763.035 mph)
• 1997 Former US Representative Dan Rostenkowski released from custody for mail fraud
• 1997 Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Jens Christain Skou, Paul D. Boyer and John E. Walker for their work on enzymes in the body

• 1997 US launches nuclear powered Cassini to Saturn
• 2000 ICC Men's Cricket KnockOut Trophy, Gymkhana Club, Nairobi: New Zealand win their first international title with a 4 wicket win over India; Man of the Match: Chris Cairns, NZ 102no (113)

• 2001 NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io.
• 2001 The first tanker loading of the new $2.5-billion Kazakh-Russia Pipeline takes place
• 2003 China launches Shenzhou 5, its first manned space mission

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