On This Day

Deaths in History on October 15

  • 412 Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria
  • 892 Al-Mutamid, kalief of Abbasiden, dies
  • 898 Lambert, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Italy (891-898)
  • 912 Abdullah ibn Muhammad, Emir of Córdoba
  • 961 Abd al-Rahman III, Umayyad Emir (912-29) and 1st Caliph of Córdoba (929-961), dies at 70
  • 1002 Otto-Henry, Duke of Burgundy (b. 946)
  • 1080 Rudolf of Rheinfeld, Duke of Swabia and German anti-King
  • 1268 Dirk II, mister of Valkenburg, dies
  • 1271 Hostiensis [Henricus the Segusia], cardinal and bishop of Ostia, dies
  • 1326 Walter de Stapledon, English bishop (1308-26), dies at 65
  • 1389 Urban VI [Bartolomeo Prignano], Italian pope (1378-89), dies
  • 1404 Marie of Valois, Princess of France, dies at 60
  • 1512 Antoon Keldermans, Brabant builder (Middelburg town hall), dies at 72
  • 1524 Joachim Patinir, Flemish landscape painter, dies at about 45
  • 1539 Reynier Brunt, procureur-general of Court of Holland, dies
  • 1595 Abu al-Faiz ibn Mubarak Faizi, Persian-Dutch East iIndies poet, dies at 48
  • 1674 Robert Herrick, English poet ('Gather ye rosebuds while ye may'), dies at 83
  • 1715 Humphry Ditton, English mathematician, dies at 40
  • 1730 Antoine Laumet de La Mothe Cadillac, French explorer in New France, founder of Detroit and Governor of Louisiana, dies at 71
  • 1788 Samuel Greig, Scottish-Russian admiral (Battle of Chesma), dies at 53
  • 1789 John Morgan, American physician-in-chief of Continental Army and co-founder of the Medical College at the University of Pennsylvania, the first medical school in Colonial America, dies at 54
  • 1810 Alfred Moore, American judge (US Supreme Court), dies at 55
  • 1811 Nathaniel Dance-Holland, English painter (b. 1735)
  • 1817 Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, Swiss traveller and orientalist, 1st European to discover Petra and Abu Simbel, dies at 32

Tadeusz KościuszkoTadeusz Kościuszko (1746-1817)

Polish-Lithuanian Military Leader and statesman considered a national hero, dies at 71 after falling from a horse, developing a fever and suffering a stroke

Tadeusz Kościuszko
  • 1819 Princess Louise of Orange-Nassau, daughter of viceroy Willem V & Wilhelmina of Prussia, dies at 48
  • 1819 Sergey Vyazmitinov, Russian general and statesman (b. 1744)
  • 1820 Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg, Austrian field marshal, dies at 49
  • 1837 Ivan Dmitriev, Russian statesman and poet, dies at 77
  • 1838 Letitia Elizabeth Landon, English poet (Heath's Book of Beauty), dies at 36
  • 1891 Gilbert Arthur à Beckett, English writer (Punch), dies at 54
  • 1891 William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, American Major General (Confederate Army), dies at 54
  • 1910 Larkin Goldsmith Mead, American sculptor who worked in Florence, dies at 75
  • 1918 Sai Baba of Shirdi, Indian saint (b. circa 1838)
  • 1920 Hendrik Peter Staal, Dutch reformed officer and politician, dies at 75
  • 1930 Ernest Wilson, English botanist (plant collector in China), dies in a car accident at 54

Herbert Henry DowHerbert Henry Dow (1866-1930)

American chemical industrialist (Dow Chemical), dies from cirrhosis of the liver at 64

Herbert Henry Dow
  • 1934 Raymond Poincaré, French president and Prime Minister (1912), dies at 74
  • 1944 Philip Mechanicus, Dutch journalist, executed at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp at 55

Pierre LavalPierre Laval (1883-1945)

Prime Minister of France (1931-32 and 1935-36) and Head of Vichy France (1942-44), executed by firing squad for high treason at 62

Pierre Laval

Hermann GoeringHermann Goering (1893-1946)

German Nazi Party leader, convicted war criminal, Vice-Chancellor of Germany (1941-45) and World War I fighter pilot ace, poisons himself in prison at 53

Hermann Goering
  • 1958 Jan Poortenaar, Dutch painter, etcher and cartoonist, dies at 72
  • 1959 Lipót Fejér, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1880)

Stepan BanderaStepan Bandera (1909-1959)

Ukrainian nationalist, leader of the terrorist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B), Nazi collaborator and anti-communist, assassinated via cyanide gas at 50 by the KGB in Munich, West Germany

Stepan Bandera
  • 1963 Edmond Fleg[enheimer], Swiss-French writer (Ecoute Israel), dies at 88
  • 1969 Abdirashid Shermake, President of Somali Republic, shot by one of his bodyguards at 50
  • 1971 Sylvester Magee, last living American slave and oldest person who ever lived, dies at 130

Carlo GambinoCarlo Gambino (1902-1976)

Italian-born American mafioso (Gambino family), dies of a heart attack at 74

Carlo Gambino
  • 1978 W. Eugene Smith, American photojournalist (Saipan, Walk to Paradise Garden), dies of a stroke at 59
  • 1980 Mikhail Lavrentyev, Russian hydrodynamicist and mathematician, dies at 79
  • 1985 Meret Oppenheim, German born Swiss surrealist artist, dies at 72
  • 1987 Thomas Sankara, Burkinabé revolutionary and politician, President of Burkina Faso (1983-87), assassinated in a coup at 37
  • 1991 Hotze de Roos, Dutch carpenter and writer (Chameleon series), dies at 81
  • 1992 Oliver Franks, British civil servant, ambassador to US (Report into Falklands War), and philosopher, dies at 87
  • 1994 Karl Edward Wagner, American sci-fi author (Bloodstone, Night Winds), dies at 48
  • 1994 Sarah Kofman, French philosopher, dies at 60
  • 2000 Konrad Emil Bloch, German-American biochemist, (1964 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on cholesterol), dies at 88
  • 2001 Zhang Xueliang, Chinese ruler of Manchuria, dies at 100
  • 2003 Ben Metcalfe, Canadian environmental activist (helped found Greenpeace), dies at 83
  • 2003 Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian physicist, (1994 Nobel Prize for Physics for neutron spectroscopy), dies at 85
  • 2005 Matti Wuori, Finnish politician, dies of cancer at 60
  • 2008 Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, Turkish poet, dies at 94
  • 2010 Mildred Fay Jefferson, American physician and pro-life activist (b. 1926)
  • 2010 Richard C. Miller, American photographer (b. 1912)
  • 2011 Matthew G. Martinez, American politician (Rep-D+R-CA, 1982-2001), dies at 82
  • 2012 Claude Cheysson, French politician (Minister of Foreign Affairs), dies at 92
  • 2013 Peter Miles, British Army officer, businessman and courtier in the Household of Elizabeth II, dies at 89
  • 2013 Rudolf Friedrich, Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1982-84), dies at 90


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