http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Oct 15, 1917: Mata Hari is executed
On this day in 1917, the exotic dancer Mata Hari is executed by a French firing squad at Vincennes, outside of Paris, for the crime of espionage.
Born Margueretha Gertruida Zelle in a small town in northern Holland and formerly married to a captain in the Dutch army, Mata Hari had performed in Paris as a dancer since 1903. She adopted an elaborate stage persona, claiming she was born in a sacred Indian temple and taught ancient Indian dances by a priestess who gave her the name Mata Hari, which meant "eye of the dawn." Her exotic dances soon earned her fans all over Europe, where she packed dance halls from Moscow to Berlin to Madrid, largely because of her willingness to dance almost entirely naked in public.
A courtesan as well as a dancer, Mata Hari amassed an impressive catalog of lovers, including high-ranking military officers and political figures from both France and Germany. With the outbreak of World War I, these relationships immediately made her suspicious to French intelligence, which reportedly put her under surveillance. The circumstances of her alleged spying activities during the war were and remain unclear: It was said that, while in the Netherlands in 1916, she was offered cash by a German consul to report back information obtained on her next visit to France. When British intelligence discovered details of this arrangement, they passed them on to their counterparts in France; Mata Hari was arrested in Paris in February 1917.
Under interrogation by French military intelligence, Mata Hari herself admitted that she had passed outdated information to a German intelligence officer, yet she claimed that she had also been paid to act as a French spy in Belgium (then occupied by the Germans) though she had not informed the French of her prior dealings with the German consul. She was apparently acting as a double agent, though the Germans had apparently written her off as an ineffective one whose activities had produced little intelligence of value.
After a stay in a Paris prison, Mata Hari was tried in a military court and sentenced to death on July 25, 1917. Her trial was riddled with bias and circumstantial evidence, however, and many believed the French authorities, as well as the press, trumped her up as "the greatest woman spy of the century" to distract the public from the huge losses the French army was suffering on the Western Front.
After her last-minute plea to the French president for clemency was denied, French officers carried out the death sentence on October 15, 1917. Unbound and refusing a blindfold, Mata Hari was shot by a firing squad at the Caserne de Vincennes, an old fort outside Paris. Viewed by many as the victim of a hysterical French press contemptuous of her career as a dancer and courtesan and seeking a scapegoat, Mata Hari remains one of the most glamorous figures to come out of the shadowy world of espionage, and the archetype of the female spy.
Oct 15, 1946: Herman Goering dies
On this day in 1946, Herman Goering, commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, president of the Reichstag, head of the Gestapo, prime minister of Prussia, chief forester of the Reich, chief liquidator of sequestered estates, supreme head of the National Weather Bureau, and Hitler's designated successor dies by his own hand.
Goering was an early member of the Nazi Party and was wounded in the failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. That wound would have long-term effects, as Goering became increasingly addicted to painkillers. Not long after Hitler's accession to power, Goering was instrumental in creating concentration camps for political enemies. Ostentatious and self-indulgent, he changed his uniform five times a day and was notorious for flaunting his decorations, jewelry, and stolen artwork. It was Goering who ordered the purging of German Jews from the economy following the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, initiating an "Aryanization" policy that confiscated Jewish property and businesses.
Goering's failure to win the Battle of Britain and prevent the Allied bombing of Germany led to his loss of stature within the Party, aggravated by the low esteem with which he was always held by fellow officers because of his egocentrism and position as Hitler's right-hand man. As the war progressed, he dropped into depressions and continued to battle drug addiction.
When Goering fell into U.S. hands after Germany's surrender, he had in his possession a rich stash of paracodin pills, a morphine derivative. He was tried at Nuremberg and charged with various crimes against humanity. Despite a vigorous attempt at self-acquittal, he was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, but before he could be executed, he committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide tablet he had hidden from his guards.
Oct 15, 1945: Vichy leader executed for treason
Pierre Laval, the puppet leader of Nazi-occupied Vichy France, is executed by firing squad for treason against France.
Laval, originally a deputy and senator of pacifist tendencies, shifted to the right in the 1930s while serving as minister of foreign affairs and twice as the French premier. A staunch anti-communist, he delayed the Soviet-Franco pact of 1935 and sought to align France with Fascist Italy. Hostile to the declaration of war against Germany in 1939, Laval encouraged the antiwar faction in the French government, and with the German invasion in 1940 he used his political influence to force an armistice with Germany. Henri Pétain took over the new Vichy state, and Laval served as minister of state. Laval was dismissed by PÉtain in December 1940 for negotiating privately with Germany.
By 1942, Laval had won the trust of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and the elderly Pétain became merely a figurehead in the Vichy regime. As the premier of Vichy France, Laval collaborated with the Nazi programs of oppression and genocide, and increasingly became a puppet of Hitler. After the Allied liberation of France, he was forced to flee east for German protection. With the defeat of Germany in May 1945, he escaped to Spain but was expelled and went into hiding in Austria, where he finally surrendered to American authorities in late July. Extradited to France, Laval was convicted of treason by the High Court of Justice in a sensational trial. Condemned to death, he attempted suicide by poison but was nursed back to health in time for his execution, on October 15, 1945.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
533 - Byzantine general Belisarius makes his formal entry
into Carthage, having conquered it from the Vandals.
1520 - King Henry VIII of England orders bowling lanes at
Whitehall
1522 - Emperor Karel I names Hernan Cortes governor of
Mexico
1552 - Khanate of Kazan is conquered by troops of Ivan
Grozny.
1581 - Commissioned by Catherine De Medici, the 1st ballet
"Ballet Comique de la Reine," is staged in Paris
1582 - Many Catholic countries switch to Gregorian calendar,
skip 10 days
1598 - Spanish general strategist Bernardino de Mendoza
occupies fort Rhine
1641 - Paul de Chomedy de Maisonneuve claims Montreal
1654 - Prince Willem III appointed viceroy of Overijssel
1655 - Jews of Lublin are massacred
1660 - Asser Levy granted butchers license (kosher meat) in
New Amsterdam
1705 - English fleet under Lord Peterborough occupies
Barcelona
1724 - Cornelis Steenoven is 1st archbishop of Old-Catholic
church
1756 - Saxon army surrenders to Prussia
1764 - Edward Gibbon observes a group of friars singing in
the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspires him to begin work on The
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
1777 - Mjr James Graves Simcoe appointed commandant of
Queen's Rangers (Penn)
1783 - Jean Pilstre de Rozier makes captive-balloon ascent
1786 - Earliest 32°F (0°C) recorded temp in NYC
1789 - 1st presidental tour-George Washington in New England
French Emperor Napoleon BonaparteFrench Emperor Napoleon
Bonaparte 1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte exiled on Island of St Helena at 51
1827 - Charles Darwin reaches Christ's Counsel, Cambridge
1842 - Karl Marx becomes editor-in-chief of Rheinische
Zeitung
1846 - Dr William Thomas Green Morton 1st public use of
ether
1860 - 11-year-old Grace Bedell writes to Lincoln, tells him
to grow a beard
1863 - Cliff House opens in SF (1st of many on site)
1864 - Confederate troops occupy Glasgow, Missouri
1866 - Great fire in Quebec destroys 2,500 houses
1874 - Child labor law takes 12 year olds out of work force
1877 - 45th Congress (1877-79) convenes
1878 - Edison Electric Light Company incorporated
1880 - Koln cathedral completed, 633 years after it begun
1880 - Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest
Apache military strategists.
1881 - 1st American fishing magazine, American Angler
published
1883 - Supreme Court declares Civil Rights Act of 1875
unconstitutional
Communist Philosopher Karl MarxCommunist Philosopher Karl
Marx 1885 - Hoss Radbourne pitches his 60th win of season
1889 - Amsterdam Central Station officially opens
1890 - Alabama Penny Savings Bank organizes in Birmingham
1894 - Capt Alfred Dreyfus arrested accused of espionage
1897 - Aaron/Samuel Bloch carry 1st Mail Pouch
1897 - King Leopold II takes Belgian crown
1899 - Cincinnati closes season with 16-1 & 19-3
victories over Cleve Spiders
1905 - Claude Debussy's "La Mer," premieres
1905 - Union workers at NVV rejects safety demands
1912 - Red Sox Tris Speaker's makes only world series
unassisted double play, from the outfield
1913 - Train crash in Liverpool during "Black
Week"
1914 - ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors &
Publishers) founded
1914 - Battle of Warsaw, begins (ends Oct 21)
1914 - Clayton Anti-trust Act passed (union & strike
rights)
1917 - Chicago White Sox beat NY Giants, 4 games to 2 in
14th World Series
Exotic Dancer and German Spy Mata HariExotic Dancer and
German Spy Mata Hari 1917 - World War I: At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch
dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for Germany.
1918 - British Q-ship Cymric sinks British submarine J6
1919 - 14 horses begin 300-mile race from Vt to Mass for
$1000 prize money
1923 - NY Yankees 1st World Series win beating NY Giants, 4
games to 2
1924 - Pres Calvin Coolidge declares Statue of Liberty a
national monument
1925 - Pittsburgh Pirates beat Wash Senators, 4 games to 3
in 22nd World Series
1925 - Willem Landre's opera "Beatrice" premiers
in The Hague
1926 - Austria government of Seipel, forms
1926 - Philip Barry's "White Wings!," premieres in
NYC
1928 - German dirigible "Graf Zeppelin" lands in
Lakehurst, NJ
1928 - Walter Johnson signs a 3-year contract to manage the
Senators
1932 - Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its
first flight.
1933 - Philadelphia Eagles play 1st NFL game, lose to NY
Giants 56-0
1935 - NHL's St Louis Eagles fold
1937 - Ernest Hemingway novel "To Have & Have
Not" published
Nobel Laureate Author Ernest HemingwayNobel Laureate Author
Ernest Hemingway 1937 - Rather than accept any trade offers, the Yanks release
Tony Lazzeri
1938 - Robert Sherwoods "Abe Lincoln in Illinois,"
premieres in NYC
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 Germans
1940 - "The Great Dictator", a satiric social
commentary film by and starring Charlie Chaplin, is released.
1941 - 1st mass deportation of German Jews to Eastern Europe
1941 - Japan Tojo regime forms
1941 - Jews caught outside Polish Ghetto walls could be put
to death
1942 - German 6th Army occupies Tractorenfabriek, 3,000
German's die
1944 - The Arrow Cross Party (very similar to Hitler's NSDAP
(Nazi party)) takes over the power in Hungary.
1945 - Baseball Attendance hits record 10.28 million (Tigers
1.28 is highest)
1946 - Smallest World Series share since 1918 (Cards $3,748,
Red Sox $2,140)
1946 - St Louis Cards beat Boston Red Sox, 4 games to 3 in
43rd World Series
Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf HitlerDictator of Nazi
Germany Adolf Hitler 1946 - Enos Slaughter scores from 1st on a single in World
Series
1948 - China's Red army occupies Chinchov
1949 - Administration of territory of Manipur taken over by
Indian government
1949 - Billy Graham begins his ministry
1949 - Tripura accedes to Indian union
1951 - "I Love Lucy" debuts on CBS TV
1951 - Egyptian parliament accept denounces Suez Canal
Treaty
1951 - Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes synthesized the
first oral contraceptive
1952 - Arthur Laurent's "Time of the Cuckoo,"
premieres in NYC
1953 - John Patrick's "Teahouse of the Red Moon,"
premieres in NYC
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 strikes US & Canada, 348 die
1954 - KLTV TV channel 7 in Tyler-Longview, TX (ABC) begins
broadcasting
1956 - Pyotr Bolotnikov runs world record 10k (28:42.8)
1956 - William J Brennan Jr appointed to Supreme Court
1956 - Yankees Enos Slaughter scores from 1st on a single in
World Series
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 - "Untouchables" premieres
1959 - KNDO TV channel 23 in Yakima, WA (NBC) begins
broadcasting
1960 - "Laughs & Other Events" closes at
Barrymore Theater NYC after 8 perfs
1962 - Byron R White appointed to Supreme Court
1962 - WLOX TV channel 13 in Biloxi-Gulfport, MS (ABC)
begins broadcasting
1963 - Ludwig Erhard follows Conrad Adenauer as West German
Chancellor
1964 - Craig Breedlove sets auto speed record of 846.97 kph
Clergyman and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr.Clergyman
and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr. 1964 - Dr Martin Luther King
Jr awarded Nobel Peace Prize
1964 - St Louis Cardinals beat NY Yankees, 4 games to 3 in
61st World Series
1964 - NY Yankees appears in 14 & win 9 of last 16 World
Series
1965 - Dodgers & Sandy Koufax win 7th game of 62nd World
Series vs Twins
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"
1966 - LBJ signs a bill creating Dept of Transportation
(DOT)
1966 - Black Panther Party was created by Huey P. Newton and
Bobby Seale.
1968 - AL expansion draft, KC pick Roger Nelson & Pilots
pick Don Mincher 1st
1969 - Bank of America World Headquarters (555 California)
dedicated
1969 - Madison Square Garden TV Network begins (Rangers vs
North Stars)
1969 - NY Met Ron Swoboda's spectacular diving catch of
sinking liner with runners at 1st & 3rd in 9th, Mets win in 10th in World
Series game
1969 - Oriole Earl Weaver becomes 1st manager ejected in a
World Series
1969 - Vietnam Moratorium Day; millions nationwide protest
the war
1970 - Anwar Sadat elected president of Egypt
36th US President Lyndon B. Johnson36th US President Lyndon
B. Johnson 1970 - Baltimore Orioles beat Cin Reds, 4 games to 1 in 67th World
Series
1970 - Bridge over Yarra River in Melbourne crashes; killing
35
1970 - Russian passenger flight hijacked to Turkey
1971 - The start of the 2500-year celebration of Iran,
celebrating the birth of Persia.
1972 - 61st Davis Cup: USA beats Romania in Bucharest (3-2)
1972 - Omni in Atlanta opens - Hawks beat NY Knicks 109-101
1973 - 7th Country Music Association Award: Roy Clark wins
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
(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
1976 - 1st debate of major-ticket VP nominees Mondale (D) vs
Dole (R)
1976 - Ringo releases "A Dose of Rock 'n' Roll"
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 - Silvia Bertolaccini wins LPGA Civitan Golf Open
1978 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern
Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
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/general
Carlos Romero flees
1979 - NY Knicks retire 2nd number, # 10, Walt Frazier
1980 - George Brett is forced out of World Series with
hemorrhoids
1980 - Nobel prize for economy awarded to Lawrence R Klein
1981 - NY Yankees capture 33rd AL pennant, sweeping 3 games
from Oakland A's
1981 - Professional cheerleader Krazy George Henderson leads
what is thought to be the first audience wave in Oakland, California.
1983 - Black Hawks & Maple Leafs combine for fastest 5
goals (84 seconds)
1983 - Columbia beats Yale 21-18 in football, will lose next
44 games
1983 - US Marine sharpshooters kill 5 snipers at Beirut Intl
Airport
1984 - Central Intelligence Agency's Information Act passes
1984 - Centrum party expels 2nd Member of parliament Janmaat
due to fraud
1985 - Nobel prize for economics awarded to Franco
Modigliani
1985 - Shuttle Columbia carries Spacelab into orbit
1985 - Shelley Taylor of Australia makes fastest swim ever
around Manhattan Island, doing it in 6 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds
1986 - Longest post season game, Mets beat Astros 7-6 in 16
& win NL pennant
1987 - "Late Nite Comic" opens at Ritz Theater NYC
for 4 performances
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
1987 - The Great Storm of 1987 hits France and England.
1988 - Amnesty International's Global Concert Tour ends in
Buenos Aires
1988 - NCAA record rushing yardage (768 yards-Oklahoma)
1988 - With 2 outs in bottom of 9th, an injured Kirk Gibson
hits dramatic 2 run HR to gives Dodgers a 5-4 win in 1st game of World Series
1989 - Billy Graham is given 1,900th star on Hollywood Blvd
1989 - South Africa president FW de Klerk frees Sisulu &
4 other political prisoners
1989 - South african ANC-founder/leader Walter Sisulu freed
NHL all-time top scorer Wayne GretzkyNHL all-time top scorer
Wayne Gretzky 1989 - Wayne Gretzky passes Gordie Howes as NHL's all time top
scorer
1990 - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev wins Nobel Peace
Prize
1991 - Clarence Thomas is confirmed as Supreme Court Justice
(52-48)
1992 - Charles Taylor launches an offensive against Monrovia
Liberia
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 - Guardian Angel Lisa Evers Sliwa files for divorce
from Curtis Sliwa
1993 - Nelson Mandela & South Africa president F W de
Klerk awarded Nobel Peace Prize
1994 - Botswana Pres Ketumile Masires BDP wins parliamentary
election
1994 - Pres Jean-Baptiste Aristide returns to Haiti
1995 - Annika Sorenstam wins LPGA World Championship of
Women's Golf
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 - Cleve Indians beat Balt Orioles 4 games to 2 in ALCS
Anti-apartheid activist/South African President Nelson
MandelaAnti-apartheid activist/South African President Nelson Mandela 1997 -
Former rep Dan Rostenkowski released from custody for mail fraud
1997 - NY jury awards boxer Mitch Green $45,000 in civil lawsuit
against Mike Tyson, for street brawl in 1988
1997 - US launches nuclear powered Cassini to Saturn
2001 - NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of
Jupiter's moon Io.
2003 - China launches Shenzhou 5, its first manned space
mission.
2003 - The Staten Island Ferry boat Andrew J. Barberi
collides with a pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island, killing
11 people and injuring 43.
2005 - Iraqi constitution ratification vote
2005 - Riot in Toledo, Ohio breaks out during a National Socialist/Neo-Nazi
protest; over 100 are arrested.
2007 - 17 Activists in Aotearoa New Zealand arrested in the
country's first post 9/11 anti-terrorism raids across the country.
2011 - Global protests break out in 951 cities in 82
countries.
2011 - Legoland Florida in Winter Haven, Florida Opens. This
is the world's largest Legoland theme park
2012 - Hilary Mantel wins the 2012 Man Booker Prize for her
novel Bring Up the Bodies
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte began his exile on the remote island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean. 1860 - Grace Bedell, 11 years old, wrote a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. The letter stated that Lincoln would look better if he would grow 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. 1931 - "Cat and the Fiddle" opened in New York for the first of 395 performances. 1937 - "To Have and Have Not" by Ernest Hemingway was published for the first time. 1939 - New York Municipal Airport was dedicated. The name was later changed to La Guardia Airport. 1945 - Pierre Laval, the former premier of Vichy France, was executed for treason. 1946 - Hermann Goering, a Nazi war criminal and founder of the Gestapo, poisoned himself just hours before his scheduled execution. 1951 - "I Love Lucy" premiered on CBS-TV. 1953 - "Teahouse of the August Moon" opened on Broadway. It ran for 1,027 performances. 1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis began. It was on this day that U.S. intelligence personnel analyzing data discovered Soviet medium-range missle sites in Cuba. On October 22 U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced that he had ordred the naval "quarantine" of Cuba. 1964 - It was announced that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had been removed from power. He was replaced with Alexei N. Kosygin. 1966 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill creating the Department of Transportation. 1973 - "Tomorrow" debuted on NBC-TV. 1983 - U.S. Marines killed five snipers who had pinned them down in Beirut International Airport. 1984 - The Freedom of Information Act was passed. 1989 - South African officials released eight prominent political prisoners. 1989 - Wayne Gretzky, while playing for the Los Angeles Kings, surpassed Gordie Howe's NHL scoring record of 1,850 career points. 1993 - U.S. President Clinton sent warships to enforce trade sanctions that had been imposed on Haitian military rulers. 1993 - South Africa's President F.W. de Klerk and African National Congress President Nelson Mandela were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end the apartheid system in South Africa. 1997 - British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green broke the land-speed record by driving a jet-powered car faster than the speed of sound. 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 - The U.N. condemned the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba for the seventh year in a row. 2001 - NASA's Galileo spacecraft passed within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io.
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. 1914 With the support of President Wilson, the Clayton Antitrust Act, which made it illegal for companies to buy competitors' stock, was passed. 1917 Mata Hari, World War I spy, was executed by a firing squad in Vincennes, France. 1951 I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, had its television debut. 1964 It was announced that Nikita Khruschev was removed from his positions as premier and secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR. 1966 The U.S. Department of Transportation was created. 1989 Wayne Gretzky topped Gordie Howe's NHL scoring record. 1991 Clarence Thomas got a narrow (52–48) Senate confirmation of his nomination to the Supreme Court. 1993 Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to end apartheid in South Africa. 2003 China became the third country to launch a staffed space mission.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/oct15.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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