Today in History
October 15
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1529 – The Siege of Vienna ends when Austria routs the invading Ottoman forces, ending its European expansion.
1582 – Adoption of the Gregorian calendar begins, eventually leading to near-universal adoption.
1783 – The Montgolfier brothers’ hot air balloon makes the first human ascent, piloted by Jean-Franзois Pilвtre de Rozier.
1793 – Queen Marie Antoinette of France is tried and convicted, and condemned to death the following day.
1863 – American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink a ship, sinks, killing its inventor.
1878 – The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation.
1928 – The airship, Graf Zeppelin completes its first trans-Atlantic flight, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States.
1939 – The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed LaGuardia Airport) is dedicated.
1945 – The former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, is executed for treason.
1956 – FORTRAN, the first modern computer language, is first shared with the coding community.
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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.
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.
1994 – The Clinton administration returns Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to the island.
2001 – NASA’s Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter’s moon Io.
2008 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes down 733.08 points, or 7.87%, the second worst percentage drop in the Dow’s history.
2016 – One hundred ninety-seven nations amend the Montreal Protocol to include a phase-out of hydrofluorocarbons.
Births
70 BC – Virgil, Roman poet (d. 19 BC)
1599 – Cornelis de Graeff, Dutch mayor and regent of Amsterdam (d. 1664)
1762 – Samuel Adams Holyoke, American composer and educator (d. 1820)
1836 – James Tissot, French painter and illustrator (d. 1902)
1881 – P. G. Wodehouse, English novelist and playwright (d. 1975)
1908 – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian-American economist and diplomat, 7th United States Ambassador to India (d. 2006)
1917 – Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., American historian and critic (d. 2007)
1938 – Brice Marden, American painter
Deaths
412 – Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria
1385 – Dionysius I, Metropolitan of Moscow
1917 – Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (b. 1876)
1976 – Carlo Gambino, Italian-American mob boss (b. 1902)
1978 – W. Eugene Smith, American photojournalist (b. 1918)