Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Today is the 288th day of 2026. There are 77 days left in this year.
Notable Events
1815
Napoleon Bonaparte began his exile on the remote island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.
1860
Eleven-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, N.Y., wrote a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, suggesting he could improve his appearance by growing a beard.
1883
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. It allowed for individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.
1892
The U.S. government announced that the land in the western Montana was open to settlers. The 1.8 million acres were bought from the Crow Indians for 50 cents per acre.
1914
The Clayton Antitrust Act was passed by the U.S. Congress.
1917
Mata Hari, a Dutch dancer who had spied for the Germans, was executed by a firing squad outside Paris.
1939
New York Municipal Airport, later renamed La Guardia Airport, was dedicated.
1945
The former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, was executed.
1946
Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering poisoned himself hours before he was to have been executed.
1951
The situation comedy ''I Love Lucy'' premiered on CBS.
1962
The Cuban Missile Crisis began. On this day U.S. intelligence personnel analyzing data discovered Soviet medium-range missle sites in Cuba.
1964
It was announced that Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev had been removed from office. He was succeeded as premier by Alexei N. Kosygin and as Communist Party secretary by Leonid I. Brezhnev.
1966
President Johnson signed a bill creating the Department of Transportation.
1969
Peace demonstrators staged activities across the country, including a candlelight march around the White House, as part of a moratorium against the Vietnam War.
1976
In the first debate of its kind between vice-presidential nominees, Democrat Walter F. Mondale and Republican Bob Dole faced off in Houston.
1984
The Freedom of Information Act was passed.
1989
Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings surpassed Gordie Howe's NHL scoring record of 1,850 points, in a game against the Edmonton Oilers.
1989
South African officials released eight prominent political prisoners.
1990
Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1990
South Africa's Separate Amenities Act, which had barred blacks from public facilities for decades, was formally scrapped.
1991
The Senate narrowly confirmed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, 52-48.
1993
Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end apartheid.
1993
U.S. President Clinton sent warships to enforce trade sanctions that had been imposed on Haitian military rulers.
1997
British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green twice drove a jet-powered car in the Nevada desert faster than the speed of sound, shattering the world's land-speed record.
1997
The Cassini-Huygens mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, FL. On January 14, 2005, a probe sent back pictures of Saturn's moon Titan during and after landing.
1998
Typhoon Zeb killed 24 people and drove 100,000 more from their homes when it hit the Philippines.
1999
The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
2001
NASA's Galileo spacecraft passed within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io.
2003
China launches Shenzhou 5, its first crewed space mission.
2006
The 6.7 Kiholo Bay earthquake rocks Hawaii, causing property damage, injuries, landslides, power outages, and the closure of Honolulu International Airport.
2007
17 activists in New Zealand are arrested in the country's first post-9/11 anti-terrorism raids.
2008
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes down 733.08 points, or 7.87%, the second worst percentage drop in the Dow's history.
2013
The 7.2 Bohol earthquake strikes the Philippines. At least 215 were killed.
2016
197 nations amend the Montreal Protocol to include a phase-out of hydrofluorocarbons
2018
13-year-old American girl, Jayme Closs, is kidnapped from her Barron, Wisconsin home after her parents were both murdered.
Notable Births
1844
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. (d. 1900)
1858
John L. Sullivan, American boxer, actor, and journalist. He is recognized as the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing. (d. 1918)
1920
Mario Puzo, 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. (d. 1999)
1924
Lee Iacocca, American automobile executive known for the developing the Ford Mustang, Continental Mark III, and Ford Pinto cars while at the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, and for reviving the Chrysler Corporation as its CEO during the 1980s. (d. 2019)
1935
Barry McGuire, American singer-songwriter primarily known for his 1965 hit "Eve of Destruction". He was later a singer and songwriter of contemporary Christian music.
1937
Linda Lavin, American actress and singer. She is known for playing the title character in the sitcom Alice and for her stage performances, both on and off-Broadway.
1938
Robert Ward, American blues and soul guitarist. He was known for founding the Ohio Untouchables, the band that later would become the Ohio Players. (d. 2008)
1942
Don Stevenson, American drummer and a singer and songwriter for Moby Grape, a band which was formed in San Francisco in 1966 and continues to perform occasionally today.
1943
Penny Marshall, American actress, film director, and producer. She is best known for her role as Laverne DeFazio on the television sitcom Laverne & Shirley (1976-1983), receiving three nominations for the Golden Globe Award. (d. 2018)
1946
Richard Lynn Carpenter, American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, who formed half of the sibling duo the Carpenters alongside his younger sister Karen.
1946
Richard Carpenter, American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, who formed half of the sibling duo the Carpenters alongside his younger sister Karen.
1953
Tito Jackson, American musician. He was a founding member of the Jackson 5, a group who rose to fame in the late 1960s and 1970s with the Motown label and had continued success on the Epic label in the late 1970s and 1980s. (d. 2024)
1959
Sarah, Duchess of York, also known by the nickname Fergie, is a British author, philanthropist, television personality, and member of the extended British royal family. She is the former wife of Prince Andrew, who is the second son of Queen Elizabeth II
1959
Emeril Lagasse, American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, cookbook author, and National Best Recipe award winner for his "Turkey and Hot Sausage Chili" recipe in 2003.
Notable Deaths
1917
Mata Hari, Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. She was executed by firing squad in France. (b. 1876)
1930
Herbert Henry Dow, American chemical industrialist who founded the American multinational conglomerate Dow Chemical. He was a prolific inventor of chemical processes, compounds, and products (b. 1866)
1946
Hermann Göring, German politician, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which governed Germany from 1933 to 1945. (b. 1893)
1960
Clara Kimball Young, American film actress who was popular in the early silent film era. (b. 1890)
1964
Cole Porter, 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. (b. 1891)
1976
Carlo Gambino, Sicilian crime boss who was the leader of the Gambino crime family of New York City. Following the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the imprisonment of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Commission of the American Mafia. (b. 1902)
1983
Pat O'Brien, American film actor with more than 100 screen credits. Of Irish descent, he often played Irish and Irish-American characters and was referred to as "Hollywood's Irishman in Residence" in the press. (b. 1899)
2008
Edie Adams, American comedian, actress, singer and businesswoman. She earned a Tony Award and was nominated for an Emmy Award. (b. 1927)
2010
Johnny Sheffield was an American child actor who, between 1939 and 1947, portrayed Boy in the Tarzan film series and, between 1949 and 1955, played Bomba, the Jungle Boy. (b. 1931)
2010
Richard Crump Miller was an American photographer best known for his vintage carbro prints, photos of celebrities, and work documenting the Hollywood Freeway. (b. 1912)
2018
Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, philanthropist, owner of the Seattle Seahawks (b. 1953)