October 15

1066 – Following the death of Harold at the Battle of Hastings, Edgar the Ætheling is proclaimed King of England by the Witan, but is never crowned before William of Normandy claims the throne.

1529 – The First Siege of Vienna ends with Austrian troops routing the invading Ottoman forces.

1582 – The states of the Holy Roman Empire replace the Julian Calendar with the Gregorian version

1783 – The Montgolfier brother’s hot air balloon makes the first ascent with a human pilot; Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier aboard.

1793 – Queen Marie Antoinette of France is tried and convicted of treason.

1815 – Napoleon begins his second and final exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

1863 – The Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, sinks during a second test run, this time killing its inventor along with the rest of the 8 man crew.

1878 – The Edison Electric Light Company is incorporated in New York.

1917 – Margaretha “Mata Hari” MacLeod is executed by France for espionage.

1928 – The German airship D-LZ 127 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.

1946 – Hermann Göring escapes the hangman by taking cyanide.

1954 – Hurricane Hazel strikes the eastern seaboard of North America, killing 95 people and causing massive floods as far north as Toronto.

1966 – The Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.

1979 – A coup d’état in El Salvador overthrows President Carlos Humberto Romero and starts the Salvadoran Civil War.

1997 – NASA  launches the Cassini–Huygens probe from Cape Canaveral to study Saturn, its rings and moons.

2006 – A 6.7 magnitude earthquake in Kiholo Bay, Hawaii, causing a small tsunami, over $200 million in property damage and injuring a few people.

2018 – 13 year old Jayme Closs is kidnapped from her Barron, Wisconsin home after her parents are murdered by Jake Patterson