Did you know
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was a Salesian priest before entering politics in Haiti.
October 15 in History
1994 — The United States, under the Clinton administration, returns Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to the island
October 15 spans 42 recorded events across recorded history, from 1066 to 2018. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Historical Events
42 events
1066 – 2018
Today in history
More major events on October 15
The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.
- 1965 Vietnam 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. Source
- 2003 China launches Shenzhou 5, its first crewed space mission. Source
- 1910 Airship America is launched from New Jersey in the first attempt to cross the Atlantic by a powered aircraft. Source
- 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. Source
Did you know
Aristide served as president of Haiti from 1991, then from 1993 to 1994, and again from 2001 to 2004.
Did you know
He founded the party Fanmi Lavalas in 1996 after being a member of the Lavalas Political Organization.
Did you know
Aristide lived in exile from 1991 to 1994 and again from 2004 to 2011 due to military coups.
Did you know
The Clinton administration played a key role in returning Aristide to power in Haiti in 1994.
1066
Following 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.
Battle between English and Normans in 1066
The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conquest of…
1211
Battle of the Rhyndacus: The Latin emperor Henry of Flanders defeats the Nicaean emperor Theodore I Laskaris.
Part of the Nicaean–Latin Wars
The Battle of the Rhyndacus was fought on 15 October 1211 between the forces of the Latin Empire and the Byzantine Greek Empire of Nicaea, established following the fragmentation of the Byzantine state after the Fourth…
1529
The Siege of Vienna ends when Austria routs the invading Ottoman forces, ending its European expansion.
Siege of City by Suleiman I
The 1529 siege of Vienna was the first attempt by the Ottoman Empire to capture the city of Vienna in the Archduchy of Austria, part of the Holy Roman Empire.
1582
Adoption of the Gregorian calendar begins, eventually leading to near-universal adoption.
The adoption of the Gregorian Calendar has taken place in the history of most cultures and societies around the world, marking a change from one of various traditional dating systems to the contemporary system – the…
1651
Qing forces capture the island of Zhoushan.
Zhu Yihai, Prince of Lu, resident of the island and regent of the Southern Ming, flees to Kinmen.
The Qing dynasty, officially the Great Qing, also known as the Qing Empire or Qing China, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia which existed from 1636/1644 to 1912.
1781
The Battle of Raft Swamp marks the last battle fought in North Carolina during the American Revolutionary War with a Patriot victory.
It occurred four days before the British surrender at Yorktown.
The Battle of Raft Swamp was fought near Red Springs, North Carolina in Robeson County, on October 15, 1781 during the American War of Independence.
1783
The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon makes the first human ascent, piloted by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier.
18th-century French inventors
The Montgolfier brothers – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier – were aviation pioneers, balloonists and paper manufacturers from the commune Annonay in Ardèche, France.
1793
Queen Marie Antoinette of France is tried and convicted of treason.
Queen of France from 1774 to 1792
Marie Antoinette was Queen of France as the wife of Louis XVI from 10 May 1774 until the abolition of the French monarchy in 1792 during the French Revolution.
1815
Napoleon begins his exile on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
French general and emperor (1769–1821)
Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was Emperor of the French from 18 May 1804 until his first abdication in 1814, with a brief restoration during the Hundred Days in 1815.
1864
American Civil War: The Union garrison of Glasgow, Missouri surrenders to Confederate forces.
1861–1865 conflict in the United States
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States.
1888
The "From Hell" letter allegedly sent by Jack the Ripper is received by investigators.
Letter allegedly written by Jack the Ripper
The "From Hell" letter was a letter sent with half of a preserved human kidney to George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, in October 1888.
1910
Airship America is launched from New Jersey in the first attempt to cross the Atlantic by a powered aircraft.
Blimp used by Walter Wellman (1906–10)
The America was a non-rigid airship built by Louis Mutin Godard in France in 1906 for the journalist Walter Wellman's attempt to reach the North Pole by air.
1923
The German Rentenmark is introduced in Germany to counter hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic.
German currency from 1923 to 1924
The Rentenmark was a currency issued on 15 November 1923 to stop the hyperinflation of 1922 and 1923 in Weimar Germany, after the previously used Papiermark had become almost worthless.
1928
The airship Graf Zeppelin completes its first trans-Atlantic flight, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States.
German rigid airship (1928–1940)
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin was a German passenger-carrying hydrogen-filled rigid airship that flew from 1928 to 1937. It offered the first commercial transatlantic passenger flight service.
1932
Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight.
National airline of India
Air India is the flag carrier of India, headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana.
1939
The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed LaGuardia Airport) is dedicated.
Airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, U.S.
LaGuardia Airport, colloquially known as LaGuardia or LGA, is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, United States, situated on the northwestern shore of Long Island, bordering Flushing Bay.
1940
President Lluís Companys of Catalonia is executed by the Francoist government.
Spanish lawyer and politician (1882–1940)
Lluís Companys i Jover was a Catalan politician from Spain who served as president of Catalonia from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.
1944
World War II: Germany replaces the Hungarian government after Hungary announces an armistice with the Soviet Union.
Global conflict (1939–1945)
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers.
1951
Mexican chemist Luis E.
Miramontes completes the synthesis of norethisterone, the basis of an early oral contraceptive.
Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cárdenas was a Mexican chemist known as co-inventor and the first to synthesize an oral contraceptive, progestin norethisterone.
1954
Hurricane Hazel devastates the eastern seaboard of North America, killing 95 and causing massive floods as far north as Toronto.
Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 1954
Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest, second-costliest, and most intense hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season.
1956
FORTRAN, the first modern computer language, is first shared with the coding community.
General-purpose programming language
Fortran is a third-generation, compiled, imperative programming language designed for numeric computation and scientific computing.
1965
Vietnam 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.
1955–1975 war in Southeast Asia
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies.
1966
The Black Panther Party is created by Huey P.
Newton and Bobby Seale.
The Black Panther Party was an American Marxist–Leninist and black power political and militant organization founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966 which was active until 1982.
1970
During 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.
The West Gate Bridge is a steel, box girder, cable-stayed bridge across the Yarra River, north of its mouth into Port Phillip, and Westgate Park, located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
1979
Supporters of the Malta Labour Party ransack and destroy the Times of Malta building and other locations associated with the Nationalist Party.
1979 rally turned riot in Malta
Black Monday in Malta refers to 15 October 1979 when the Progress Press and the home of Eddie Fenech Adami, then Leader of the Opposition, were ransacked following a rally by the Labour Party.
1979
A coup d'état in El Salvador overthrows President Carlos Humberto Romero and begins the 12 year-long Salvadoran Civil War.
Overthrow of President Carlos Humberto Romero
The 1979 Salvadoran coup d'état occurred on 15 October when junior officers of the Armed Forces of El Salvador's Military Youth Movement (MJM) bloodlessly overthrew General Carlos Humberto Romero, the president of El…
1987
Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 460 crashes near Conca di Crezzo, Italy, killing all 37 people on board.
1987 aviation accident
Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 460 was a scheduled passenger flight between Milan Linate Airport in Milan, Italy and Cologne Bonn Airport in Cologne, Germany on 15 October 1987.
1987
A coup d'état in Burkina Faso overthrows and kills then President Thomas Sankara.
Coup that brought Blaise Compaoré to power
The 1987 Burkina Faso coup d'état was a violent military coup in Burkina Faso, which took place on 15 October 1987.
1989
Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the NHL.
Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1961)
Wayne Douglas Gretzky is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999.
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.
Leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who was the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until the country's dissolution in 1991.
1991
The "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, Utah.
Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray detected in 1991
The Oh-My-God particle (as physicists dubbed it) was an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray detected on 15 October 1991 by the Fly's Eye camera in Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, United States.
1991
The 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.
Three countries east of the Baltic Sea
The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, the Baltic Assembly, and the OECD.
1997
The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn.
Mission to Saturn (1997–2017)
Cassini–Huygens, commonly called Cassini, was a joint space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system,…
2001
NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles (180 km) of Jupiter's moon Io.
First NASA mission to orbit Jupiter (1989–2003)
Galileo was an American robotic space probe that studied the planet Jupiter and its moons, as well as the asteroids Gaspra and Ida.
2003
China launches Shenzhou 5, its first crewed space mission.
2003 first human spaceflight mission of China
Shenzhou 5 was the first human spaceflight mission of the Chinese space program, launched on 15 October 2003. The Shenzhou spacecraft was launched on a Long March 2F launch vehicle.
2006
The 6.7 Mw Kiholo Bay earthquake rocks Hawaii, causing property damage, injuries, landslides, power outages, and the closure of Honolulu International Airport.
Scales to describe earthquake strength
Seismic magnitude scales are used to describe the overall strength or "size" of an earthquake.
2007
Seventeen activists in New Zealand are arrested in the country's first post-9/11 anti-terrorism raids.
Series of armed NZ police raids
On 15 and 16 October 2007, the New Zealand Police conducted a series of armed raids in response to alleged paramilitary training camps in the Urewera mountain range near the town of Ruatoki.
2008
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes down 733.08 points, or 7.87%, the second worst percentage drop in the Dow's history.
American stock market index composed of 30 industry leaders
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow, is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States.
2013
The 7.2 Mw Bohol earthquake strikes the Philippines.
At least 215 were killed.
Seismic magnitude scales are used to describe the overall strength or "size" of an earthquake.
2016
One hundred and ninety-seven nations amend the Montreal Protocol to include a phase-out of hydrofluorocarbons.
1987 treaty to protect the ozone layer
The Montreal Protocol, officially the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances…
2018
13-year-old American girl, Jayme Closs, is kidnapped from her Barron, Wisconsin home after her parents were both murdered.
2018 double homicide and child abduction in Barron, Wisconsin
On October 15, 2018, 21-year-old Jake Thomas Patterson abducted 13-year-old Jayme Lynn Closs after fatally shooting her parents, James and Denise Closs, at their home just outside of Barron, Wisconsin, at 12:53 a.m.