On this day: October 15

Events on October 15

• 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. Wikipedia
• 1211 Battle of the Rhyndacus: The Latin emperor Henry of Flanders defeats the Nicaean emperor Theodore I Laskaris. Wikipedia
• 1529 Ottoman–Habsburg wars: The siege of Vienna ended with Austrian forces repelling the invading Turks, turning the tide against almost a century of conquest in Europe by the Ottoman Empire. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1793 Queen Marie Antoinette of France is tried and convicted of treason. Wikipedia
• 1815 Napoleon began his exile on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, which would encompass his final six years. Wikipedia
• 1815 Napoleon begins his exile on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. Wikipedia
• 1864 American Civil War: Confederate forces captured Glasgow, Missouri, although it had little long-term benefit as Price's Missouri Expedition was defeated a week later. Wikipedia
• 1864 American Civil War: The Union garrison of Glasgow, Missouri surrenders to Confederate forces. Wikipedia
• 1888 The "From Hell" letter, allegedly from Jack the Ripper, was sent to George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee in London. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: Germany replaces the Hungarian government after Hungary announces an armistice with the Soviet Union. Wikipedia
• 1954 Hurricane Hazel made landfall in the Carolinas in the United States before moving north to Toronto in Canada later the same day, killing 176 people in the two countries. Wikipedia
• 1956 FORTRAN, the first modern computer language, is first shared with the coding community. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1967 The Motherland Calls, a colossal statue in Volgograd, Russia, which commemorates the casualties of the Battle of Stalingrad, was dedicated, becoming the then-tallest statue in the world. Wikipedia
• 1987 Aero Trasporti Italiani Flight 460 crashes near Conca di Crezzo, Italy, killing all 37 people on board. Wikipedia
• 1987 A coup d'état in Burkina Faso overthrows and kills then President Thomas Sankara. Wikipedia
• 1989 Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the NHL. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1996 The Irish Criminal Assets Bureau was established following the gangland murders of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe and investigative journalist Veronica Guerin. Wikipedia
• 1997 The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn. Wikipedia
• 2006 An earthquake registering 6.7 Mw occurred off the northwestern coast of the island of Hawaii. Wikipedia
• 2013 A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Bohol in the Philippines, resulting in 222 deaths. Wikipedia

Born on October 15

• 70 BC Virgil, Roman poet (died 19 BC) Wikipedia
• 1542 Akbar, Mughal emperor (died 1605) Wikipedia
• 1608 Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist and mathematician (died 1647) Wikipedia
• 1767 Gabriel Richard, French-born American Roman Catholic priest, missionary, educator, and politician (died 1832) Wikipedia
• 1814 Mikhail Lermontov, Russian author, poet, and painter (died 1841) Wikipedia
• 1844 Friedrich Nietzsche, German composer, poet, and philosopher (died 1900) Wikipedia
• 1872 August Nilsson, Swedish pole vaulter, shot putter, and tug of war competitor (died 1921) Wikipedia
• 1881 P. G. Wodehouse, English novelist and playwright (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1887 Frederick Fleet, English sailor and lookout on the Titanic (died 1965) Wikipedia
• 1908 John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian-American economist and diplomat, 7th United States Ambassador to India (died 2006) Wikipedia
• 1914 Mohammed Zahir Shah, Afghan king (died 2007) Wikipedia
• 1920 Mario Puzo, American author and screenwriter (died 1999) Wikipedia
• 1923 Italo Calvino, Italian novelist, short story writer, and journalist (died 1985) Wikipedia
• 1926 Michel Foucault, French historian and philosopher (died 1984) Wikipedia
• 1931 A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Indian engineer, academic, and politician, 11th President of India (died 2015) Wikipedia
• 1935 Willie O'Ree, Canadian ice hockey player, first black player in the National Hockey League (NHL) Wikipedia
• 1940 Peter C. Doherty, Australian surgeon and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1944 David Trimble, Northern Irish lawyer and politician, 3rd First Minister of Northern Ireland, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1944 Sali Berisha, Albanian cardiologist and politician, 2nd President of Albania Wikipedia
• 1968 Didier Deschamps, French footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1977 David Trezeguet, French footballer Wikipedia
• 1988 Mesut Özil, German footballer Wikipedia

Died on October 15

• 55 BC Lucretius, Roman poet and philosopher (born 98 BC) Wikipedia
• 892 Al-Mu'tamid, Abbasid caliph Wikipedia
• 925 Rhazes, Persian polymath (born 864) Wikipedia
• 1240 Razia Sultana, sultan of Delhi (born 1205) Wikipedia
• 1564 Andreas Vesalius, Belgian-Greek anatomist, physician, and author (born 1514) Wikipedia
• 1917 Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (born 1876) Wikipedia
• 1934 Raymond Poincaré, French lawyer and politician, 10th President of France (born 1860) Wikipedia
• 1945 Pierre Laval, French lawyer and politician, 101st Prime Minister of France, convicted Vichy collaborator (born 1883) Wikipedia
• 1946 Hermann Göring, German general and Nazi politician, convicted Nuremberg war criminal (born 1893) Wikipedia
• 1987 Thomas Sankara, Burkinabe captain and politician, 5th President of Burkina Faso (born 1949) Wikipedia
• 2000 Konrad Emil Bloch, Polish-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1912) Wikipedia
• 2012 Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodian politician, 1st Prime Minister of Cambodia (born 1922) Wikipedia
• 2017 Deng Ken, Chinese politician, younger brother of former Paramount leader of China Deng Xiaoping (born 1911) Wikipedia
• 2018 Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, philanthropist, owner of the Seattle Seahawks (born 1953) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Breast Health Day (Europe) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gundisalvus of Lagos Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Magdalene of Nagasaki Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Teresa of Ávila Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Thecla of Kitzingen Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: October 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (United States) Wikipedia
• Shwmae Su'mae Day (Wales) Wikipedia
• White Cane Safety Day Wikipedia
• World Students' Day Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “October 15” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.