Biographies on This Day in History: October 15
Born On
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
president of India
October 15, 1931 - July 27, 2015
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was an Indian scientist and politician who played a leading role in the development of India’s missile and nuclear weapons programs. He was president of India from 2002 to 2007. Kalam...
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Friedrich Nietzsche
German philosopher
October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900
Friedrich Nietzsche was a German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. His attempts to unmask the motives that underlie traditional...
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Akbar
Mughal emperor
October 15, 1542? - October 25, 1605
Akbar was the greatest of the Mughal emperors of India. He reigned from 1556 to 1605 and extended Mughal power over most of the Indian subcontinent. In order to preserve the unity of his empire, Akbar...
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Hermann Göring
German minister
January 12, 1893 - October 15, 1946
Hermann Göring was a leader of the Nazi Party and one of the primary architects of the Nazi police state in Germany. He was condemned to hang as a war criminal by the International Military Tribunal at...
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Michel Foucault
French philosopher and historian
October 15, 1926 - June 25, 1984
Michel Foucault was a French philosopher and historian, one of the most influential and controversial scholars of the post-World War II period. The son and grandson of a physician, Michel Foucault was...
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Paul Allen
American investor and philanthropist
January 21, 1953 - October 15, 2018
Paul Allen was an American investor and philanthropist best known as the cofounder of Microsoft Corporation, a leading developer of personal-computer software systems and applications. Allen was raised...
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Shirdi Sai Baba
spiritual leader
1838? - October 15, 1918
Shirdi Sai Baba was a spiritual leader dear to Hindu and Muslim devotees throughout India and in diaspora communities as far flung as the United States and the Caribbean. The name Sai Baba comes from sai,...
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Cole Porter
American composer and lyricist
June 9, 1891 - October 15, 1964
Cole Porter was an American composer and lyricist who brought a worldly élan to the American musical and who embodied in his life the sophistication of his songs. Porter was the grandson of a millionaire...
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Mata Hari
Dutch dancer and spy
August 7, 1876 - October 15, 1917
Mata Hari was a Dutch dancer and courtesan whose name has become a synonym for the seductive female spy. She was shot by the French on charges of spying for Germany during World War I. The nature and extent...
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Virgil
Roman poet
October 15, 70 BCE - September 21, 19 BCE
Virgil was a Roman poet, best known for his national epic, the Aeneid (from c. 30 bce; unfinished at his death). Virgil was regarded by the Romans as their greatest poet, an estimation that subsequent...
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Penny Marshall
American actress and director
October 15, 1943 - December 17, 2018
Penny Marshall was an American actress, comedian, and director, one of the first women to achieve consistent commercial success as a motion picture director. Marshall was the daughter of a dance teacher...
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Sarah, Duchess of York
wife of Prince Andrew
October 15, 1959 -
Sarah, Duchess of York is the former wife (1986–96) of Prince Andrew, Duke of York. After they divorced in 1996, Sarah became a prolific author, television personality, entrepreneur, and public figure....
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Fela Kuti
Nigerian musician and activist
October 15, 1938 - August 2, 1997
Fela Kuti was a Nigerian musician and activist who launched a modern style of music called Afro-beat, which fused American blues, jazz, and funk with traditional Yoruba music. Kuti was the son of feminist...
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Lee Iacocca
American businessman
October 15, 1924 - July 2, 2019
Lee Iacocca was an American automobile executive who was president (1978–92) and chairman of the board (1979–92) of Chrysler Corporation, credited with reviving the foundering company. He notably secured...
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P.G. Wodehouse
British author
October 15, 1881 - February 14, 1975
P.G. Wodehouse was an English-born comic novelist, short-story writer, lyricist, and playwright, best known as the creator of Jeeves, the supreme “gentleman’s gentleman.” He wrote more than 90 books and...
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Carlo Gambino
American crime boss
September 1, 1902 - October 15, 1976
Carlo Gambino was the head of one of the Five Families of organized crime—the Bonanno, Colombo, Genovese, Lucchese, and Gambino crime families—in New York City from 1957 to 1976, with major interests in...
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Thomas Sankara
president of Burkina Faso
December 21, 1949 - October 15, 1987
Thomas Sankara was a military officer and proponent of Pan-Africanism who was installed as president of Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) in 1983 after a military coup. He held that position until 1987,...
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Tadeusz Kościuszko
Polish general and statesman
February 4, 1746 - October 15, 1817
Tadeusz Kościuszko was a Polish army officer and statesman who gained fame both for his role in the American Revolution and for his leadership of a national insurrection in his homeland. Kościuszko was...
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Mira Nair
Indian film director
October 15, 1957 -
Mira Nair is an Indian director known for her documentaries and feature films dealing with controversial subject matter. Nair entered the University of Delhi in 1975. She left the following year to study...
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Norodom Sihanouk
king of Cambodia
October 31, 1922 - October 15, 2012
Norodom Sihanouk was twice king of Cambodia (1941–55 and 1993–2004), who also served as prime minister, head of state, and president. He attempted to steer a neutral course for Cambodia in its civil and...
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John Kenneth Galbraith
American economist
October 15, 1908 - April 29, 2006
John Kenneth Galbraith was a Canadian-born American economist and public servant known for his support of public spending and for the literary quality of his writing on public affairs. After study at the...
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Italo Calvino
Italian author
October 15, 1923 - September 19, 1985
Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist, short-story writer, and novelist whose whimsical and imaginative fables made him one of the most important Italian fiction writers in the 20th century. Calvino...
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Mohammad Zahir Shah
king of Afghanistan
October 15, 1914 - July 23, 2007
Mohammad Zahir Shah was the king of Afghanistan from 1933 to 1973, who provided an era of stable government to his country. The sons of Moḥammad Nāder Shah, Zahir and his brothers reasserted central government...
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Emeril Lagasse
American chef
October 15, 1959 -
Emeril Lagasse is an American celebrity chef, author, and television personality who by the early 21st century was one of the most recognizable chefs in the United States, known as much for his cooking...
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Mongkut
king of Siam
October 18, 1804 - October 15, 1868
Mongkut was the king of Siam (1851–68) who opened his country to Western influence and initiated reforms and modern development. Mongkut was the 43rd child of King Rama II, but as the first son to be born...
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Jacob L. Devers
United States general
September 8, 1887 - October 15, 1979
Jacob L. Devers was a U.S. general during World War II, whose 6th Army Group successfully penetrated German-held positions in central Europe and helped wrest the mainland from Nazi control. At the outbreak...
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John L. Sullivan
American boxer
October 15, 1858 - February 2, 1918
John L. Sullivan was an American professional boxer, one of the most popular heavyweight champions and a symbol of the bareknuckle era of boxing. (Read Gene Tunney’s 1929 Britannica essay on boxing.) Sullivan...
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Carol II
king of Romania
October 15, 1893 - April 4, 1953
Carol II was the king of Romania (1930–40), whose controversial reign ultimately gave rise to a personal, monarchical dictatorship. The eldest son of King Ferdinand I, Carol became crown prince upon the...
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Yitzḥak Shamir
prime minister of Israel
October 15, 1915 - June 30, 2012
Yitzḥak Shamir was a Polish-born Zionist leader and prime minister of Israel in 1983–84 and 1986–90 (in alliance with Shimon Peres of the Labour Party) and in 1990–92. Shamir joined the Beitar Zionist...
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Pierre Laval
French politician and statesman
June 28, 1883 - October 15, 1945
Pierre Laval was a French politician and statesman who led the Vichy government in policies of collaboration with Germany during World War II, for which he was ultimately executed as a traitor to France....
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Edith Wilson
American first lady
October 15, 1872 - December 28, 1961
Edith Wilson was an American first lady (1915–21), the second wife of Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States. When he was disabled by illness during his second term, she fulfilled many of...
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Frederick William IV
king of Prussia
October 15, 1795 - January 2, 1861
Frederick William IV was the king of Prussia from 1840 until 1861, whose conservative policies helped spark the Revolution of 1848. In the aftermath of the failed revolution, Frederick William followed...
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Marie Stopes
British botanist and social worker
October 15, 1880 - October 2, 1958
Marie Stopes was an advocate of birth control who, in 1921, founded the United Kingdom’s first instructional clinic for contraception. Although her clinical work, writings, and speeches evoked violent...
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Mikhail Lermontov
Russian writer
October 15, 1814 - July 27, 1841
Mikhail Lermontov was the leading Russian Romantic poet and author of the novel Geroy nashego vremeni (1840; A Hero of Our Time), which was to have a profound influence on later Russian writers. Lermontov...
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James Tissot
French artist
October 15, 1836 - August 8, 1902
James Tissot was a French painter, engraver, and enameler noted for his portraits of late Victorian society. After receiving a religious education, Tissot went to Paris at age 19 to study art. In 1859...
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Evangelista Torricelli
Italian physicist and mathematician
October 15, 1608 - October 25, 1647
Evangelista Torricelli was an Italian physicist and mathematician who invented the barometer and whose work in geometry aided in the eventual development of integral calculus. Inspired by Galileo’s writings,...
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Raymond Poincaré
president of France
August 20, 1860 - October 15, 1934
Raymond Poincaré was a French statesman who as prime minister in 1912 largely determined the policy that led to France’s involvement in World War I, during which he served as president of the Third Republic....
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ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III
Umayyad caliph
January 891 - October 15, 961
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III was the first caliph and greatest ruler of the Umayyad Arab Muslim dynasty of Spain. He reigned as hereditary emir (“prince”) of Córdoba from October 912 and took the title of caliph...
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Helen Hunt Jackson
American author
October 15, 1830 - August 12, 1885
Helen Hunt Jackson was an American poet, novelist, and advocate for Indigenous rights. She was the daughter of Nathan Fiske, a professor at Amherst College in Massachusetts. She married Edward Hunt in...
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W. Eugene Smith
American photographer
December 20, 1918 - October 15, 1978
W. Eugene Smith was an American photojournalist noted for his compelling photo-essays, which were characterized by a strong sense of empathy and social conscience. At age 14 Smith began to use photography...
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Delphine Seyrig
French actress
April 10, 1932 - October 15, 1990
Delphine Seyrig was a French actress celebrated for her mysterious beauty and distinctive characterizations. Seyrig grew up in Lebanon, Greece, France, and the United States and studied drama in Paris...
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Urban VI
pope
c.1318 - October 15, 1389
Urban VI was the pope from 1378 to 1389 whose election sparked the Western Schism (1378–1417). Archbishop first of Acerenza (1363) and then of Bari (1377), he became papal chancellor for Pope Gregory XI,...
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Mervyn LeRoy
American director and producer
October 15, 1900 - September 13, 1987
Mervyn LeRoy was an American motion-picture director whose wide variety of films included dramas, romances, epics, comedies, and musicals. He also produced films, including the classic The Wizard of Oz...
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David Trimble
British politician
October 15, 1944 - July 25, 2022
David Trimble was a politician who served as first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly (1998–2002), leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP; 1995–2005), and a member of the British Parliament (1990–2005)....
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Robert Williams
American civil rights leader
February 26, 1925 - October 15, 1996
Robert Williams was an American civil rights leader known for taking a militant stance against racism decades before the Black Power and black nationalist movements of the late 1960s and early ’70s adopted...
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Evan Hunter
American author
October 15, 1926 - July 6, 2005
Evan Hunter was a prolific American writer of best-selling fiction, of which more than 50 books are crime stories published under the pseudonym Ed McBain. Hunter graduated from Hunter College (1950) and...
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Irvin McDowell
United States general
October 15, 1818 - May 4, 1885
Irvin McDowell was a U.S. Federal army officer who, after serving through the Mexican War, was promoted to brigadier general in 1861 and put in command of the Department of Northeastern Virginia. During...
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C.P. Snow
British scientist and writer
October 15, 1905 - July 1, 1980
C.P. Snow was a British novelist, scientist, and government administrator. Snow was graduated from Leicester University and earned a doctorate in physics at the University of Cambridge, where, at the age...
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Herbert H. Dow
American chemist
February 26, 1866 - October 15, 1930
Herbert H. Dow was a pioneer in the American chemical industry and founder of the Dow Chemical Company. Dow first became interested in brines (concentrated solutions of salts and water) while attending...
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Paul Reynaud
premier of France
October 15, 1878 - September 21, 1966
Paul Reynaud was a French politician and statesman who, as premier in June 1940, unsuccessfully attempted to save France from German occupation in World War II. Reynaud was a lawyer and served in the army...