Historical events that happened today, October 15th, in history!

Date: October 15, 2012 Author: Today in History

Here are some of the great historical events that happened today, October 15th, in history!

1529 Ottoman armies under Suleiman end their siege of Vienna and head back to Belgrade.
1582 The Gregorian (or New World) calendar is adopted in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal; and the preceding ten days are lost to history.
1783 Francois Pilatre de Rozier makes the first manned flight in a hot air balloon. The first flight was let out to 82 feet, but over the next few days the altitude increased up to 6,500 feet. 
1813 During the land defeat of the British on the Thames River in Canada, the Indian chief Tecumseh, now a brigadier general with the British Army (War of 1812), is killed.
1815  Napoleon Bonaparte exiled on Island of St Helena at 51.
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. 
1863 For the second time, the Confederate submarine H L Hunley sinks during a practice dive in Charleston Harbor, this time drowning its inventor along with seven crew members.
1878 Thomas A. Edison founds the Edison Electric Light Co.
1880 Victorio, feared leader of the Minbreno Apache, is killed by Mexican troops in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico.
1892 An attempt to rob two banks in Coffeyville, Kan., ends in disaster for the Dalton gang as four of the five outlaws are killed and Emmet Dalton is seriously wounded. 
1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer, is arrested for betraying military secrets to Germany.
1914 Congress passes the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, which labor leader Samuel Gompers calls “labor’s charter of freedom.” The act exempts unions from anti-trust laws; strikes, picketing and boycotting become legal; corporate interlocking directorates become illegal, as does setting prices which would effect a monopoly.
1924 German ZR-3 flies 5000 miles, the furthest Zeppelin flight to date.
1941 Odessa, a Russian port on the Black Sea which has been surrounded by German troops for several weeks, is evacuated by Russian troops.
1945 Vichy French Premier Pierre Laval is executed by a firing squad for his wartime collaboration with the Germans.
1946 Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering fatally poisoned himself hours before he was to have been executed. 
1950 President Harry Truman meets with General Douglas MacArthur at Wake Island to discuss U.N. progress in the Korean War.
1951 The situation comedy “I Love Lucy” premiered on CBS.
1964 It was announced that Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev had been removed from office.
1976 Democrat Walter F. Mondale and Republican Bob Dole faced off in the first debate between vice-presidential nominees.
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 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 in South Africa. 
2002 ImClone Systems founder Sam Waksal pleaded guilty in New York in the biotech company’s insider trading scandal.
2005 Iraqis voted to approve a constitution.
2007 The New York Yankees and third baseman Alex Rodriguez agreed on a record 10-year, $275 million contract, the richest in sports history.
2009 A false report that a 6-year-old boy was aboard a runaway balloon in Colorado captivated a global TV audience. (The boy’s parents later pleaded guilty to charges they made up the story.)

Today’s historical facts are from various sites including, but not limited too: the History Channel, The New York Times, WHG Historynet.com, HistoryOrb.com, and On This Day blogs from my blogroll
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