15 October in history
8 events that happened on 15 October, from 961 to 1917.
✦ Anniversary of the day
961 CE 1,065 years ago
Al-Hakam II succeeds his father as caliph of Córdoba
On the death of his father Abd al-Rahman III, al-Hakam II became the second Umayyad caliph of Córdoba. A scholar and bibliophile, he assembled a library said to hold some 400,000 volumes and enlarged the Great Mosque of Córdoba.
1211 CE 815 years ago
Latin emperor Henry of Flanders defeats Theodore I Laskaris
At the Rhyndacus, the Latin emperor Henry of Flanders defeated Theodore I Laskaris, founder of the Empire of Nicaea. Theodore had gathered Byzantine refugees in Bithynia after the Fourth Crusade took Constantinople in 1204.
1529 CE 497 years ago
The Ottomans abandon the siege of Vienna
After just over two weeks, Suleiman the Magnificent's army of over 100,000 ended its siege of Vienna, defended by no more than 21,000 men under Niklas Graf Salm. Bad weather, long supply lines and a determined defence forced the withdrawal.
1815 CE 211 years ago
Napoleon arrives in exile at Saint Helena
HMS Northumberland anchored off Jamestown, Saint Helena, carrying the defeated Napoleon. On this remote South Atlantic island he spent his last six years, dying there in 1821.
1917 CE 109 years ago
Mata Hari is executed by a French firing squad
The Dutch-born dancer Margaretha Zelle, known as Mata Hari, was shot at Vincennes after conviction as a German spy. Historians still dispute how much, if any, useful intelligence she passed on.
Born on 15 October 9
Died on 15 October 10
Dates as the sources give them: in the Julian calendar before 1582, and in some countries for longer (Britain until 1752, Russia until 1918). Only people whose day of birth or death the records agree on are listed.