GOOD MORNING

today in history archives

October 15

1080 - Henry VI of Germany was defeated by Rudolf of Rheinfelden at the Elster River but Rudolf received a mortal wound in the battle.

1581 - Commissioned by Catherine De Medici, the "Ballet Comique de la Reine" was staged in Paris. A spectacle of dancing, this is often considered to be the first major ballet.

1582 - In Italy and Spain, this day became the first day of the Gregorian Calendar after it was adopted by Pope Gregory XIII. Ten days would be eliminated thus October 5 1582 became October 15.

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte landed on the Island of St. Helena, where he had been sent into exile by the British after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

1860 - Grace Bedell, age 11, wrote to Abraham Lincoln with a request, grow a beard and she would try to get her four brothers to vote for him as president. In November, Lincoln won the election, then he grew a beard.

1892 - The United States government made the Crow Indians relinquish 1.8 million acres of their reservation for 50 cents per acre. A presidential proclamation, opened the land in the mountain area of western Montana to settlers.

1901 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first fishing magazine in the United States was published. It was called "American Angler".

1905 - Joining the other United States citizens that didn't want women to vote, President Grover Cleveland wrote an article for "Ladies Home Journal". The president said, "We all know how much further women go than men in their social rivalries and jealousies... sensible and responsible women do not want to vote." Cleveland wins our vote for the dumbest man to ever be president of the United States, he is also one of least remembered men to hold the office.

1917 - Exotic dancer Mata Hari was executed by firing squad in Vincennes, France, after being convicted of spying. The Dutch-Javanese beauty, born in the farming town of Leeuwarden, Netherlands as Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, chose Mata Hari, Javanese for "Eye of the Morning," as her name. She had been a nude dancer in various European capitals, a seductress and World War I's most famous spy. Apparently, the woman had wooed high-ranking French and German officers, which involved her with men in the most powerful circles and brought her prized military secrets. Mata Hari had been listed as a spy for both the Allied and German armies.

1928 - The German airship Graf Zeppelin completed its journey across the Atlantic from Friedrichshafen to Lakehurst, New Jersey.

1931 - In New York, the production of "Cat and the Fiddle" opened for the first of its 395 performances.

1932 - The War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, California became the first municipally-owned opera palace. The first opera performed there was "Tosca".

1945 - Pierre Laval was executed for betraying his country during World War II. As premier of Vichy France (1942-1944), he pursued a policy of collaboration with Nazi Germany.

1946 - Hermann Goering, Nazi leader and one of Hitler's most loyal supporters, committed suicide in his prison cell just before he was due to be executed.

1951 - The immensely-popular comedy series, I Love Lucy, starring husband-and-wife team Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, aired for the first time on national television on CBS.

1953 - Beginning its 1,027 performance run, "Teahouse of the August Moon" opened on Broadway.

1953 - Hurricane Hazel swept across Toronto, dumping 178 millimetres of rain, killing 83 people and destroying entire streets in the west part of the city. Hazel remains Canada's worst inland storm.

1959 - The Untouchables, starring Robert Stack as the righteous, stone-faced G-Man Eliot Ness, aired for the first time. It was the most violent television show of its time and was the target of more protests than any other regular television series. The Untouchables accurately presented the ugly side of the gangster's underworld, and as a result, was the first and only television program ever boycotted by mobsters over its unfair treatment. Walter Winchell served as the show's narrator.

1964 - At age 73, Cole Porter, renowned lyricist and composer, died. Porter was responsible for classics like "I’ve Got You Under My Skin" and hundreds of others that crossed all musical style and format boundaries.

1964 - Nikita Khrushchev was deposed as First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev with Alexei Kosygin becoming prime minister.

1969 - Somali President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was assassinated.

1970 - Anwar Sadat was elected president of Egypt, succeeding Gamel Abdel Nasser.

1973 - It was the first time Tom Snyder would say, "From those of us working the late shift in Southern California, sweet dreams," to close his late-night show, "Tomorrow", when it debuted on NBC-TV. Following the "Tonight" show, Tom would laugh with some of televisions best conversations. Later NBC added critic Rona Barrett to the show. "Tomorrow" aired until January of 1982.

1976 - In the first debate of its kind between vice-presidential nominees, Democrat Walter F. Mondale and Republican Bob Dole faced off in Houston.

1978 - Electoral college confirms General Joao Baptista Figueiredo as Brazil's new president.

1984 - If you had a credit card, you could use the first public telephones on airplanes. Twenty flights offered phone service fort the low cost of $7.50 for a three-minute call, $1.25 for each additional minute anywhere in the United States.

1987 - Queen Elizabeth accepted the end of more than a century of British sovereignty over Fiji, expressing sadness at the military takeover of power in the South Pacific nation.

1990 - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev won the Nobel Prize for Peace.

1991 - The United States Senate confirmed Clarence Thomas as a justice for the United States Supreme Court.

1993 - African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to end apartheid and lay the foundations for a democratic South Africa.

1994 - President Jean-Bertrand Aristide stepped back on to Haitian soil to a joyous welcome, ending three years of exile that began when he was deposed in 1991.

1995 - Millions of Iraqis voted "Yes" for Saddam Hussein as president in a referendum. Foreign observers in Iraq as guests of the government said the referendum seemed free and fair to them.

1997 - British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green twice drove a jet-powered car in the Nevada desert faster than the speed of sound, officially shattering the world's land-speed record.

1997 - The United States launched the Cassini plutonium-powered space probe on a mission to Saturn.

1998 - Singer and bandleader Frank Sinatra, Jr., age 54, married his longtime girlfriend, attorney Cynthia McMurrey, in Texas. It was Sinatra's first marriage, the third for the bride.

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